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This prize is awarded to the thesis work of Noura Hazime, supervised by D. Drider (UMRt BioEcoAgro) and Rabah Boukherroub (IEMN). The publication selected below is the result of the ANR Sincolistin project.

This article highlights the possibility of using small molecules such as lactic acid, polyamines or essential oils as alternative molecules to antibiotics in animal health, to support or even replace antibiotics facing bacterial resistance. The activities described in this article are aimed at replacing colistin on pig farms, to treat infections caused by Escherichia coli, a bacterium responsible for colibacillosis.

Our work has shown that combining colistin with alginate nanoparticles has a better effect on E. coli, including strains carrying the mcr-1 genes for colistin resistance. Similarly, the combination of colistin, small molecules and nanoparticles resulted in a gain in antibacterial activity, again against different strains of E. coli.  The safety of these different formulations was established on HT-29 eukaryotic cell lines. The results obtained open up major application prospects, enabling savings to be made on major antibiotics such as colistin.

Figure 3. TEM micrographs of Escherichia coli 184 cells treated with (A–C) control; (D) Alg NPs (500 μg/mL); (E–F) Colistin (8 μg/mL); (G–H) Alg NPs+Colistin (500:1.25) μg/mL; (I–J) Alg NPs+Colistin+Lactic acid (500:0.62:15) μg/mL; (K–L) Alg NPs+Colistin+Menthol (500:0.31:10) μg/mL
 

Publication :

Enhancing Colistin Activity against Colistin-Resistant Escherichia coli through Combination with Alginate Nanoparticles and Small Molecules. NOURA HAZIME, YANATH BELGUESMIA, ISABELLE KEMPF , ALEXANDRE BARRAS, DJAMEL DRIDER, RABAH BOUKHERROUB Pharmaceuticals, 2022, 28;15(6):682. doi: 10.3390/ph15060682