Investigating the Immunomodulatory Activities of Omadacycline

Background: Apart from their antimicrobial activities, some antibiotics have immunomodulatory effects on host cells, particularly monocytes. Because hyperactivation of the pro-inflammatory cytokine response contributes to acute lung injury in patients with bacterial pneumonia and other lung diseases, antimicrobial agents with immunomodulatory activity can reduce cytokine-mediated tissue injury and improve outcomes.

Objectives: Omadacycline has been recently FDA-approved for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia and acute bacterial skin and skin-structure infections. The present study investigated omadacycline's ability to modulate LPS-induced production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β), acute-phase reactants (IL-6) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10) by human monocytes in vitro.

Methods: Isolated human monocytes from healthy consenting adults were cultured in RPMI with 1% pooled human serum. Cells were pre-exposed to omadacycline (0.5-64 μg/mL), minocycline (25, 50 or 25 μg/mL) or azithromycin (20, 40 or 80 μg/mL) for 2 h, followed by stimulation with Escherichia coli LPS for 24 h. Cytokines elaborated in the culture supernatant were quantitated by multiplex immunoassay.

Results: Omadacycline dose-dependently suppressed LPS-induced production of all cytokines tested. Only high-dose minocycline (100 μg/mL) modestly suppressed TNF-α whereas minocycline significantly increased LPS-induced IL-1β production. Lower concentrations of minocycline were also stimulatory for IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-4. Except for suppression of IL-6, azithromycin was largely without effect.

Conclusions: Omadacycline has unique and broad immunomodulatory properties. Such activity supports its use in settings where hyperactivation of the immune response contributes to tissue injury and poor outcomes, especially at sites where pro-inflammatory M-type 1 macrophages dominate the cellular immune response.