Screening in vitro efflux pump inhibitor activities of some extracts

Abstract

Bacterial drug resistance is one of the most common problems of last several decades and it continues to delay the treatment of bacterial infections. Efflux pumps, which are one of the factors causing this resistance, prevent the drug from being kept inside the cell. Thus, the drug released outside the cell by the bacteria, and it cannot exhibit its activity and lead to antibiotic resistance. Although there are some efflux pump inhibitors to block the activity of these pumps, the use of currently known inhibitors is not suitable for clinical purposes, because of toxicity problems due to their chemical structure. The aim of this study is to screen in vitro efflux pump inhibitor activities of some extracts, which may be suitable for clinical use instead of using toxic synthetic inhibitors, in several Escherichia coli strains presenting multiple drug resistance and overexpressed efflux pumps. For this purpose, potential efflux pump inhibitors were extracted by using two solvents having different polarities. The results presented that all these extracts contain potential efflux pump inhibitors, which could have possible uses for blocking efflux pumps during antibiotic treatment. This experiment is a preliminary study, and it is necessary to purify and determine the active compound(s) in order to reach more detailed results about their mechanisms and to try the compounds with the combination of antibiotics to prove their potential use. Since the possibility of the use of these compounds depend on their toxicity, determining whether they are toxic or not will be a key step to continue to further studies.

Full text

3rd International Eurasian Conference on
Biological and Chemical Sciences
(EurasianBioChem 2020)
19-20 March 2020, Ankara, Turkey
www. EurasianBioChem.org
➢ ORAL PRESENTATION
90
Screening in vitro efflux pump inhibitor activities of some extracts
Eda Altınöz1*, Nahlah Abraheem Saed Alalaqi1, Ilgaz Akata2, Ergin Murat Altuner1
*1Kastamonu University, Faculty of Science and Arts, Department of Biology, Kastamonu, Turkey.
2Ankara University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Ankara, Turkey.
*Corresponding author e-mail: altinozedaa@gmail.com
Abstract
Bacterial drug resistance is one of the most common problems of last several decades and it continues to delay the treatment
of bacterial infections. Efflux pumps, which are one of the factors causing this resistance, prevent the drug from being kept
inside the cell. Thus, the drug released outside the cell by the bacteria, and it cannot exhibit its activity and lead to antibiotic
resistance. Although there are some efflux pump inhibitors to block the activity of these pumps, the use of currently known
inhibitors is not suitable for clinical purposes, because of toxicity problems due to their chemical structure. The aim of this
study is to screen in vitro efflux pump inhibitor activities of some extracts, which may be suitable for clinical use instead of
using toxic synthetic inhibitors, in several Escherichia coli strains presenting multiple drug resistance and overexpressed
efflux pumps. For this purpose, potential efflux pump inhibitors were extracted by using two solvents having different
polarities. The results presented that all these extracts contain potential efflux pump inhibitors, which could have possible
uses for blocking efflux pumps during antibiotic treatment. This experiment is a preliminary study, and it is necessary to
purify and determine the active compound(s) in order to reach more detailed results about their mechanisms and to try the
compounds with the combination of antibiotics to prove their potential use. Since the possibility of the use of these
compounds depend on their toxicity, determining whether they are toxic or not will be a key step to continue to further
studies.
Keywords: Efflux pumps, multiple drug resistance, Escherichia coli, efflux pump inhibitors, extract.