Unexpected activity of bromiphen against prokaryotic and eukaryotic infectious agents

Control and prevention of infectious diseases are perpetual and global challenges above all when considering the increasing of antimicrobial resistance. To prevent infection spreading, disinfection and hygiene habits are crucial, especially when the microorganism can persist and survive on textiles, surfaces and medical devices1. Such measures become particularly relevant in healthcare-associated environments, to avoid that infections occur in patients under medical care. The WHO estimates that about 15% of all patients suffer from these infections, prolonging their hospital stay and worsening their underlying clinical condition. Nosocomial infections, which are due to different pathogens including bacteria, viruses and fungi, represent an important financial burden for health care systems. To support the extensive infection control programs already applied by the hospitals, there is an increasing demand for novel and improved disinfectants active against a wide range of potential pathogens. Cationic agents are an important class of antinfectives widely used for environmental infection control. In particular, quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are largely recognized as antiseptics and disinfectants. During our recent study2,3 regarding the stability of domiphen bromide, which belongs to the QACs family, p-bromo-domiphen bromide (bromiphen bromide) came out as by product due to the unpredictable reactivity of the parent compound. Surprisingly, the “undesired” bromiphen bromide showed a comparable, if not better, activity on bacteria respect to the domiphen bromide and a better activity on yeasts.