Assessment of Efficacy and Safety of Clindamycin Against Methicillin- Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Infected Subcutaneous Abscess Model

Abstract

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causes infection in the wound leading to life-threatening bacteriemia. It causes recalcitrant infections because of being resistant to various antibiotics. The recent studies reported clindamycin to be effective against MRSA rather than inducible clindamycin resistance and decrease the incidence of new infections after clindamycin treatment. The study focused on assessing the efficacy and safety of clindamycin against MRSA infected rats. Methods: The rats become neutropenic by intraperitoneal administration of cyclophosphamide at a dose of 150 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg for 4 days and 5th day respectively. The neutropenic rats were infected with MRSA by subcutaneous administration of 106 CFU/ml of MRSA. The 3 groups of rats such as Normal, MRSA infected, MRSA infected rats that were administered clindamycin orally at a dose of 90 mg/kg/ thrice daily for 14 days were used in the study. The abscess size, weight, and bacterial load were measured at the end of the study. The blood and liver samples were collected for biochemical analysis and histopathological evaluation. Results: The MRSA was confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method. The clindamycin minimum inhibitory concentration was 0.125 - 0.5 μg/ml. The MRSA showed negative D test for clindamycin indicating the absence of inducible clindamycin resistance. The decreased abscess size, weight, bacterial count, Intestinal Alkaline Phosphatase (IAP), weight loss, alteration in hematological parameters, mild changes in cholesterol, ALT and liver histology, no significant (P > 0.05) change in triglycerides, AST, ALP, bilirubin, lactate, urea, and creatinine were seen in clindamycin treated MRSA infected rats. The MRSA infected clindamycin treated rats showed mild irritation and diarrhea. Conclusion: Our study concludes that the clindamycin showed better anti- MRSA activity and tolerable adverse effects such as anemia, weight loss, and mild irritation after oral treatment, but the intestinal dysbiosis is a severe adverse effect and causes diarrhea.