Identifying vancomycin as an effective antibiotic for killing Borrelia burgdorferi.

Identifying vancomycin as an effective antibiotic for killing Borrelia burgdorferi. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2018 Aug 20;: Authors: Wu X, Sharma B, Niles S, O'Connor K, Schilling R, Matluck N, D'Onofrio A, Hu LT, Lewis K Abstract Borrelia burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis. Antibiotic therapy of early acute infection is effective for most patients, but 10-20% go on to develop Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome. The nature of PTLDS remains unknown, but currently approved antibiotics for treatment of Lyme disease do not appear to impact these symptoms after they have developed. We reason that minimizing the time the pathogen interacts with the host will diminish the probability of developing PTLDS, irrespective of its nature. This calls for an efficient eradication of the pathogen during acute infection. In search of a superior killing antibiotic, we examined approved antibiotics for their ability to kill B. burgdorferi Vancomycin proved more effective in killing the pathogen in vitro than ceftriaxone, the standard of care for disseminated B. burgdorferi infection. Both compounds were also the most effective in killing stationary phase cells. This is surprising, given that inhibitors of cell wall biosynthesis are known to only kill growing bacteria. We found that peptidoglycan synthesis continues in stationary cells of B. burgdorferi, explaining this paradox. A combination of vancomycin and gemifloxacin steril...
Source: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Antimicrob Agents Chemother Source Type: research