article · Metabolites
The widespread overuse of antibiotics has accelerated the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, creating an urgent global health challenge. To address this, essential oils extracted from the Moroccan Middle Atlas plants Origanum compactum and Origanum elongatum were analysed and evaluated for their antibacterial properties. Chemical profiling revealed distinct active constituents, including thymol, carvacrol, p-cymene, and (E)-caryophyllene. When tested against diverse Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, both oils demonstrated antibacterial activity, with Origanum compactum exhibiting the highest potency. Combining these plant extracts with common antibiotics, specifically ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, amoxicillin, and ampicillin, produced clear synergistic effects against multidrug-resistant strains. Complementary molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that key constituents such as thymol and (E)-caryophyllene form stable complexes with bacterial target proteins. These interactions likely enhance treatment efficacy by aiding target engagement or access, offering a viable strategy to restore the performance of conventional antibiotics.
Rising bacterial resistance to standard treatments threatens modern medicine by making common infections harder to cure. Identifying natural compounds that restore the efficacy of existing, widely available antibiotics offers a practical pathway to combat resistant pathogens. By partnering plant-derived compounds with standard pharmaceutical therapies, healthcare systems could potentially overcome multidrug resistance without relying exclusively on the discovery of entirely new classes of antibiotic molecules.
This research could support pharmaceutical developers seeking combination therapies or adjuvants that revitalise existing commercial antibiotics against resistant infections. The work sits at an early, laboratory-based discovery stage, relying on chemical characterisation, in vitro microbiological assays, and in silico molecular simulations. Significant preclinical development, including in vivo efficacy testing, toxicology profiling, and formulation stability work, will be required before any commercial or clinical application is feasible.
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The irrational use of antibiotics has favored the emergence of resistant bacteria, posing a serious threat to global health. To counteract antibiotic resistance, this research seeks to identify novel antimicrobials derived from essential oils that operate through several mechanisms. It aims to evaluate the quality and composition of essential oils from Origanum compactum and Origanum elongatum; test their antimicrobial activity against various strains; explore their synergies with commercial antibiotics; predict the efficacy, toxicity, and stability of compounds; and understand their molecular interactions through docking and dynamic simulations. The essential oils were extracted via hydrodistillation from the flowering tops of oregano in the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to examine their composition. Nine common antibiotics were chosen and tested alone or in combination with essential oils to discover synergistic effects against clinically important and resistant bacterial strains. A comprehensive in silico study was conducted, involving molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations (MD). O. elongatum oil includes borneol (8.58%), p-cymene (42.56%), thymol (28.43%), and carvacrol (30.89%), whereas O. compactum oil is mostly composed of γ-terpinene (22.89%), p-cymene (15.84%), thymol (10.21%), and (E)-caryophyllene (3.63%). With O. compactum proving to be the most potent, these essential oils showed antibacterial action against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Certain antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, amoxicillin, and ampicillin, have been shown to elicit synergistic effects. To fight resistant bacteria, the essential oils of O. compactum and O. elongatum, particularly those high in thymol and (E)-caryophyllene, seem promising when combined with antibiotics. These synergistic effects could result from their ability to target the same bacterial proteins or facilitate access to target sites, as suggested by molecular docking simulations. Molecular dynamics simulations validated the stability of the examined protein–ligand complexes, emphasizing the propensity of substances like thymol and (E)-caryophyllene for particular target proteins, opening the door to potentially effective new therapeutic approaches against pathogens resistant to multiple drugs.
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DOI: 10.3390/metabo14040210
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