The pathogenic bacterium Propionibacterium acnes is directly associated with acne vulgaris or simply “acne”, which is one of the most common skin conditions in the world. Mild acne is cared for with over-the-counter (OTC) medications but moderate to severe acne is treated with oral antibiotics including erythromycin, clindamycin, and doxycycline. Because of widespread use the buildup of resistance against antibiotics has resulted in P. acnes “super-bugs”. Recently, we employed “intelligent design” to produce polymer drug X-1 with a mode of action that mimics naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides (AMPS). We showed that X-1 halted the growth of a facial acne bacterial strain at a very low concentration (6.3 micrograms per milliliter). Importantly, the effectiveness of X-1 as an antimicrobial remained constant with no resistance buildup over 10 challenges or “passages”. On the other hand, parallel studies with the commonly prescribed antibiotic erythromycin confirmed previously reports of resistance buildup with a doubling of effective dose over 10 sequential challenges. The results for X-1 have importance in opening the door to a new approach for combatting P. acnes “super-bugs”. Our hypothesis for the mechanism of X-1 antimicrobial effectiveness is bacterial membrane disruption. This mechanism stands in contrast to conventional antibiotics, which enter into the bacterial metabolic process. This hypothesis for X-1 effectiveness has been validated by direct observation of bacterial membrane disruption in real time and in medium by atomic force microscopy.

Toward a cure for facial acne without bacterial resistance buildup

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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