Effectiveness of Plasmocure™ in Elimination of Mycoplasma Species From Contaminated Cell Cultures: A Comparative Study Versus Other Antibiotics

Objective: mycoplasmas spp. is among major contaminants of eukaryotic cell cultures. they cause a wide range of problems associated with cell culture in biology research centers or biotechnological companies. mycoplasmas are also resistant to several antibiotics. plasmocin™ has been used to treat cell lines but plasmocin™-resistant strains have been reported. invivogen has developed a new anti-mycoplasma agent called plasmocure™ in order to eliminate resistant mycoplasma contamination. the aim of this study was the selection of the best antibiotics for treatment of mycoplasma in cell cultures. materials and methods: in this experimental study, a total of 100 different mammalian cell lines contaminated with different mycoplasma species were evaluated by microbiological culture (as the gold standard method), indirect dna fluorochrome staining, enzymatic (mycoalert™), and universal or species-specific polymerase chain reaction (pcr) detection methods. in this study, animal and human cell lines available in national cell bank of iran, were treated with plasmocure™. the treatment efficacy and cytotoxicity of plasmocure™ were compared with those of commonly used antibiotics such as bmcyclin, plasmocin™, mycorazor™, sparfloxacin and enrofloxacin. results: plasmocure™ is comprised of two antibiotics that act through various mechanisms of action than those in plasmocin™. two-week treatment with plasmocure™ was enough to completely eliminate mycoplasma spp. a moderate toxicity was observed during mycoplasma treatment with plasmocure™; but, after elimination of mycoplasma, cells were fully recovered. mycoplasma infections were eliminated by plasmocure™, bm-cyclin, plasmocin™, mycorazor™, sparfloxacin and enrofloxacin. however, the outcome of the treatment process (i.e. the frequency of complete cure, regrowth or cell death) varied among different antibiotics. conclusion: the highest number of cured cell lines was achieved by using plasmocure™ which also had the lowest regrowth rate after a period of four months. as a conclusion; plasmocure™ might be considered an effective antibiotic to treat mycoplasma infections in mammalian cell cultures especially for precious or vulnerable cells.