Synergistic enhancement effects of antibiotic combination with photodynamic inactivation

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most severe threats to global public health in this century. Photodynamic Inactivation (PDI) is an alternative to antibiotic therapy, a standard treatment for infections because the combination of a photosensitizer with light leads to the production of reactive oxygen species that promote eliminating undesirable cells without bacterial selection and with few side effects for the patient. This work investigates whether PDI can restore bacterial sensitivity to antibiotics. PDI protocols using curcumin and light at 450 nm are applied at regular intervals and new values of minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics are obtained. As a result, we observed that PDI treatments can decrease MIC. Thus, the combination of both antimicrobial therapies may result in synergistic effects.