Drug Repurposing: In vitro and in vivo Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Effects of Bithionol Against Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium

Pengfei She; Yangxia Wang; Yingjia Li; Linying Zhou; Shijia Li; Xianghai Zeng; Yaqian Liu; Lanlan Xu; Yong Wu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.579806

Drug Repurposing: In vitro and in vivo Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Effects of Bithionol Against Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium

Front Microbiol. 2021 May 6:12:579806. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.579806. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Pengfei She¹, Yangxia Wang², Yingjia Li¹, Linying Zhou¹, Shijia Li¹, Xianghai Zeng¹, Yaqian Liu¹, Lanlan Xu¹, Yong Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.

Abstract

Widespread antibiotic resistance has been reported in enterococcal pathogens that cause life-threatening infections. Enterococci species rapidly acquire resistance and the pace of new antibiotic development is slow. Drug repurposing is a promising approach in solving this problem. Bithionol (BT) is a clinically approved anthelminthic drug. In this study, we found that BT showed significant antimicrobial and antibiofilm effects against Enterococcus faecalis and vancomycin-resistant Entercococcus faecium in vitro, in a dose-dependent manner, by disrupting the integrity of the bacterial cell membranes. Moreover, BT effectively reduced the bacterial load in mouse organs when combined with conventional antibiotics in a peritonitis infection model. Thus, BT has shown potential as a therapeutic agent against E. faecalis- and vancomycin-resistant E. faecium-related infections.

Keywords: Enterococci; antimicrobial; bacterial cell membrane; bithionol; drug repurposing.