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Method Article

An inexpensive and easy-to-make customized antibiotics mix for mycobacterium culture

[version 1; peer review: 2 approved]
PUBLISHED 27 Apr 2018
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Abstract

The cultivation of mycobacteria often requires the use of several antibiotics to limit the growth of other rapidly growing micro-flora present in the growth medium. This antibiotic cocktail is one of the most expensive reagents required for mycobacterium culture. Here we present a customized antibiotics mix that is easy to prepare at a fraction of the cost of the commercially available antibiotic mixture that protects against transient flora, which are normally present in lungs, without affecting mycobacterial colony number.

Keywords

mycobacterium culture, antibiotics, customized antibiotics mix

Introduction

Mycobacteria are slow-growing organisms (Lambrecht et al., 1988); to obtain visible colonies their culture has to continue for several days. Often the fluid to be examined for mycobacterium contains many other microflora and growth of this microflora has to be limited to allow the mycobacterium to grow. For this purpose, a cocktail of antibiotics is used in the culturing of mycobacterium. This antibiotics cocktail is one of the most expensive reagents (INR 4500 per pack, sufficient for 3 l of media) required for mycobacteria culture. We have formulated a Customized Antibiotics Mix (CAM), which is a mixture of antibiotics, to inhibit or reduce the growth of other micro-organisms.

The CAM has the following antibiotic components. Polymyxin B is a mix of polymyxin B1 and B2, basic polypeptides obtained from strains of Bacillus polymyxa. Polymyxin B acts as a bactericidal against all Gram-negative bacilli except Proteus and Neisseria genera by binding with the cell membrane and increasing its permeability, changing its structure and causing a higher uptake of water, ultimately leading to cell death (Cardoso et al., 2007).

Amphotericin B is an antifungal drug first prepared from Streptomyces nodosus in 1955 (Donovick et al., 1955). This drug is also used to treat aspergillosis, blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, cryptococcosis and candidiasis. Amphotericin B causes the fungal cell to leak monovalent ions by binding with ergosterol, an integral part of fungal cell membrane, eventually causing fungal cell death (Mesa-Arango et al., 2012; O’Keeffe et al., 2003).

Nalidixic acid is a very weak organic acid used for the treatment of bacterial urinary tract infection such as Escherichia coli, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Proteus and Shigella. It is a synthetic quinolone antibiotic, which is a group of antibiotics that inhibit bacterial growth by selectively blocking the DNA replication of these bacteria. Hence, it is also used for the study of regulation of bacterial division (Pommier et al., 2010).

Trimethoprim is a synthetic antibacterial drug mainly used for the treatment of bladder infections. It typically targets species such as Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter species. This drug inhibits the DNA synthesis of bacteria, hindering the reduction of dihydrofolic acid to tetrahydrofolic acid, which is a key precursor in the thymidine kinase pathway (Brogden et al., 1982).

Azlocilin is a semisynthetic broad-spectrum antibiotic used against a number of Gram-positive and -negative bacteria. Azlocilin weakens the cell wall of the bacteria by binding to the penicillin-binding protein located inside the bacterial cell wall, which in turn inhibit the crosslinking of peptidoglycan (Sanders, 1983).

All of these aforementioned reagents are among those commonly used in antibiotics formulations for treating infections.

Methods

Preparation of CAM

For the preparation of CAM, the aforementioned commercially available antibiotic formulations were procured and their working stocks were prepared in water. From the working stock, the calculated amount volume of antibiotics were mixed. The details for the preparation of working stock and the final volume used for the preparation of 5 l Middlebrook 7H11 agar medium, sufficient for around 200 culture plates, are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Antibiotics and their concentration used for the preparation of CAM.

