Repurposing the anticancer drug cisplatin with the aim of developing novel Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection control agents

TY - JOUR

T1 - Repurposing the anticancer drug cisplatin with the aim of developing novel Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection control agents

AU - Yuan, Mingjun

AU - Chua, Song Lin

AU - Liu, Yang

AU - Drautz-Moses, Daniela I.

AU - Hoong Yam, Joey Kuok

AU - Aung, Thet Tun

AU - Beuerman, Roger W.

AU - Santillan Salido, May Margarette

AU - Schuster, Stephan C.

AU - Tan, Choon Hong

AU - Givskov, Michael

AU - Yang, Liang

AU - Nielsen, Thomas E.

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Antibiotic resistance threatens effective treatment of microbial infections globally. This situation has spurred the hunt for new antimicrobial compounds in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Here, we report how the widely used antitumor drug cisplatin may be repurposed as an effective antimicrobial against the nosocomial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Cisplatin was found to effectively kill strains of P. aeruginosa. In such experiments, transcriptomic profiling showed upregulation of the recA gene, which is known to be important for DNA repair, implicating that cisplatin could interfere with DNA replication in P. aeruginosa. Cisplatin treatment significantly repressed the type III secretion system (T3SS), which is important for the secretion of exotoxins. Furthermore, cisplatin was also demonstrated to eradicate in vitro biofilms and in vivo biofilms in a murine keratitis model. This showed that cisplatin could be effectively used to eradicate biofilm infections which were otherwise difficult to be treated by conventional antibiotics. Although cisplatin is highly toxic for humans upon systemic exposure, a low toxicity was demonstrated with topical treatment. This indicated that higher-than-minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) doses of cisplatin could be topically applied to treat persistent and recalcitrant P. aeruginosa infections.

AB - Antibiotic resistance threatens effective treatment of microbial infections globally. This situation has spurred the hunt for new antimicrobial compounds in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Here, we report how the widely used antitumor drug cisplatin may be repurposed as an effective antimicrobial against the nosocomial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Cisplatin was found to effectively kill strains of P. aeruginosa. In such experiments, transcriptomic profiling showed upregulation of the recA gene, which is known to be important for DNA repair, implicating that cisplatin could interfere with DNA replication in P. aeruginosa. Cisplatin treatment significantly repressed the type III secretion system (T3SS), which is important for the secretion of exotoxins. Furthermore, cisplatin was also demonstrated to eradicate in vitro biofilms and in vivo biofilms in a murine keratitis model. This showed that cisplatin could be effectively used to eradicate biofilm infections which were otherwise difficult to be treated by conventional antibiotics. Although cisplatin is highly toxic for humans upon systemic exposure, a low toxicity was demonstrated with topical treatment. This indicated that higher-than-minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) doses of cisplatin could be topically applied to treat persistent and recalcitrant P. aeruginosa infections.

KW - Biofilm

KW - Cisplatin

KW - Pseudomonas aeruginosa

KW - Resistance

KW - Type III secretion

U2 - 10.3762/bjoc.14.284

DO - 10.3762/bjoc.14.284

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 30591828

AN - SCOPUS:85059320589

SN - 2195-951X

VL - 14

SP - 3059

EP - 3069

JO - Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry

JF - Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry

ER -