Abstract
Lyme disease is a tick-borne, multi-systemic disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Though antibiotics are used as a primary treatment, relapse often occurs after the discontinuation of antimicrobial agents. The reason for relapse remains unknown, however previous studies suggest the possible presence of antibiotic resistant Borrelia round bodies, persisters and attached biofilm forms. Thus, there is an urgent need to find antimicrobial agents suitable to eliminate all known forms of B. burgdorferi. In this study, natural antimicrobial agents such as Apis mellifera venom and a known component, melittin, were tested using SYBR Green I/PI, direct cell counting, biofilm assays combined with LIVE/DEAD and atomic force microscopy methods. The obtained results were compared to standalone and combinations of antibiotics such as Doxycycline, Cefoperazone, Daptomycin, which were recently found to be effective against Borrelia persisters. Our findings showed that both bee venom and melittin had significant effects on all the tested forms of B. burgdorferi. In contrast, the control antibiotics when used individually or even in combinations had limited effects on the attached biofilm form. These findings strongly suggest that whole bee venom or melittin could be effective antimicrobial agents for B. burgdorferi; however, further research is necessary to evaluate their effectiveness in vivo, as well as their safe and effective delivery method for their therapeutic use.
Highlights
Through the years, the severity of infectious diseases and the inability to effectively treat them with antibiotics have become a rapidly growing epidemic
Borrelia spp., by its traditional definition, is a spirochetal bacterium with internalized flagella [14,15], other morphological forms were identified such as round bodies, stationary phase persisters and biofilm forms [16,17,18,19,20,21,22]
I/PI assay, bee venom, melittin and all the antibiotics used in this study were analyzed for auto fluorescence due to reported findings of potential auto-fluorescence issues of certain antimicrobials in previous studies [24,29,31]
Summary
The severity of infectious diseases and the inability to effectively treat them with antibiotics have become a rapidly growing epidemic One such disease that has spread across the United. Some factors that cause these different forms are certain unfavorable conditions such as changes in pH, nutrient starvation, host immune system attacks, or even antibiotics could promote these morphological changes [16,17,20,22,24]. These defensive forms were reported to have
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
