Abstract Recently developed quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) possessing multiple cationic moieties, referred to as multiQACs, were tested with strains of Campylobacter jejuni to determine their potential as antimicrobial compounds against this important foodborne pathogen. Eight multiQACs were tested against a cocktail of six C. jejuni strains isolated from environmental and clinical sources. The resulting reductions in C. jejuni numbers mediated by the multiQACs were compared to the reductions produced by the application of four commercially available QACs, each of which bears a single cation. Multiple concentrations and exposure times were utilized for all compounds. The compounds which yielded the maximum C. jejuni reductions at the lowest concentrations and applied over the shortest exposure times were judged to be the most successful. Of the eight multiQACs investigated, four demonstrated reductions in C. jejuni numbers superior to the commercial QACs; these four are biscationic, and two of them bear an additional uncharged nitrogen atom. The remaining four multiQACs, which contain three or four cations, did not produce reductions in bacterial numbers comparable to commercial QACs in the timeframes tested. At the intermediary compound concentration (0.05 mM) and exposure time (5 min) the most effective multiQACs (PQ-12,12 and 12(3)0(3)12) on average killed over 99% of the Campylobacter cells present while the best commercial compound at those parameters (cetyl pyridinium chloride, CPC) only killed on average 84.56% of the Campylobacter cells. At the highest compound concentration tested (0.1 mM) and shortest exposure time (1 min), the same two biscationic multiQACs averaged mean percent reductions of Campylobacter cell numbers around 99.5% while CPC at the same concentration/exposure only managed a percent reduction of 91.3%. The biscationic multiQACs demonstrate the potential for providing a new group of antimicrobial compounds superior to current commercially available QACs in their effectiveness against C. jejuni.

中文翻译：

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具有多个阳离子部分的季铵化合物 (multiQACs) 提供对空肠弯曲杆菌的抗菌活性

摘要 最近开发的具有多个阳离子部分的季铵化合物 (QAC)，称为 multiQAC，用空肠弯曲杆菌菌株进行测试，以确定它们作为抗这种重要食源性病原体的抗菌化合物的潜力。针对从环境和临床来源分离的六种空肠弯曲杆菌菌株的混合物对八种 multiQAC 进行了测试。将 multiQAC 介导的空肠弯曲杆菌数量的减少与应用四种市售 QAC 产生的减少进行比较，其中每种 QAC 带有一个阳离子。所有化合物均采用多种浓度和暴露时间。在最低浓度下产生最大空肠弯曲杆菌减少并在最短暴露时间内施用的化合物被认为是最成功的。在所调查的 8 个 multiQAC 中，有 4 个表现出优于商业 QAC 的空肠弯曲杆菌数量减少；这四个是双阳离子的，其中两个带有一个额外的不带电荷的氮原子。在测试的时间范围内，其余四个 multiQACs 包含三个或四个阳离子，与商业 QACs 相比，细菌数量没有减少。在中间化合物浓度 (0.05 mM) 和暴露时间 (5 分钟) 下，最有效的 multiQAC（PQ-12,12 和 12(3)0(3)12）平均杀死了 99% 以上的弯曲杆菌细胞，而在这些参数下最好的商业化合物（氯化十六烷基吡啶，CPC）仅杀死平均 84.56% 的弯曲杆菌细胞。在测试的最高化合物浓度 (0.1 mM) 和最短暴露时间 (1 分钟) 下，相同的两种双阳离子 multiQAC 平均降低弯曲杆菌细胞数量的百分比约为 99.5%，而相同浓度/暴露的 CPC 仅减少了 91.3%。双阳离子 multiQAC 证明了提供一组新的抗菌化合物的潜力，该化合物在对抗空肠弯曲杆菌的有效性方面优于当前市售的 QAC。