Journal of Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology

Modifications of multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates by poly-phenolic natural products

2^nd International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmacology and Ethnopharmacology

May 02-04, 2016 Chicago, USA

Peter W Taylor

University College London, UK

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Exp Pharmacol

Abstract:

Staphylococcus aureus is a highly successful opportunistic pathogen: it is a common component of the microbiota of the upper respiratory tract and skin but also causes a variety of hospital- and community-acquired infections. It has the capacity to accumulate antibiotic resistance genes and infections due to multi-drug-resistant forms such as Methicillin-Resistant S. aureus (MRSA) can occur in epidemic waves that are initiated by one or a few successful clones that can spread rapidly among hospitalized patients and healthy individuals alike. New treatments are urgently needed and therapeutic options that reduce the rate of emergence of drug resistance would be particularly welcome. The abundant polyphenol (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECg) has the capacity to abrogate β-lactam resistance in MRSA, reduce the secretion of virulence determinants such as toxins and tissue-degrading enzymes, and prevent the formation of biofilms, making it potentially useful for the control of difficult-to-treat staphylococcal infections. ECg shows a strong tendency to partition into lipid bilayers, including complex biological membranes such as the staphylococcal Cytoplasmic Membrane (CM). It penetrates deep into the hydrophobic core of the lipid palisade of the CM to induce a comprehensive reconfiguration of membrane architecture, providing a suboptimal environment for the cell wall biosynthetic and cell division machineries. I will present evidence that this disruption of CM stasis is responsible for the complex, ECg-mediated staphylococcal phenotype.

Biography :

Email: peter.taylor@ucl.ac.uk