The in
vitro Antibacterial Activity of Enrofloxacin-Trimethoprim
Combination against Five Bacterial species
Myung-Jin Choi, Sileshi Belew Yohannes, Seung-Jin
Lee, Dereje Damte, Md. Ahsanur Reza, Man-Hee Rhee, Tae-Han Kim and
Seung-Chun Park*
Laboratory of
Veterinary Pharmacokinetics & Pharmacodynamics, College of
Veterinary Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701,
Korea *Corresponding author:
parksch@knu.ac.kr
Abstract
The aim of the current study was to
investigate the combination effect of enrofloxacin and trimethoprim by their inhibitory and bactericidal activities against five
bacterial species (E. coli,
P. hemolytica,
S. aureus, S. cholerasuis
and a field isolate S. typhimurium.
Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration
(MBC), fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) and time killing rate were
performed using these isolates. Both antibiotics has shown similar MIC ranging
from equal to 3 fold dilutions difference for each of the bacteria tested except
for E.coli where enrofloxacin has shown better activity with more than ten fold dilutions less than trimethoprim. The
fractional inhibitory concentration index from the results of checkerboard for
enrofloxacin and trimethoprim showed a synergistic effect for P. hemolytica and S. typhimurium (field
isolate), while no difference was observed for the remaining tested bacteria. In
the combination of the two antibiotics with different ratios, compared to the
MICs of the two antibiotics tested alone, the concentration of the two
antibiotics in the combination has shown a 2-8 fold reduction against all
bacteria tested. Furthermore, as the concentrations of
enrofloxacin increase and
trimethoprim decrease the minimum
inhibitory concentrations for E. coli, P. hemolytica and S. aureus has shown a
decrease. The other two bacteria didn’t show any change. Although all the combined ratios had similar MIC and MBC values compared
to MIC and MBC tested alone, the concentration of each antibiotic in the
combined ratios was lower by more than ten-fold compared to the MIC and MBC alone for both antibiotics. The time
kill rate study for the antibiotics alone or in combination against
E.coli and
S. aureus had revealed higher inhibitions of bacterial growth with a
difference of 2-4 log cfu/ml bacteria by the combination antibiotics after 12
hrs of incubation than tested alone. In summary, combination therapy with these
two antibiotics may serve additive to synergistic effect and broad spectrum
activity against the tested bacteria.