Serial
number
Antibiotics/Name of
commercial formulation
Concentration
of antibiotics
per pack
Concentration
of working
stock solution
Required amount
antibiotic for 5 l
agar media
Cost (INR) per
pack* (for 5 l
agar media)
Volume of
working stock
used for 5 l media
1.Polymyxin B/POLY-B™~500,000 IU
per 580 mg
3.5 mg/1000 µl30,000 IU1600/pack
(10)
1000 µl
2.Amphotericin B/AMPHOTRET™50 mg per pack10 mg/1000 µl3,000 µg300/pack
(60)
300 µl
3.Nalidixic acid/GramoNeg®500 mg per tab1 tab/10 ml12,000 µg25/10Tab
(2.5)
240 µl
4.Trimethoprim/Bactrim®160 mg per tab1 tab/10 ml3,000 µg20/10 Tab
(2)
187.5 µl
5.Azlocilin/Azenam1 g per pack10 mg/1000 µl3,000 µg650/pack
(6.5)
300 µl

*65 INR ≈ 1 USD.

Typically, one tablet each of nalidixic acid (GramoNeg®; Best laboratories Pvt. Ltd.) and Trimethoprim (Bactrim®; Piramal Enterprises Limited) tablets were dispersed in 10 ml water and kept on rocker shaker for 15–20 mins, the mixture was then centrifuged at 600g for 10 min. Supernatant was aspirated and used for the preparation of the CAM.

Required amounts (shown in Table 1) of Polymyxin B (POLY-BTM; Samarth Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.), Amphotericin B (AMPHOTRETTM; Bharat Serum and Vaccine Limited) and Azlocilin (Azenam; ARISTO Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd.) were weighed and dissolved in water. The CAM was prepared by mixing appropriate volumes of working stock solutions and was filtered through a 0.2-µm syringe filter.

Preparation of agar plates

A total of 105 g DifcoTM Mycobacteria 7H11 Agar (BD Biosciences, USA) was suspended in 4,500 ml water containing 25 ml glycerol. The medium was swirled on a hot magnetic plate to obtain a smooth suspension and autoclaved at 121°C for 15 min.

The medium was allowed to cool to 50–55°C in aseptic conditions. In the meantime, 25 g bovine serum albumin, 10 g dextrose, 15 mg catalase and 4.25 g sodium chloride (all Himedia, India) were dissolved in 500 ml water and filtered through a 0.2-µm filter. Next, 250 µl oleic acid (Himedia, India) was then added aseptically. This mix is commonly known as OADC (oleic acid, albumin, dextrose and catalase).

Ten vials of commercial BBLTM MGITTM PANTATM (BD-Panta) antibiotic mixture (Becton, Dickson and company, USA) was then added to 5 l media. In another preparation of media, the BBLTM MGITTM PANTATM was replaced with the CAM, formulated as aforementioned.

Mice immunization with BCG

To compare the efficacy of the two antibiotic mixes, eight female B57BL/6J mice of 4–6 weeks age, weighing 20–25 g were immunized with Mycobacterium bovis (BCG) by the aerogenic route to establish around 1,000–2,000 bacilli of BCG in each mouse (Bhaskar & Upadhyay, 2003). Mice were house in ventilated cages and fed with autoclaved acidified water and irradiated food ad libitum and were kept in 12 h light and 12 h dark conditions.

Use of animals in this investigation was approved by the Institutional animal ethical committee of National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi (IAEC#354/14).

Estimation of bacilli load

At every time point of day 1, 7, 14 and 30 post-immunization, two immunized mice were euthanized by an overdose of Ketamine and Xylazine given intraperitoneally. Typically, 35 mg ketamine and 3.5mg xylazine in 350 µl saline per mouse was used to euthanize a mouse.

Their lung and spleen were isolated aseptically and homogenized in 1 ml PBS using a tissue homogenizer (Polytron PT 1600E, Germany) at 30,000 rpm for 40 s. The homogenized mix was diluted 5 times in PBS and 100 µl diluted mix was spread on the aforementioned agar plates in triplicate.

At every time point the tissue homogenates were plated on media plates prepared using CAM and commercial BD-Panta antibiotic mixture.

Plates were incubated at 37°C for 4 weeks.

Statistical analysis

GraphPad Prism 7 software was used to calculate p-values by two-way ANOVA.

Results

After incubation, BCG colonies present on plates were counted, the results of which are shown in Figure 1. The data (Dataset 1) confirm that on prepared agar plates BCG was able to selectively grow from a complex micro-flora of the lung and spleen. Similar number of BCG colonies were observed on CAM plates and BD-PANTA plates; the differences between the two were statically insignificant (Figure 1).

