Resistance to antibacterial agents is a global health problem and has made many existing antibiotics less effective in the treatment of infections for which they were effective. Gemifloxacin is a third generation fluoroquinolone and recommended for the treatment of respiratory tract infections.
This study was aimed at investigating possible repositioning of gemifloxacin for urinary tract bacterial infections. In achieving this, the study evaluated and compared the antibacterial activity of gemifloxacin with ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and norfloxacin against clinical bacterial isolates obtained from urine samples of patients with urinary tract infection.
The minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) evaluations were employed for the comparative studies and zones of inhibition assay were further used to determine the antibacterial activity of gemifloxacin. For the MIC evaluations, final nutrient agar concentrations of 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30µg/ml of gemifloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and norfloxacin were used. For the zones of inhibition assay, 0.2ml of the MICs (7.5, 10, 15, 25 and 30 µg/ml) of gemifloxacin against particular bacterium was used.
The results indicated that the MICs of gemifloxacin were 7.5µg/ml for Proteus vulgaris, 10µg/ml for Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter aerogenes, 15µg/ml for E. coli, 20µg/ml for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 25µg/ml for Klebsiella pneumonia and 30µg/ml for Alcaligenes faecalis and Serratia marcescens. The clinical isolates were most sensitive to ofloxacin with MICs of 7.5µg/ml for Proteus vulgaris and 10µg/ml for the other isolates. The isolates were least susceptible to norfloxacin with MICs of 10µg/ml for Proteus vulgaris and 30µg/ml for the other isolates.
The results showed that the clinical isolates were most sensitive to ofloxacin followed by gemifloxacin, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin respectively.
In conclusion, although gemifloxacin is not currently strongly recommended for urinary tract infections, this study has shown that it possesses antibacterial activity against the clinical isolates obtained from urine samples of patients with urinary tract infections and could have a place in the treatment of urinary tract infections caused by the organisms.
