Antiparasitic nitazoxanide potentiates colistin against colistin-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and Escherichia coli in vitro and in vivo

  • Microbiol Spectr. 2023 Nov 30:e0229523. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02295-23.
Mengxin Xu  #  1  2 ,  Zhuocheng Yao  #  1 ,  Jingchun Kong  3 ,  Miran Tang  1 ,  Qi Liu  1 ,  Xiaotuan Zhang  1 ,  Shiyi Shi  1 ,  Xiangkuo Zheng  1 ,  Jianming Cao  3 ,  Tieli Zhou  1 ,  Zhongyong Wang  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Key Laboratory of Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis and Translational Research of Zhejiang Province, Wenzhou, China.
  • 2. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Laboratory Medicine Center, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital (Affiliated People's Hospital), Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
  • 3. Department of Medical Lab Science, School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Science, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 38032179 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02295-23
Abstract

Colistin is used as a last resort in many infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria; however, colistin-resistant (COL-R) is on the rise. Hence, it is critical to develop new antimicrobial strategies to overcome COL-R. We found that nitazoxanide (NTZ) combined with colistin showed notable synergetic Antibacterial activity. These findings suggest that the NTZ/colistin combination may provide an effective alternative route to combat COL-R A. baumannii and COL-R Escherichia coli infections.

Keywords
Acinetobacter baumannii; Escherichia coli; colistin-resistant; drug repurposing; nitazoxanide; synergistic effect.
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