A novel high-throughput screening method for identifying compounds that inhibit plasmid conjugation.

Plasmid conjugation is an important contributing factor to the spread of antibiotic resistance among bacteria, posing a significant global health threat. Our method introduces an innovative high-throughput screening approach to identify compounds that inhibit or reduce conjugation, addressing the need for new strategies against the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Using Escherichia coli strains as donor and recipient, we screened 3500 compounds from a library provided by ABAC Therapeutics. Each 96 -well plate was loaded with 88 different compounds and bacterial cultures. Every plate also included negative and positive controls of conjugation. After an hour, cultures from wells were spotted on agar plates and assessed visually. Compounds that showed a visible effect on conjugation were retested. Six compounds targeting conjugation were found, showing promise for further analysis.
Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Domingo Gargallo-Viola is CEO at ABAC Therapeutics S.L. The company works on finding new pathogen-specific compounds with novel mechanisms of action. Domingo Gargallo-Viola has provided the compound library used for setting up the method described in this paper.
(© 2024 The Authors.)