Abstract
Antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest threats to global health today; conventional drug therapies are becoming increasingly inefficacious and limited. We identified 16 medicinal plant species used by traditional healers for the treatment of infectious and inflammatory diseases in the Greater Mpigi region of Uganda. Extracts were evaluated for their ability to inhibit growth of clinical isolates of multidrug-resistant ESKAPE pathogens. Extracts were also screened for quorum quenching activity against S. aureus, including direct protein output assessment (δ-toxin), and cytotoxicity against human keratinocytes (HaCaT). Putative matches of compounds were elucidated via LC–FTMS for the best-performing extracts. These were extracts of Zanthoxylum chalybeum (Staphylococcus aureus: MIC: 16 μg/mL; Enterococcus faecium: MIC: 32 μg/mL) and Harungana madagascariensis (S. aureus: MIC: 32 μg/mL; E. faecium: MIC: 32 μg/mL) stem bark. Extracts of Solanum aculeastrum root bark and Sesamum calycinum subsp. angustifolium leaves exhibited strong quorum sensing inhibition activity against all S. aureus accessory gene regulator (agr) alleles in absence of growth inhibition (IC50 values: 1–64 μg/mL). The study provided scientific evidence for the potential therapeutic efficacy of these medicinal plants in the Greater Mpigi region used for infections and wounds, with 13 out of 16 species tested being validated with in vitro studies.
Highlights
Antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest threats to global health today; conventional drug therapies are becoming increasingly inefficacious and limited
Because effective antibiotics are critical for treatment of bacterial infections and for procedures where there is a high risk of infection, e.g. surgery, new anti-infectives are needed to overcome this global threat[4]
In the second experimental stage, a total of 10 extracts from seven plant species inhibited the growth of E. faecium (EU-44)
Summary
Antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest threats to global health today; conventional drug therapies are becoming increasingly inefficacious and limited. We identified 16 medicinal plant species used by traditional healers for the treatment of infectious and inflammatory diseases in the Greater Mpigi region of Uganda. Six species have been identified by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) as being especially dangerous due to their potential multidrug resistance mechanisms and virulence. They are referred to as ‘ESKAPE’ pathogens, which is an acronym for Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species. Antibiotics are not the only anti-infectives that could provide an effective weapon against these pathogens Another therapeutic, yet non-antibiotic, strategy is targeting bacterial virulence controlled by quorum sensing processes. Documentation of traditional use and ethnopharmacological evaluation of this wealth of plant species can still be considered an understudied field
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