View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 07provided February by 2012 Frontiers - Publisher Connector doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2012.00036 Mechanism of honey bacteriostatic action against MRSA and VRE involves hydroxyl radicals generated from honey’s hydrogen peroxide Katrina Brudzynski 1,2* and Robert Lannigan3 1 API-Medicals, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada 3 Department of Clinical Microbiology, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada Edited by: It has been recently reported that honey hydrogen peroxide in conjunction with unknown Mirian A. F.Hayashi, Universidade honey components produced cytotoxic effects resulting in bacterial growth inhibition and Federal de São Paulo, Brazil DNA degradation. The objective of this study was twofold: (a) to investigate whether the Reviewed by: Atte Von Wright, University of Eastern coupling chemistry involving hydrogen peroxide is responsible for a generation of hydroxyl • Finland, Finland radicals and (b) whether OH generation affects growth of multi-drug resistant clinical Charles Knapp, University of isolates. The susceptibility of five different strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Strathclyde, UK aureus (MRSA) and four strains of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) iso- *Correspondence: lates from infected wounds to several honeys was evaluated using broth microdilution Katrina Brudzynski, Department of Biological Sciences, Brock University, assay. Isolates were identified to genus and species and their susceptibility to antibiotics ® ® 500 Glenridge Avenue, St. Catharines, was confirmed using an automated system (Vitek , Biomérieux ). The presence of the ON, Canada L2S 3A1. mec(A) gene, nuc gene and van(A) and (B) genes were confirmed by polymerase chain e-mail:
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