Long-term treatment with
antibiotics gives rise to the evolution of multi-
drug resistant bacteria which are hard to be treated.
Virulence factors inhibitors depend on disarming of microbial pathogens through reducing expression of
virulence factors, abolishing the pathogen capability to harm the host. In the present study, the influence of
secnidazole on Pseudomonas aeruginosa
virulence factors expression was characterized. Production of Pseudomonas aeruginosa
virulence factors such as
pyocyanin,
pyoverdin,
elastase, rhamnolipids,
proteases and
hemolysins was examined following treatment of bacteria with sub-inhibitory concentration of
secnidazole. Interestingly,
secnidazole showed a powerful inhibitory effect on Pseudomonas aeruginosa
virulence factors. Our results were further confirmed using qRT-PCR showing that there was a significant decrease in the expression of quorum sensing genes; lasI, lasR, rhlI, rhlR, pqsA and pqsR that regulate expression of
virulence factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Moreover, in vivo experiment using mice as
infection model showed that
secnidazole-treated bacteria were less capable to kill mice as compared to untreated bacteria. Importantly, there was a significant reduction in mortality in mice injected with
secnidazole-treated bacteria relative to mice inoculated with untreated bacteria. In summary, our data showed that
secnidazole could play a role in attenuating Pseudomonas aeruginosa through reducing
virulence factors production. Moreover, our data clearly suggest that
secnidazole could be involved in the treatment of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in order to control infection and lower the development of bacterial resistance to
antibiotics.