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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. doi:10.1128/AAC.01249-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Synergistic activity of dispersin B and cefamandole nafate in the inhibition of staphylococcal biofilm growth on polyurethanes

Dept. of Technologies and Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome; Dept. of Chemistry, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy; Dept. of Oral Biology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: gianfranco.donelli{at}iss.it.

	Abstract

Antibiotic therapies to eradicate medical device-associated infections often fail because of the ability of sessile bacteria, encased into their exopolysaccharidic matrix, to be more drug-resistant compared with the planktonic ones. In the last two decades, several strategies to prevent microbial adhesion and biofilm formation on the surfaces of medical devices have been developed which are mainly based on antiadhesive, antiseptic and antibiotic coatings of polymer surfaces. More recent alternative approaches are based on molecules able to interfere with quorum-sensing phenomena or to dissolve biofilms. Interestingly, a newly purified -N-acetylglucosaminidase, dispersin B, produced by the Gram-negative periodontal pathogen Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, is able to dissolve mature biofilms produced by S. epidermidis as well as by some other bacterial species. Therefore, in this study, we developed new polymeric matrices able to bind dispersin B either alone or in combination with an antibiotic molecule, the cefamandole nafate. We show that our functionalized polyurethanes can adsorb significant amount of dispersin B that is able to exert its hydrolytic activity against the exopolysaccharidic matrix produced by staphylococcal strains. When microbial biofilms are exposed to both dispersin B and cefamandole nafate, a synergistic action become clearly evident, thus prospecting these polymer/dispersin B/antibiotic systems as promising, highly effective tools for preventing bacterial colonization of medical devices.