Susceptibility of Prevotella intermedia/Prevotella nigrescens (and Porphyromonas gingivalis) to propolis (bee glue) and other antimicrobial agents

Black-pigmented gram-negative anaerobes such as Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia are suspected pathogens in adult periodontitis, whereas Prevotella nigrescens has been associated with health. Antimicrobial resistance among bacteria from this group has been reported in the past decade. This research aimed to evaluate and compare the susceptibility profile of 17 P. intermedia/P. nigrescens isolates recovered from patients with periodontitis and three reference strains to six antimicrobials, prescribed in dentistry in Brazil, and propolis (bee glue). The antimicrobial agents tested were tetracycline, penicillin, clindamycin, erythromycin, metronidazole, meropenem and six ethanolic extracts of propolis (EEPs) from Brazil. The reference strains P. gingivalis ATCC 33277 and P. intermedia ATCC 25611 were used for determination of minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and for time-kill assay to the EEPs. All of the strains were susceptible to penicillin, erythromycin, meropenem, metronidazole and 95% of them (n=19) to tetracycline. Thirty six percent (n=7) of the P. intermedia/P. nigrescens strains tested were resistant to clindamycin. As for propolis activity, all strains were susceptible and the minimum inhibitory concentration values ranged from 64 to 256 microg/mL. For the reference strains P. gingivalis ATCC 33277 and Prevotella intermedia ATCC 25611 the MBC was 256 microg/mL and death was observed within 3 h of incubation for P. gingivalis and within 6 h for P. intermedia. The action of propolis (bee glue) against suspected periodontal pathogens suggests that it may be of clinical value.