Efficacy of the interferon inducer tilorone and its combination with antibacterial drugs in a murine model of secondary bacterial pneumonia caused by S. aureus after influenza infection
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Secondary bacterial pneumonias are complications responsible for most fatalities following influenza infection, and antiviral drugs are used to prevent their development. The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of tilorone and its combination with antibacterial agents in a murine model of secondary bacterial pneumonia caused by Staphylococcus aureus after influenza infection.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
BALB/c mice were infected with influenza virus A/California/04/2009 (pdm H1N1 2009) virus, followed by S. aureus infection four days later. Treatments included the interferon inducer tilorone, comparator oseltamivir, antibacterial agents cefuroxime and amoxicillin, or combinations of antivirals with antibiotics. Efficacy was assessed by increased survival, reduced weight loss, and inhibition of pathogen proliferation in the lungs.
RESULTS
The efficacy of tilorone, as indicated by increased survival, reduced weight loss, and decreased pathogen load in the lungs, in a mouse model of secondary bacterial pneumonia following influenza infection, increased with reducing viral dose, and intraperitoneal administration of the drug was more effective than oral administration. The combination of tilorone with the antibiotic cefuroxime, to which S. aureus was sensitive, was more effective than either agent alone and completely protected animals from death and from viral and bacterial proliferation in the lungs. In contrast, the combination with amoxicillin, to which S.…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Penicillins for Treatment of Pneumococcal Pneumonia: Does In Vitro Resistance Really Matter?
- Thiophenes—Naturally Occurring Plant Metabolites: Biological Activities and In Silico Evaluation of Their Potential as Cathepsin D Inhibitors
- Inhalable Mannosylated Rifampicin–Curcumin Co-Loaded Nanomicelles with Enhanced In Vitro Antimicrobial Efficacy for an Optimized Pulmonary Tuberculosis Therapy
- Development and validation of microbial bioassay for quantification of Levofloxacin in pharmaceutical preparations
- GC-MS Analysis and Biomedical Therapy of Oil from n-Hexane Fraction of Scutellaria edelbergii Rech. f.: In Vitro, In Vivo, and In Silico Approach
- Propranolol, chlorpromazine and diclofenac restore susceptibility of extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-Acinetobacter baumannii to fluoroquinolones
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.