1. Pathog Dis. 2016 Jul;74(5). pii: ftw042. doi: 10.1093/femspd/ftw042. Epub 2016
May 5.

Synergistic activity between an antimicrobial polyacrylamide and daptomycin
versus Staphylococcus aureus biofilm.

Siala W(1), Van Bambeke F(1), Taresco V(2), Piozzi A(3), Francolini I(4).

Author information: 
(1)Pharmacologie cellulaire et moléculaire, Louvain Drug Research Institute,
Université catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. (2)School of 
Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK. (3)Department of Chemistry,
Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
(4)Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5,
00185 Rome, Italy iolanda.francolini@uniroma1.it.

Antibiotic resistance of bacteria growing in biofilms compared to their
planktonic counterparts enhances the difficulty to eradicate biofilm-associated
infections. In the last decade, combination antibiotic therapy has emerged as an 
attractive strategy for treating biofilm infections, even if in most of tolerant 
biofilms the optimal combinations are still unknown. In this study, an
antimicrobial cationic polyacrylamide was used in combination with daptomycin or 
moxifloxacin against mature biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates
to examine a possible improvement of the antibiofilm activity of the two
antibiotics. The polymer did not have an effect on moxifloxacin but significantly
increased the antibiofilm efficacy of daptomycin. These findings are presumably
related to the different mechanism of action of the two drugs. In summary, our
data highlighted the ability of polycations to increase daptomycin antibiofilm
activity providing a potential strategy to eradicate biofilms in industrial or
medical settings.

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DOI: 10.1093/femspd/ftw042 
PMID: 27154750  [PubMed - in process]