JAC Advance Access published online on April 14, 2003
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkg228
© 2003 by The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Original article
1 Welsh School of Pharmacy,
Cardiff University, Cardiff
Received 30 October 2002
; revised 22 January 2003
; accepted 25 February 2003
Objectives: Polyquad (Alcon) (polyquaternium-1,
PQ-1) and Aldox (Alcon) (myristamidopropyl dimethylamine, MAPD)
are two biocides that are used commercially in a contact lens disinfecting
solution, namely Opti-Free Express (Alcon) multi-purpose disinfecting
solution. Their potential mechanisms of action were investigated
against a range of common ocular pathogens. These were Acanthamoeba
castellanii (trophozoites and cysts), Aspergillus
fumigatus, Candida albicans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens and Staphylococcus aureus. Methods: Three aspects were investigated: the
lethal effects of the biocides on the organisms, the leakage of
K+ from treated cells, and the lysis of spheroplasts
derived from the cells. Results: PQ-1 was found to have predominantly
antibacterial activity, and induced K+ leakage from
the bacteria and C. albicans. It also caused lysis
of spheroplasts of S. marcescens, but not those
of C. albicans. MAPD was active against all of
the organisms, but showed higher activity against the fungi and
amoeba. It induced K+ leakage from A.
fumigatus and C. albicans, and like PQ-1,
lysed the spheroplasts of S. marcescens but not C. albicans. Conclusions: The two biocides have different
spectra of antimicrobial activity. PQ-1 has mainly antibacterial
activity, whereas MAPD was active against all of the test organisms,
particularly the fungi.
Keywords: biocides, potassium leakage, spheroplast lysis
Aspects of the antimicrobial mechanisms of action
of a polyquaternium and an amidoamine
2 School
of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton,
UK
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  D. B. Vieira and A. M. Carmona-Ribeiro Cationic lipids and surfactants as antifungal agents: mode of action J. Antimicrob. Chemother., October 1, 2006; 58(4): 760 - 767. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. E. Codling, B. V. Jones, E. Mahenthiralingam, A. D. Russell, and J.-Y. Maillard Identification of genes involved in the susceptibility of Serratia marcescens to polyquaternium-1 J. Antimicrob. Chemother., August 1, 2004; 54(2): 370 - 375. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|