LiF Reduces MICs of Antibiotics against Clinical Isolates of Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is an ever-growing problem yet the development of new antibiotics has slowed to a trickle, giving rise to the use of combination therapy to eradicate infections. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the combined inhibitory effect of lithium fluoride (LiF) and commonly used antimicrobials on the growth of the following bacteria:Enterococcus faecalis,Staphyloccoccus aureus,Escherichia coli,Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Acinetobacter baumannii,Klebsiella pneumoniae,Serratia marcescens, andStreptococcus pneumoniae. Thein vitroactivities of ceftazidime, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, streptomycin, erythromycin, amoxicillin, and ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, alone or combined with LiF were performed by microdilution method. MICs were determined visually following 18–20 h of incubation at 37°C. We observed reduced MICs of antibiotics associated with LiF ranging from two-fold to sixteen-fold. The strongest decreases of MICs observed were for streptomycin and erythromycin associated with LiF againstAcinetobacter baumanniiandStreptococcus pneumoniae. An eight-fold reduction was recorded for streptomycin againstS. pneumoniaewhereas an eight-fold and a sixteen-fold reduction were obtained for erythromycin againstA. baumanniiandS. pneumoniae. This suggests that LiF exhibits a synergistic effect with a wide range of antibiotics and is indicative of its potential as an adjuvant in antibiotic therapy.