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Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans

Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is predicted to increase to almost 158 million cases annually by 2030. Extensive self-diagnosis and easily accessible over-the-counter (OTC) fungistatic drugs contribute to antifungal-resistance, illustrating the need for novel therapies. Honey possesses mul...

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Autores principales: Hermanns, Renée, Cremers, Niels A.J., Leeming, John P., van der Werf, Esther T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6787731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31505796
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof5030085
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author Hermanns, Renée
Cremers, Niels A.J.
Leeming, John P.
van der Werf, Esther T.
author_facet Hermanns, Renée
Cremers, Niels A.J.
Leeming, John P.
van der Werf, Esther T.
author_sort Hermanns, Renée
collection PubMed
description Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is predicted to increase to almost 158 million cases annually by 2030. Extensive self-diagnosis and easily accessible over-the-counter (OTC) fungistatic drugs contribute to antifungal-resistance, illustrating the need for novel therapies. Honey possesses multiple antimicrobial mechanisms, and there is no antimicrobial resistance towards honey reported. We evaluated the susceptibility of five clinical isolates of Candida albicans and a control strain to regular honey and a medical grade honey (MGH) gel formulation (L-Mesitran, containing 40% honey and vitamins C and E) using an adapted version of the EUCAST protocol at pH 5.2, 4.6, and 4.0. 40% regular honey did not kill or inhibit C. albicans. In contrast, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of L-Mesitran was 25%–50%, while fungicidal effects occurred at a 50% concentration (MBC) of the MGH formulation, except for one strain which was not killed at pH 4.0. Overall, pH had little effect on antimicrobial activity. MGH formulation L-Mesitran has antimicrobial activity against C. albicans over a relevant pH range. The vitamin supplements or other components of L-Mesitran may enhance the antifungal activity of the honey. This study supports performing clinical trials for conditions, such as RVVC, to find an alternative to available OTC fungistatic drugs.
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spelling pubmed-67877312019-10-16 Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans Hermanns, Renée Cremers, Niels A.J. Leeming, John P. van der Werf, Esther T. J Fungi (Basel) Brief Report Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is predicted to increase to almost 158 million cases annually by 2030. Extensive self-diagnosis and easily accessible over-the-counter (OTC) fungistatic drugs contribute to antifungal-resistance, illustrating the need for novel therapies. Honey possesses multiple antimicrobial mechanisms, and there is no antimicrobial resistance towards honey reported. We evaluated the susceptibility of five clinical isolates of Candida albicans and a control strain to regular honey and a medical grade honey (MGH) gel formulation (L-Mesitran, containing 40% honey and vitamins C and E) using an adapted version of the EUCAST protocol at pH 5.2, 4.6, and 4.0. 40% regular honey did not kill or inhibit C. albicans. In contrast, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of L-Mesitran was 25%–50%, while fungicidal effects occurred at a 50% concentration (MBC) of the MGH formulation, except for one strain which was not killed at pH 4.0. Overall, pH had little effect on antimicrobial activity. MGH formulation L-Mesitran has antimicrobial activity against C. albicans over a relevant pH range. The vitamin supplements or other components of L-Mesitran may enhance the antifungal activity of the honey. This study supports performing clinical trials for conditions, such as RVVC, to find an alternative to available OTC fungistatic drugs. MDPI 2019-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6787731/ /pubmed/31505796 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof5030085 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Brief Report
Hermanns, Renée
Cremers, Niels A.J.
Leeming, John P.
van der Werf, Esther T.
Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans
title Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans
title_full Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans
title_fullStr Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans
title_full_unstemmed Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans
title_short Sweet Relief: Determining the Antimicrobial Activity of Medical Grade Honey Against Vaginal Isolates of Candida albicans
title_sort sweet relief: determining the antimicrobial activity of medical grade honey against vaginal isolates of candida albicans
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6787731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31505796
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof5030085
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