Investigation of the in Vitro Antibacterial Effects of Statins

Abstract

It was previously shown that statins have anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and anti-oxidant effects. This study was aimed to investigate the in-vitro antibacterial effects of simvastatin and atorvastatin. In this study antibacterial activity of the statins were tested against 16 methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus oureus (MSSA), 16 methicillin-resistant S.oureu5 (MRSA), 16 methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Stophylococcus (MRCoNS), 9 vancomycin-susceptible Enterococcus faecium, 7 vancomycin-susceptible Enterococcus fGecaiis, 13 vancomycin-resistant Efaecium, 16 extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBIL) positive Escherichio coli, 16 Pseudomonos aeruginoso, 16 Acinetobacter boumannii, 15 ESBIL positive Klebsieflo prieumoniae, 6 Stenotrophomonas moltophilio by broth microdilution method according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) performance and interpretive guidelines. S.oureus ATCC 29213, S.aureus ATCC 25923, S.oureus ATCC 43300, Enterococcus faecofis ATCC 29212, K.pneumoniae ATCC 700603 and E.coli ATCC 35218 were tested as control strains. The results showed that minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for all isolates were > 128 mu g/mI for the two statins tested. However, MIC of simvastatin was 32 pg/ml for S.oureus ATCC 29213 and was 64 mu g/ml for S.oureus ATCC 25923 and Efoecolis ATCC 29212 and was > 128 mu g/ml for others, but MIC of atorvastatin was > 128 mu g/ml for all standard strains. According to these results, we observed that simvastatin and atorvastain had no significant antibacterial effect in vitro. In this study, although no antibacterial effect of statins were determined in vitro, further studies are needed to investigate the combined effect of statins with antibacterial agents in the living organism.