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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Pharmacology of Infectious Diseases
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1483055

Alhagi maurorum extract in combination with lytic phage cocktails: A promising therapeutic approach against biofilms of multi-drug resistant P. mirabilis

Provisionally accepted
Arezoo Mirzaei Arezoo Mirzaei 1Bahram Nasr Esfahani Bahram Nasr Esfahani 1Mustafa Ghanadian Mustafa Ghanadian 1Jeroen Wagemans Jeroen Wagemans 2Rob Lavigne Rob Lavigne 2Sharareh Moghim Sharareh Moghim 1*
  • 1 Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
  • 2 Department of Biosystems, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant global threat to public health systems, rendering antibiotics ineffective in treating infectious diseases. Combined use of bio compounds, including bacteriophages and plant extracts, is an attractive approach to controlling antibiotic resistance. In this study, the combination of phage cocktail (Isf-Pm1 and Isf-Pm2) and Alhagi maurorum crude extract (AME) was investigated in controlling biofilmforming multi-drug resistant P. mirabilis isolates, in vitro and a phantom bladder model. The combination of AME and phage cocktails demonstrated no significant disparity in its ability to inhibit quorum sensing (QS) when compared to the individual control of AME alone. Following treatment with the combination of phage cocktail and AME at a 125 µg/mL concentration, the MDR P. mirabilis biofilm biomass was notably reduced by 73% compared to the control (P< 0.0001). The anti-biofilm effect was confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Moreover, in a bladder phantom model, there was a considerable decrease in encrustation levels compared to the control. The combined treatment resulted in a 1.85 logarithmic reduction in bacterial adhesion to Vero cells compared to the control. The realtime PCR results indicated significant downregulation of QS-and adhesion-related gens. The phage therapy, combined with AME, holds promising potential in reducing biofilm formation.

    Keywords: Alhagi maurorum, Bacteriophage therapy, Proteus mirabilis, Biofilm, combination therapy

    Received: 19 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mirzaei, Nasr Esfahani, Ghanadian, Wagemans, Lavigne and Moghim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sharareh Moghim, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.