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Origanum vulgare essential oil: antibacterial activities and synergistic effect with polymyxin B against multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

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Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is increasing around the world and the search for effective treatment options, such as new antibiotics and combination therapy is urgently needed. The present study evaluates oregano essential oil (OEO) antibacterial activities against reference and multidrug-resistant clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab-MDR). Additionally, the combination of the OEO and polymyxin B was evaluated against Ab-MDR. Ten clinical isolates were characterized at the species level through multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the gyrB and blaOXA-51-like genes. The isolates were resistant to at least four different classes of antimicrobial agents, namely, aminoglycosides, cephems, carbapenems, and fluoroquinolones. All isolates were metallo-β-lactamase (MβL) and carbapenemase producers. The major component of OEO was found to be carvacrol (71.0%) followed by β-caryophyllene (4.0%), γ-terpinene (4.5%), p-cymene (3,5%), and thymol (3.0%). OEO showed antibacterial effect against all Ab-MDR tested, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) ranging from 1.75 to 3.50 mg mL−1. Flow cytometry demonstrated that the OEO causes destabilization and rupture of the bacterial cell membrane resulting in apoptosis of A. baumannii cells (p < 0.05). Synergic interaction between OEO and polymyxin B (FICI: 0.18 to 0.37) was observed, using a checkerboard assay. When combined, OEO presented until 16-fold reduction of the polymyxin B MIC. The results presented here indicate that the OEO used alone or in combination with polymyxin B in the treatment of Ab-MDR infections is promising. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of OEO and polymyxin B association against Ab-MDR clinical isolates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Laboratory of Microbiology, School Hospital, Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel, Pelotas, RS, Brazil) for their collaboration and providing the isolates.

Funding

This work was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES, http://www.capes.gov.br/) - Finance Code 001 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, http://www.cnpq.br/) which provided research (DDH) and scholarship (SCA, SBF and SOA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (CDTec), Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biotecnologia (PPGB), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), Núcleo de Biotecnologia, Capão do Leão, RS, Brazil

    Suélen Cavalheiro Amaral, Stella Buchhorn de Freitas, Marcos Roberto Alves Ferreira, Clóvis Moreira Jr. & Daiane Drawanz Hartwig

  2. Departamento de Microbiologia e Parasitologia (DMP), Instituto de Biologia (IB), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), Capão do Leão, RS, Brazil

    Beatriz Bohns Pruski, Suzane Olachea Allend, Daniela Isabel Brayer Pereira & Daiane Drawanz Hartwig

  3. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil

    Antonio Sergio Varela Junior

  4. Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Campus Universitário, Caixa Postal 354, Pelotas, RS, CEP 96010–900, Brazil

    Daiane Drawanz Hartwig

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  1. Suélen Cavalheiro Amaral
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Contributions

SCA—participated in the experiments, wrote the manuscript; BBP—participated in the experiments MHT, DDST, CDT, MIC e CBM; SOA—participated in the synergism test; SBF, MRAF, and CMJ—participated in the bacteria cultivation, extraction of DNA and PCR; DIBP—wrote the manuscript; ASVJ—flow cytometry; DDH—coordinator, wrote and reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daiane Drawanz Hartwig.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This research did not involve humans and animal participants, their data, or biological material. The isolates of A. baumannii used in this research belong to the culture collection of the Laboratory of Bacteriology and Bioassays, collected during the years of 2014 to 2016 in the School Hospital of the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel, Pelotas, RS, Brazil. This study was approved by the appropriate institution (UFPel, Pelotas, RS, Brazil) under number 10146.

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Amaral, S.C., Pruski, B.B., de Freitas, S.B. et al. Origanum vulgare essential oil: antibacterial activities and synergistic effect with polymyxin B against multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. Mol Biol Rep 47, 9615–9625 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05989-0

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