Corticosteroid-Antibiotic Interactions in Bacteria that Cause Corneal Infection

Purpose

Although a comprehensive knowledge of antibiotic/corticosteroid combinations is essential for the appropriate treatment of eye infections, the impact of their co-administration has not been well studied to date. A systematic pharmacodynamic/pharmacokinetic study to determine the effects of cotreatment with various antibiotics and corticosteroids was conducted.

Methods

Four bacterial strains, seven antibiotics, and four corticosteroids were used in the analyses. Drug interactions were evaluated by considering antibacterial effects with a checkerboard assay and intracellular concentrations in human corneal epithelial cells.

Results

The drug combinations that showed the most stable effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa was levofloxacin-prednisolone. Stable combinations against the three types of Gram-positive bacteria were neomycin-prednisolone, ofloxacin-dexamethasone, ofloxacin-prednisolone, and polymyxin-dexamethasone. The cellular concentrations were changed for the gatifloxacin-fluorometholone, moxifloxacin-fluorometholone, tobramycin-dexamethasone, and tobramycin-prednisolone combinations.

Conclusions

Loteprednol and fluorometholone reduced the antibacterial effects of all of the tested antibiotics in this study. Dexamethasone and prednisolone showed various effects in this regard, depending on the co-administered antibiotic. Prior knowledge of specific antibiotic/corticosteroid interactions provides valuable information to clinical practitioners by combining data on the antibacterial and intracellular uptake effects of their co-administration.

Translational Relevance

When using antibiotics and corticosteroids, drug combinations can be selected by referring to the results of this study.

Prospective pharmacological methodology for establishing and evaluating anti-cancer drug resistant cell lines

Background

Cell lines are often used to assess the resistance of anticancer drugs when in vivo analysis is not possible. However, the process for establishing anti-cancer drug resistance in cell cultures in vitro and the subsequent method of then evaluating resistance are not clearly established. Traditionally, the IC₅₀ is the most commonly used indicator of resistance evaluation but it cannot represent the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs in a clinical setting and lacks reliability because it is heavily affected by the cell doubling time. Hence, new indicators that can evaluate anti-cancer drug resistance are needed.

Methods

A novel resistance evaluation methodology was validated in this present study by establishing sunitinib resistance in renal cell carcinoma cells and assessing the cross-resistance of five different anti-cancer drugs.

Results

It was confirmed in this present study that the IC₅₀ does not reflect the cell proliferation rates in a way that represents anti-cancer drug resistance. An alternative indicator that can also be clinically meaningful when using in vitro cell line systems is GI₁₀₀. Additionally, the GR₁₀₀ allows different cell populations to be calibrated on the same basis when multiple experimental results are compared.

Conclusion

Since the GR₁₀₀ has properties that indicate the efficiency of anti-cancer drugs, both the efficacy and GR₁₀₀ of a particular anti-cancer drug can be used to effectively assess the resistance.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08784-7.

High SLC2A1 expression associated with suppressing CD8 T cells and B cells promoted cancer survival in gastric cancer

High expression of glucose transporter family members, which augment glucose uptake and glycolytic flux, has been shown to play a pivotal role in the proliferation and survival of tumor cells, contributing to the energy supply, biosynthesis and homeostasis of cancer cells. Among the many members, solute carrier family 2 member 1 (SLC2A1) encodes a glucose transporter, GLUT1, that is critical in the metabolism of glucose, which is an energy source for cell growth that contributes to cancer progression and development. The aim of this study was to analyze the survival and genetic changes/immune profiles in patients with gastric cancer with high SLC2A1 expression and to provide treatment for improving prognosis. This study investigated the clinicopathologic parameters, the proportion of immune cells and gene sets affecting SLC2A1 expression in 279 and 415 patients with gastric cancer from the Eulji Hospital cohort and The Cancer Genome Atlas, respectively. We assessed the response to conventional chemotherapy drugs, including fluorouracil, a compound of fluoropyrimidine S-1, oxaliplatin, and all−trans−retinoic acid (ATRA), in gastric cancer cell lines with high SLC2A1 expression. High SLC2A1 expression was associated with poor prognosis, cancer cell proliferation, decreased immune cells, including CD8 T cells and B cells, and a low prognostic nutrition index, representing body nutrition-related status. In pathway network analysis, SLC2A1 was indirectly linked to the retinoic signaling pathway and negatively regulated immune cells/receptors. In the drug response analysis, the drug ATRA inhibited gastric cancer cell lines with high SLC2A1 expression. Treatment involving the use of SLC2A1 could contribute to better clinical management/research for patients with gastric cancer.