Synergistic Antimicrobial Activity of Eugenol in Combination with Fosfomycin to Combat Escherichia coli and Potential Effect on Plasmid‐Mediated Fosfomycin Resistance Genes

Abstract

AbstractThe presence of multidrug‐resistant pathogenic microorganisms makes it challenging to cure bacterial illnesses. Syzygium aromaticum has been used for medicinal purposes since ancient times. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential synergistic effect of the combination of Eugenol and Fosfomycin against clinically Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) and their possible co‐treatment as well as their contribution to plasmid‐mediated Fosfomycin resistance (fosA3 and fosA4) genes using molecular assays. Eugenol was extracted from clove (Syzygium aromaticum) plants using steam distillation by Clevenger and analyzed by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). UPEC accounted for 63.6 % of all isolates. Specifically, 99.3 % of the UPEC isolates exhibited resistance to multiple types of antibiotics [multidrug‐resistant (MDR)]. The MIC for Eugenol was 1.25–5 μg/mL, and Fosfomycin was 512–1024 μg/mL, while the MBC for Eugenol was 5–10 μg/mL and Fosfomycin was 2048 μg/mL. The synergistic effects were considerable, with 1/4 MIC of Eugenol resulting in 1/8 MIC Fosfomycin. Eugenol inhibited most of the UPEC isolates at 4–8 hours, Fosfomycin at 8–12 hours, and co‐treatment at 4–8 hours. The fosA3 and fosA4 genes were detected in 5.7 % and 2.9 % of the isolates, respectively. The results showed variable gene expression changes in response to the different treatments.