1de604e5-5ada-49d9-9443-86d6615936a6_figure1.gif

Figure 1.

Mycobacterium bovis (BCG) colonies in the lung (A) and spleen (B) after immunization. At each indicated time point, the lung and spleen were isolated from immunized mice followed by single-cell suspension preparation and plating on 7H11 agar plates with Customized Antibiotic Mix (CAM) or BD-PANTA. The number of colonies were counted and compared between the two groups.

Bacilli count in 100�l of diluted tissue homogenate = plate count
Bacilli count in 100�l of tissue homogenate (before dilution) = plate count X 5
(Tissue homogenate was diluted 5 times.)
Bacilli count in whole (1000�l) of tissue homogenate = plate count X 5 X 10
Lung
Actual BCG colonies on plate1Calculated BCG bacilli countActual BCG colonies on plate2Calculated BCG bacilli countActual BCG colonies on plate3Calculated BCG bacilli count
Day 1
BD-PANTA32160022110018900
CAM221100291450271350
Day7
BD-PANTA371850221100221100
CAM432150311550241200
Day 14
BD-PANTA261300261300512550
CAM361800321600281400
Day 30
BD-PANTA32160028140010500
CAM281400281400231150
Spleen
Actual BCG colonies on plate1Calculated BCG bacilli countActual BCG colonies on plate2Calculated BCG bacilli countActual BCG colonies on plate3Calculated BCG bacilli count
Day 1
BD-PANTA00002100
CAM15015000
Day7
BD-PANTA150210000
CAM15015000
Day 14
BD-PANTA840000150
CAM3150315000
Day 30
BD-PANTA4200004200
Dataset 1.Number of BCG bacilli colony forming units (CFUs) on each plate from each experimental group.
The data show CFUs on each plate along with calculated bacilli load of the tissue.

Conclusions

The cost of above discussed customized antibiotics mix for preparing 5 l of agar media was around 80 INR (around 1.25 USD) which is almost 1/100th of the cost of commercially available antibiotic formulation for the purpose. This antibiotic mix is highly economical, easy to prepare and can significantly reduce the total cost involved in mycobacterium culture.

Data availability

Dataset 1. Number of BCG bacilli colony forming units (CFUs) on each plate from each experimental group. The data show CFUs on each plate along with calculated bacilli load of the tissue. http://dx.doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.14467.d201182 (Kesarwani et al., 2018).

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Kesarwani A, Nagpal P, Mishra A et al. An inexpensive and easy-to-make customized antibiotics mix for mycobacterium culture [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2018, 7:507 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.14467.1)
NOTE: If applicable, it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
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Open Peer Review

Current Reviewer Status: ?
Key to Reviewer Statuses VIEW
ApprovedThe paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested
Approved with reservations A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.
Not approvedFundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions
Version 1
VERSION 1
PUBLISHED 27 Apr 2018
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14
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Reviewer Report 04 Jun 2018
Bhupendra Singh, Division of Microbiology, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India 
Approved
VIEWS 14
The authors have addressed a very pertinent issue of growing mycobacterial culture using a customized cocktail of commonly available antibiotics instead of commercially available expensive antibiotics (PANTA), presently in use. They have performed whole experiments in a very simple way ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Singh B. Reviewer Report For: An inexpensive and easy-to-make customized antibiotics mix for mycobacterium culture [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2018, 7:507 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.15748.r34517)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.
Views
16
Cite
Reviewer Report 09 May 2018
Amit Singh, Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 
Approved
VIEWS 16
This is a very simple paper based on common microbiological techniques. Authors have taken a few common antibiotics and made a cocktail which is cost-effective and gave results comparable to the existing commercially available antibiotics (PANTA). Experiments are planned well, appropriately described, ... Continue reading
CITE
CITE
HOW TO CITE THIS REPORT
Singh A. Reviewer Report For: An inexpensive and easy-to-make customized antibiotics mix for mycobacterium culture [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2018, 7:507 (https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.15748.r33548)
NOTE: it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Version 1
VERSION 1 PUBLISHED 27 Apr 2018
Comment
Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:
Approved - the paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested
Approved with reservations - A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.
Not approved - fundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions
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