Medical-grade honey enriched with antimicrobial peptides has enhanced activity against antibiotic-resistant pathogens
Open Access
- 7 October 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 30 (2), 251-257
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-010-1077-x
Abstract
Honey has potent activity against both antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant bacteria, and is an interesting agent for topical antimicrobial application to wounds. As honey is diluted by wound exudate, rapid bactericidal activity up to high dilution is a prerequisite for its successful application. We investigated the kinetics of the killing of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by RS honey, the source for the production of Revamil® medical-grade honey, and we aimed to enhance the rapid bactericidal activity of RS honey by enrichment with its endogenous compounds or the addition of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). RS honey killed antibiotic-resistant isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecium, and Burkholderia cepacia within 2 h, but lacked such rapid activity against methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli. It was not feasible to enhance the rapid activity of RS honey by enrichment with endogenous compounds, but RS honey enriched with 75 μM of the synthetic peptide Bactericidal Peptide 2 (BP2) showed rapid bactericidal activity against all species tested, including MRSA and ESBL E. coli, at up to 10–20-fold dilution. RS honey enriched with BP2 rapidly killed all bacteria tested and had a broader spectrum of bactericidal activity than either BP2 or honey alone.Keywords
This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit:
- How honey kills bacteriaThe FASEB Journal, 2010
- Antibiotics for Emerging PathogensScience, 2009
- Medical Honey for Wound Care—Still the ‘Latest Resort’?Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2009
- The tandem of free radicals and methylglyoxalChemico-Biological Interactions, 2008
- Treatment and Prevention of Staphylococcus epidermidis Experimental Biomaterial-Associated Infection by Bactericidal Peptide 2Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2006
- Hydrogen Peroxide PoisoningToxicological Reviews, 2004
- The Effect of Dilution on the Rate of Hydrogen Peroxide Production in Honey and Its Implications for Wound HealingThe Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2003
- Honey: A potent agent for wound healing?Journal of Wound, Ostomy & Continence Nursing, 2002
- Cathelicidins: a novel protein family with a common proregion and a variable C‐terminal antimicrobial domainFEBS Letters, 1995
- The sterilization of honey with cobalt 60 gamma radiation: a study of honey spiked with spores ofClostridium botulinum andBacillus subtilisCellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 1995