Antibacterial antibiotic therapy has played an important role in the treatment of bacterial infections for almost a century. The increasing resistance of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics leads to an attempt to use previously neglected antibacterial therapies. Here we provide information on the two recombinantly modified antistaphylococcal enzymes derived from lysostaphin (LYSSTAPH-S) and endolysin (LYSDERM-S) derived from kayvirus 812F1 whose target sites reside in the bacterial cell wall. LYSSTAPH-S showed a stable antimicrobial effect over 24-h testing, even in concentrations lower than 1 µg/mL across a wide variety of epidemiologically important sequence types (STs) of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), especially in the stationary phase of growth (status comparable to chronic infections). LYSDERM-S showed a less potent antimicrobial effect that lasted only a few hours at concentrations of 15 μg/mL and higher. Our data indicate that these antimicrobial enzymes could be of substantial help in the treatment of chronic MRSA wound infections.

Clinical Immunology and Immunology of Infectious Diseases Veterinary Research Institute Brno Hudcova 70 62100 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Experimental Biology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kamenice 5 62500 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Microbiology St Anne's University Hospital Brno and Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Brno Pekařská 53 65691 Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences Veveří 97 60200 Brno Czech Republic

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