Unnoticed physiology of an angiotensin II receptor antagonist: Antioxidant, antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities of the drug Telmisartan against catheterassociated urinary tract infectious agents

One of the most encountered hospital-acquired infections, the catheter-associated urinary tract infection
(CAUTI) is mostly linked to biofilm, making treatment critical resulting high rate of morbidity and mortality. As many of these infections are caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms, there is an urgent for alternative antimicrobial agents. Therefore, telmisartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker examined for its antimicrobial, and antibiofilm potentials against Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were predominantly reported organisms in CAUTIs.
The telmisartan antimicrobial study revealed efficient activity against all the test pathogens using the agar diffusion method and the least inhibitory concentrations of telmisartan needed to stop the colony formation of S. aureus and E. coli were seen to be 31.2 μg/ml also, P. aeruginosa and C. albicans as it was 62.5 μg/ml. The antibiofilm activities of telmisartan were investigated by crystal violet staining method and exposed excellent antibiofilm activity by biofilm inhibition of all test pathogens. In addition, telmisartan efficiently eradicated 89%, 90%, 89%, and 92% against P. aeruginosa, C. albicans, E. coli, S. aureus and, respectively, after treated with 3X MIC concentration and also, telmisartan coating catheter tube had excellent antimicrobial activity against test organisms in in vitro bladder model. Further, telmisartan had excellent antioxidant properties. So, the author suggests that telmisartan may be used as an alternative agent for CAUTI treatment after detailed studies.