Bactericidal and Anti-Biofilm Activity of the FtsZ Inhibitor C109 against <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i>
Viola Camilla Scoffone,
Samuele Irudal,
Aseel AbuAlshaar,
Aurora Piazza,
Gabriele Trespidi,
Giulia Barbieri,
Vadim Makarov,
Roberta Migliavacca,
Edda De Rossi,
Silvia Buroni
Affiliations
Viola Camilla Scoffone
Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Samuele Irudal
Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Aseel AbuAlshaar
Unit of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Aurora Piazza
Unit of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Gabriele Trespidi
Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Giulia Barbieri
Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Vadim Makarov
Research Center of Biotechnology RAS, 119071 Moscow, Russia
Roberta Migliavacca
Unit of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Edda De Rossi
Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Silvia Buroni
Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
In the last few years, Acinetobacter baumannii has ranked as a number one priority due to its Multi Drug Resistant phenotype. The different metabolic states, such as the one adopted when growing as biofilm, help the bacterium to resist a wide variety of compounds, placing the discovery of new molecules able to counteract this pathogen as a topic of utmost importance. In this context, bacterial cell division machinery and the conserved protein FtsZ are considered very interesting cellular targets. The benzothiadiazole compound C109 is able to inhibit bacterial growth and to block FtsZ GTPase and polymerization activities in Burkholderia cenocepacia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus. In this work, the activity of C109 was tested against a panel of antibiotic sensitive and resistant A. baumannii strains. Its ability to inhibit biofilm formation was explored, together with its activity against the A. baumannii FtsZ purified protein. Our results indicated that C109 has good MIC values against A. baumannii clinical isolates. Moreover, its antibiofilm activity makes it an interesting alternative treatment, effective against diverse metabolic states. Finally, its activity was confirmed against A. baumannii FtsZ.
