Plant extracts for pan-drug resistant bugs?

[Community managerKeymaster 18 July 2018 at 8:49 am Post count: 23]

#2647

In our recent webinar titled “PK-PD in support of accelerated programmes for antimicrobial development: how much is enough?” with William Hope, we received more questions from the audience than we could answer during the session. We will now follow up on some remaining questions in the forum and encourage our experts but also users to discuss these questions.

Please see find a recording of this webinar here.

One webinar participant asked: What are the chances that various plant extracts could be used for pan-drug resistant bugs?

[Ursula TheuretzbacherExpert 18 July 2018 at 9:17 am Post count: 10]

#2653

Plant extracts are usually tested for antibacterial activity by determining MICs. As plant extracts contain a complex mixture of structurally diverse compounds (sometimes hundreds of different chemical entities), such MICs are not very informative. Before continuing to determine the antibacterial activity, single compounds have to be isolated. Dereplication, access to large amount of bulk plant material, and deciphering synergistic relationships of a multitude of components are major challenges. Drug discovery activities based on plant extracts is extremely challenging and has been so far only rarely successful.

[François FranceschiExpert 30 July 2018 at 7:49 am Post count: 7]

#2700

Another problem of complex plant extracts is that they could interfere with the assay resulting in either false positive or false negative results. Therefore is better to start with at least with partially-purified extracts.

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