Treatment with rokitamycin suppresses the lethality in a murine model of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection.
The effects of rokitamycin (ROK) and levofloxacin (LEVX) were investigated in a murine model of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) infection. After C3H/HeN mice were inoculated intragastrically with E. coli O157:H7, ROK (20mg/kg) or LEVX (1.2 mg/kg) was administered intragastrically. The death rate of the mice was noted and the faeces were collected to determine viable cell counts of EHEC and for Shiga-like toxins (SLTs) assays. After the mice were sacrificed, the kidneys and colons of some of the mice were removed for histopathological examination. The death rate of mice administered ROK (19%) was significantly lower than that of the control and LEVX-treated groups (80, 93%, respectively). Viable cell counts of EHEC in the faeces of the control and ROK-treated groups were 10(7) and 10(6) CFU/g at day 5 after the infection, respectively. LEVX reduced the bacterial count by less than 100 CFU/g at day 5. The level of SLTs in the faeces from the ROK group were lower than the LEVX-treated and control groups at day 5. The histopathological findings in the kidneys treated with LEVX showed necrotic tubular epithelial cells and those in the colon, inflammatory infiltrates. These were not seen in the ROK-treated group. These results suggested that ROK suppressed release of SLTs from the EHEC and could be useful in the treatment of EHEC infection.
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Oita Medical University, 1-1 Hasama, Oita 879-5593, Japan.
Kazufumi
K
Hiramatsu
Junko
J
Murakami
Kenji
K
Kishi
Norio
N
Hirata
Tohru
T
Yamasaki
Jun-ichi
J
Kadota
Tetsuo
T
Shibata
Masaru
M
Nasu
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D064704:Levofloxacin; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D015644:Miocamycin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015242:Ofloxacin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016019:Survival Analysis
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D015644:Miocamycin; D064704:Levofloxacin; D015242:Ofloxacin; C033383:rokitamycin