New approach to treat methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus with the application of boric acid

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is a global concern and a heavy burden worldwide. This work aims to treat Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus with an emerging formulation strategy. A new strategy was applied through the synthesis of a highly potent film through the combination of boric acid (BA) and cefotaxime (CTX) in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or ethyl cellulose (EC) to combat microbial resistance.& nbsp;The antibacterial activity of the developed formulations was studied against methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus MSSA, (ATCC (R) 25923 (TM)), oxacillin sensitive S. aureus OSSA (ATCC (R) 29213TM) and methicillinresistant S. aureus, MRSA (ATCC (R) 43300 (TM)) by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion tests and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. Fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) indices demonstrate the significant synergistic effect and a 15 fold increase in antibacterial activity against MRSA (ATCC (R) 43300 (TM)) when CTX was delivered from the cross-linked PVA or EC film containing BA. The combinations of CTX with any of the beta-lactamase inhibitors including clavulanate, sulbactam, and tazobactam did not show any antibacterial activity against MRSA. This novel finding suggests that the use of BA in combination with cefotaxime will substantially improve the efficacy of drugs against multi-drug resistant strains.