Evaluation of anti-cryptococcal activity of bacitracin

Neelabh, Karuna Singh

Evaluation of anti-cryptococcal activity of bacitracin

Číslo: 2/2020/2021
Periodikum: Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Sciences
DOI: 10.15414/jmbfs.2020.10.2.176-181

Klíčová slova: Cryptococcus neoformans; Bacitracin, in-vitro; in-vivo

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Anotace: Cryptococcosis is amongst potentially deadly diseases whose impact has aggrandized with the advent of AIDS and antifungal resistance. Antifungals used presently are short of broad spectrum activity and furthermore are involved in several side effects. Henceforth, the present manuscript focuses on the evaluation of antifungal activity of bacitracin against Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii, the causative agent of the disease.

Minimum inhibitory concentration, flow cytometric analysis and confocal microscopy were used to determine the in-vitro fungal susceptibilities. Light microscopy was used to determine the changes in the micromorphology of the fungal organism. Swiss mice were used for testing the efficacy of bacitracin in-vivo.
Bacitracin showed cidal activity against C. n. grubii at 5.5 mg/ml which is on the higher side but on testing under in-vivo conditions it was observed that doses as high as 15 mg/kg bw/day did not show any adverse effect in the body. Better survival rate of the bacitracin treated mice, lowering of the fungal load and changes showing improvement in the tissue morphology depicts the mild anticryptococcal activity of bacitracin.
Although, bacitracin has proved to be a potent antifungal yet there are several limitations like low bioavailability and its peptide nature. However, these problems can be limited by developing suitable analogs of the compound.