On the antibacterial effects of manuka honey: mechanistic insights

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Author
Roberts, Aled Edward Lloyd
Brown, Helen Louise
Jenkins, Rowena
Date
2015-10-29Type
Article
Publisher
Dove press
ISSN
1179-7274
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasing clinical problem precipitated by the
inappropriate use of antibiotics in the later parts of the 20th Century. This problem, coupled with
the lack of novel therapeutics in the development pipeline, means AMR is reaching crisis point,
with an expected annual death rate of ten million people worldwide by 2050. To reduce, and
to potentially remedy this problem, many researchers are looking into natural compounds with
antimicrobial and/or antivirulence activity. Manuka honey is an ancient antimicrobial remedy
with a good track record against a wide range of nosocomial pathogens that have increased AMR.
Its inhibitory effects are the result of its constituent components, which add varying degrees
of antimicrobial efficacy to the overall activity of manuka honey. The antimicrobial efficacy of
manuka honey and some of its constituent components (such as methylglyoxal and leptosperin)
are known to bestow some degree of antimicrobial efficacy to manuka honey. Despite growing
in vitro evidence of its antimicrobial efficacy, the in vivo use of manuka honey (especially in a
clinical environment) has been unexpectedly slow, partly due to the lack of mechanistic data. The
mechanism by which manuka honey achieves its inhibitory efficacy has recently been identified
against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with both of these contrasting
organisms being inhibited through different mechanisms. Manuka honey inhibits S. aureus by
interfering with the cell division process, whereas P. aeruginosa cells lyse in its presence due to
the reduction of a key structural protein. In addition to these inhibitory effects, manuka honey
is known to reduce virulence, motility, and biofilm formation. With this increasing in vitro
dataset, we review the components and our mechanistic knowledge of manuka honey and how
manuka honey could potentially be utilized in the future to impact positively on the treatment
of microbial, resistant infections.
Journal/conference proceeding
Research and Reports in Biology
Citation
Roberts, A., Brown, H.L. & Jenkins, R. (2015) 'On the antibacterial effects of manuka honey: mechanistic insights', Research and Reports in Biology, 6, pp.215-224.
Description
This article was published in Research and Reports in Biology on 29 October 2015, available open access at https://dx.doi.org/10.2147/RRB.S75754
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