title: Efficacy of polycationic peptides in preventing vascular graft infection due to Staphylococcus epidermidis.
abstract: A rat model was used to investigate the efficacy of two polycationic peptides, ranalexin and buforin II, in the prevention of vascular prosthetic graft infection due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis with intermediate resistance to glycopeptides. The in vitro activity of the peptides was compared with those of vancomycin and teicoplanin by MIC determination and time-kill study. Moreover, the efficacy of collagen-sealed peptide-soaked Dacron was evaluated in a rat model of graft infection. Graft infections were established in the dorsal subcutaneous tissue of 120 adult male Wistar rats. The in vivo study included a control group, one contaminated group that did not receive any antibiotic prophylaxis and four contaminated groups that received an antibiotic-soaked graft. Experiments demonstrated that the activities of buforin II and ranalexin were greater than those of vancomycin and teicoplanin. Particularly, rats with buforin II-coated Dacron grafts showed no evidence of staphylococcal infection while, for the rats with ranalexin-, vancomycin- and teicoplanin-coated Dacron grafts, the quantitative graft cultures demonstrated bacterial growth (1.9 x 10(2) +/- 0.6 x 10(2) cfu/mL, 6. 2 x 103 +/- 1.9 x 10(3) cfu/mL and 5.1 x 10(4) +/- 4.8 x 10(3) cfu/mL, respectively). The study demonstrated that the use of peptide-soaked Dacron graft can result in significant bacterial growth inhibition and indicates that these compounds may be potentially useful in prosthetic surgery.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Infectious Diseases and Public Health and Department of General Surgery, INRCA IRCCS, University of Ancona, Ancona, Italy. cmalinf@popcsi.unian.it
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giacometti
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cirioni
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghiselli
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goffi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mocchegiani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riva
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scalise
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Saba
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis / Q000382:microbiology*; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D008297:Male; D023421:Models, Animal; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011506:Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D011506:Proteins; C097849:buforin II; C086618:ranalexin