Abstract
Staphylococcus (S.) aureus is an important causative agent of wound infections with increasing incidence in the past decades. Specifically, the emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) causes serious problems, especially in nosocomial infections. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop of alternative or supportive antimicrobial therapeutic modalities to meet these challenges. Purified compounds from hops have previously shown promising antimicrobial effects against MRSA isolates in vitro. In this study, purified beta-acids from hops were tested for their potential antimicrobial and healing properties using a porcine model of wounds infected by MRSA. The results show highly significant antimicrobial effects of the active substance in both the powder and Ambiderman-based application forms compared to both no-treatment control and treatment with Framycoin. Moreover, the macroscopic evaluation of the wounds during the treatment using the standardized Wound Healing Continuum indicated positive effects of the beta-acids on the overall wound healing. This is further supported by the microscopic data, which showed a clear improvement of the inflammatory parameters in the wounds treated by beta-acids. Thus, using the porcine model, we demonstrate significant therapeutic effects of hops compounds in the management of wounds infected by MRSA. Beta-acids from hops, therefore, represent a suitable candidate for the treatment of non-responsive nosocomial tissue infections by MRSA.
Highlights
Staphylococcus (S.) aureus is an etiologic agent of various infections in both humans and animals
The data from various laboratories, including ours, have shown potent in vitro antimicrobial activities of hops compounds, such as xanthohumol or alfa- and beta-acids against many bacterial pathogens, such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Helicobacter pylori, or Clostridium spp. [5,6,7]. With their minimal inhibitory concentrations being close to commonly used antibiotics, these compounds may represent useful treatment alternatives provided that they show these antimicrobial effects in vivo as well
Our previous data showed that both xanthohumol and beta-acids from hops possess strong antimicrobial activity against MRSA in vitro under the standard testing conditions [5,13]
Summary
Staphylococcus (S.) aureus is an etiologic agent of various infections in both humans and animals. The utilization of standard antibiotic treatment schemes further induces bacterial resistance and can create an even higher burden for the patient [4]. To reverse this continually increasing bacterial resistance, effective non-classical antimicrobial treatment alternatives are urgently needed and have been investigated for several years. [5,6,7] With their minimal inhibitory concentrations being close to commonly used antibiotics, these compounds may represent useful treatment alternatives provided that they show these antimicrobial effects in vivo as well
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