The International Review of Antimicrobial Agents has published the results of a study carried out by French scientists on the anti-anaerobic activity of moxifloxacin.

Moxifloxacin is a new generation of fluorinated quinolones which differ from traditional antibiotics of this class in their improved activity against Gram-positive cocci and "atypical" pathogens while maintaining their activity against a wide range of Gram-negative bacteria. At the same time, the activity of moxifloxacin against clinically significant anaerobic microorganisms has not been sufficiently studied.

Researchers led by Dr. J. Behra-Miellet compared the in vitro activity of moxifloxacin and "classic" fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin), as well as clindamycin, metronidazole and antibiotics β-lactams (amoxicillin, amoxicillin / clavulan, ticarcillin / clavulanate, cefotetan and imipenem) against various types of anaerobic bacteria.

By dilution on agar (in accordance with the recommendations of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards - NCCLS, USA), the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of these antibiotics were determined for 159 clinical isolates of anaerobic bacteria and control strains of the American Type Cultures Collection - ATCC).

Unlike "classic" fluoroquinolones with weak or limited anti-anerobic activity, moxifloxacin has shown an in vitro activity against 76 strains of anaerobic microorganisms of the Bacteroides fragilis group (value IPC compared to 50% of the strains of the study population - IPC50 was 0.5 mg / l). The growth of anaerobic bacteria of the genera Porphyromonas, Prevotella, Fusobacterium and anaerobic Gram-positive cocci was suppressed in the presence of concentrations of moxifloxacin below 1 mg / L. At concentrations of 1, 2 and 4 mg / L, moxifloxacin inhibited the growth of 93.7%, 94.9% and 98% of the strains studied, respectively.

The results of the study showed that moxifloxacin is superior to aminopenicillins (amoxicillin) and carboxypenicillins (ticarcillin), cefotetan and clindamycin in in vitro activity compared to anaerobes, and is not not inferior to the other anti-anaerobic drugs studied - clavine ticarcillin / clavulanate, imipenem and metronidazole.

The in vitro data obtained suggest that moxifoxacin may be an effective drug for the treatment of anaerobic infections of various localizations, in particular respiratory tract infections and intra-abdominal infections.