El-Soudany, I., Elsheikh, A., Abdelwahab, I. (2024). Evaluation of Azithromycin and Fenugreek Oil as Anti-virulence Agents against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia MultiDrug Resistant Clinical Isolates. Egyptian Journal of Botany, 64(1), 329-340. doi: 10.21608/ejbo.2023.235085.2479
Ingy El-Soudany; Azza Elsheikh; Ibrahim A. Abdelwahab. "Evaluation of Azithromycin and Fenugreek Oil as Anti-virulence Agents against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia MultiDrug Resistant Clinical Isolates". Egyptian Journal of Botany, 64, 1, 2024, 329-340. doi: 10.21608/ejbo.2023.235085.2479
El-Soudany, I., Elsheikh, A., Abdelwahab, I. (2024). 'Evaluation of Azithromycin and Fenugreek Oil as Anti-virulence Agents against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia MultiDrug Resistant Clinical Isolates', Egyptian Journal of Botany, 64(1), pp. 329-340. doi: 10.21608/ejbo.2023.235085.2479
El-Soudany, I., Elsheikh, A., Abdelwahab, I. Evaluation of Azithromycin and Fenugreek Oil as Anti-virulence Agents against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia MultiDrug Resistant Clinical Isolates. Egyptian Journal of Botany, 2024; 64(1): 329-340. doi: 10.21608/ejbo.2023.235085.2479
Evaluation of Azithromycin and Fenugreek Oil as Anti-virulence Agents against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia MultiDrug Resistant Clinical Isolates
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharos University in Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
2Department of Microbiology, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
Abstract
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a gram-negative opportunistic pathogenic bacterium that is associated with hospital- and community-acquired infections. Ithas a set of virulence factors, such as biofilm formation and extracellular enzymes, that are mostly regulated via quorum sensing (QS) systems. Azithromycin (AZM) is a macrolide that is well known for its anti-virulence effects, including anti-QS and antibiofilm effects. Additionally, some spice essential oils have been reported to inhibit bacterial virulence. This study evaluated the effect of AZM and Fenugreek Oil (FO), a spice essential oil from Fenugreek seeds, against some virulence factors of multidrug-resistant Stenotrophomonas maltophilia clinical isolates. Both AZM and FO showed significant inhibitory effects against protease activity, where all tested isolates showed 100% loss of the halo zone formed in skimmed milk agar test with AZM and a 25 to 35% reduction in the zone with FO. A mean reduction in the interstitial surface area of 34.4% and 35.5% was detected with AZM and FO, respectively, in the twitching motility assay. While AZM showed a significant effect in reducing biofilm formation by S. maltophilia isolates (mean inhibition of 49.7%), the reducing effect of FO (18.5%) was not significant. Genotypically, exposure of S. maltophilia clinical isolates to AZM and FO significantly reduced the expression of protease-encoding genes (stmPr1, stmPr2 and StmPr3) and a quorum sensing gene (rpfC).