Antimicrobials

Topical Antimicrobials in Wounds

Wounds are a major cause of morbidity especially diabetic foot wounds. Topical antimicrobials are frequently used in day to day practice mainly in management of wounds by various healthcare professionals ranging from general practitioner to specialist surgeons. However lot of controversies exists regarding the usage of antimicrobials. This article provides an insight on the usage of various com...

Endolysins as antimicrobials.

Peptidoglycan (PG) is the major structural component of the bacterial cell wall. Bacteria have autolytic PG hydrolases that allow the cell to grow and divide. A well-studied group of PG hydrolase enzymes are the bacteriophage endolysins. Endolysins are PG-degrading proteins that allow the phage to escape from the bacterial cell during the phage lytic cycle. The endolysins, when purified and exp...

Antimicrobials Study Tour: Holland

Food Antimicrobials Nanocarriers

Natural food antimicrobials are bioactive compounds that inhibit the growth of microorganisms involved in food spoilage or food-borne illness. However, stability issues result in degradation and loss of antimicrobial activity. Nanoencapsulation allows protection of antimicrobial food agents from unfavorable environmental conditions and incompatibilities. Encapsulation of food antimicrobials con...

Antimicrobials, Stress and Mutagenesis

Cationic antimicrobial peptides are ancient and ubiquitous immune effectors that multicellular organisms use to kill and police microbes whereas antibiotics are mostly employed by microorganisms. As antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) mostly target the cell wall, a microbial 'Achilles heel', it has been proposed that bacterial resistance evolution is very unlikely and hence AMPs are ancient 'weapons'...