Phytochemicals as Adjuvant Therapies in RND Efflux-mediated Multidrug Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infections and Evaluation Techniques of Efflux Inhibitory Activities in Bacteria

One of the top-listed opportunistic pathogens that are frequently found in medical devices such as ventilation systems is Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These bacteria often cause infections in the lungs (pneumonia), blood after surgery, and other parts of the body. Extreme susceptibility to P. aeruginosa infection primarily exists in immunosuppressed individuals, and long-term evolution has led to the development of genetic resistance mechanisms that have high genetic flexibility against damaging antibiotics. Several lines of research evidence point to efflux as the primary reason for the organism's effectiveness against antibiotic treatment in infections caused by this bacterium. Drug Efflux pumps play a crucial role in medicine because they expulse a variety of unique and unrelated chemical structures with either antibiotics or antimicrobials before they reach the concentration necessary to kill bacteria, conferring multiple resistance to more than one class of antibiotics. Targeting this mechanism for example by blocking the most active efflux pump MexAB-orpM would probably lead to the discovery of new ways to circumvent the bacterial system of antibiotic resistance and boost treatment effectiveness.