Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections kill roughly 23,000 Americans yearly and are becoming increasingly common in both healthcare and community settings. As such, the demand for novel treatments that combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens is increasing just as rapidly; one way to treat these infections is by utilizing adjuvants in combination with antibiotics. Antibiotic adjuvants are non-toxic molecules that enhance the efficacy of antibiotics. Based on previous work in our lab, we have identified both loratadine and brominated carbazoles as effective adjuvants to potentiate β-lactam antibiotics in MRSA. While these adjuvants have proven successful in vitro, we sought to determine their efficacy in vivo. Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a nematode roundworm with significant immunological homology to humans, making it a useful model organism for bacterial infection and treatment. We utilized C. elegans as an infection model and tested the efficacy of our adjuvants alone and in combination with antibiotics. We have identified adjuvants that also display protective activity both alone and in combination with antibiotics. Assay optimization parameters and biological results will be discussed.

Optimizing a C. elegans infection model to evaluate antibiotic adjuvants against MRSA

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