In Vitro Activity of Quaternary Ammonium Surfactants against Streptococcal, Chlamydial, and Gonococcal Infective Agents.

ABSTRACT: Quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC) are widely used, cheap, and chemically stable disinfectants and topical antiseptics with wide-spectrum antimicrobial activities. Within this group of compounds, we recently showed that there are significant differences between the pharmacodynamics of n-alkyl quaternary ammonium surfactants (QAS) with a short (C12) alkyl chain when in vitro toxicities toward bacterial and mammalian epithelial cells are compared. These differences result in an attractive therapeutic window that justifies studying short-chain QAS as prophylactics for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and perinatal vertically transmitted urogenital infections (UGI). We have evaluated the antimicrobial activities of short-chain (C12) n-alkyl QAS against several STI and UGI pathogens as we

SUBMITTER: Inacio AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4879390 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature