Iqbal Ahmad

Aligarh Muslim University | AMU · Department of Agricultural Microbiology

Antimicrobial resistance can arise in the natural environment via prolonged exposure to the effluent released by manufacturing facilities. In addition to antibiotics, pharmaceutical plants also produce non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals, both the active ingredients and other components of the formulations. The effect of these on the surrounding microbi...

DNA, vital for biological processes, encodes hereditary data for protein synthesis, shaping cell structure and function. Since revealing its structure, DNA has become a target for various therapeutically vital molecules, spanning antidiabetic to anticancer drugs. These agents engage with DNA-associated proteins, DNA-RNA hybrids, or bind directly to...

Multidrug resistance patterns of Acinetobacter spp. have led to their emergence as an important source of nosocomial infections. This study investigated the prevalence and clinical characteristics of Acinetobacter spp. in hospital-acquired wound and urinary tract infections. A total of 432 samples [wound swabs (210) and urine samples (222)] were an...

Drug efflux pumps contribute to bacterial multidrug resistance (MDR), reducing antibiotic effectiveness and causing treatment failures. Besides their role in MDR, efflux pumps also assist in the transportation of quorum sensing (QS) signal molecules and increased the tolerance of biofilms. Recently, the search for efflux pump inhibitors from natura...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a condition in which the efficacy of antimicrobial drugs in fighting microorganisms is reduced, has become a global challenge. Multidrug resistance (MDR) has been developing in microorganisms, where they can resist multiple medications. In particular, there has been a rise in MDR as well as extensively drug-resistant...

Biotechnology is one of the emerging fields that can add new and better application in a wide range of sectors like health care, service sector, agriculture, and processing industry to name some. This book will provide an excellent opportunity to focus on recent developments in the frontier areas of Biotechnology and establish new collaborations in...

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) arises when microorganisms develop resistance to formerly effective medications. This poses a significant global threat, impacting healthcare systems and economies. AMR leads to severe illnesses, prolonged hospitalizations, and increased costs, with millions affected annually, particularly those with chronic condition...

Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria are the leading cause of high morbidity and mortality in humans globally. The majority of such pathogens has gained the status of multidrug resistance and requires the development of new anti-pathogenic agent. Moringa oleifera is a widely distributed and quickly proliferating medicinal plant, making it an easy sour...

Please cite this article as: Zarrin Haris , Iqbal Ahmad , Evaluation of antioxidant-rich bioactive plant extracts with special reference to Moringa oleifera Lam. for their interference to bacterial quorum sensing and biofilm, Phytomedicine Plus (2023), doi: https://doi. 2 Graphical Abstract Evaluation of antioxidant-rich bioactive plant extracts wi...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a critical global health challenge. Infections, particularly those caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, rank among the top causes of human mortality worldwide. Pseudomonas aeruginosa occupies a prominent position among pathogens responsible for opportunistic infections in humans. P. aeruginosa sta...

The development of antibiotic resistant microbial pathogens has become a global health threat and a major concern in modern medicine. The problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has majorly arisen due to sub‐judicious use of antibiotics in health care and livestock industry. A slow progress has been made in last two decades in discovery of new an...

Antimicrobial resistance can arise in the natural environment via prolonged exposure to the effluent surrounding manufacturing facilities. These facilities also produce non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals, and the effect of these on the surrounding microbial communities is less clear; whether they have inherent toxicity, or whether long-term exposure mi...

Introduction Although Sumra and Sidr Saudi honey is widely used in traditional medicine due to its potent activity, it is unknown whether its prolonged usage has impact upon bacterial virulence or leading to reduced antibiotic sensitivity. Thus, the study aims to investigate the effect of prolonged (repeated) in-vitro exposure to Saudi honey on the...

In last two decades, the world has seen an exponential increase in the antimicrobial resistance (AMR), making the issue a serious threat to human health. The mortality caused by AMR is one of the leading causes of human death worldwide. Till the end of the twentieth century, a tremendous success in the discovery of new antibiotics was seen, but in...

Dear Colleagues, As an editor & on behalf of co-editors, I am pleased to invite you and your colleagues to contribute the chapters for upcoming edited book on “Bacterial pathogens in different foods and their environment: Detection, management, challenges and solutions’’ to be published by Springer Nature (Singapore). With your research expertise...

Drought stress substantially impedes crop productivity throughout the world. Microbial based approaches have been considered a potential possibility and are under study. Based on our prior screening examination, two distinct and novel biofilm-forming PGPR strains namely Bacillus subtilis-FAB1 and Pseudomonas azotoformans-FAP3 are encompassed in thi...

Hospital acquired-Staphylococcus aureus (HA-Staphylococcus aureus), particularly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are an important source of nosocomial infections with high morbidity and mortality rates. Few reports showed that infections due to HA-Staphylococcus aureus in Saudi Arabia is increasing, particularly infections attri...

Staphylococcus aureus is commensal and human pathogen both. The bacterium is one of the most common causes of food borne infections also in all over the world. C. copticum (Ajwain) is an aromatic spice used as a medicinal plant from ancient time for treating different human diseases including infectious diseases. The highest anti-staphylococcal act...

Emerging and re-emerging zoonoses of diverse etiologies have caused significant morbidity and mortality recently. In the past two decades, several viral zoonoses, such as Bird flu, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Hantavirus infection, Nipah virus disease, Rift Valley fever, Swine flu, West Nile fever, SARS, MERS, COVID-19 etc., have emerged from different...

Several microbes inhabit soil environments either in planktonic or biofilm mode of life style by creating a protective layer to their host. Biofilms is a conglomeration, assemblage and cluster of microbial cells sheathed by self-producing extra polymeric substances in a matrix. In the natural environments, the biofilms state of life are frequently...

Exopolysaccharides (EPSs) are novel functional additives for low-fat yogurt. Pharmaceutical, medical, and food industries are using more LAB-based EPSs. In this study, Leuconostoc spp. was used to produce ninth bacterial EPSs in a modified molasses medium. Production of EPSs was concentration-dependent on all stains and the highest yield was obtain...

Milk is a putrescible commodity that is extremely prone to microbial contamination. Primarily, milk and dairy products are believed to be easily contaminated by pathogenic microorganisms, including Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus. The microbiological quality of raw milk and dairy products regarding foodborne patho...

Multidrug resistance (MDR) in pathogenic bacteria have become a major clinical issue. Quorum sensing regulated bacterial virulence is a promising key drug target for MDR infections. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to assess the anti-quorum sensing properties of selected medicinal plants against bacterial pathogens as well in silico inter...

To explore the prevalence of multidrug-resistant community-associated uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) and their virulence factors in Western Saudi Arabia. A total of 1,000 urine samples were examined for the presence of E. coli by selective plating on MacConkey, CLED, and sheep blood agar. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were determined...

Proteus mirabilis is a specific opportunistic pathogen of many infections including urinary tract infections (UTIs). Risk factors are linked with the acquisition of multidrug-resistant (MDR) to 3 or more classes of antimicrobials) strains. The resistance in extended-spectrum alpha-lactamase is rare, but the rising resistance in extended-spectrum be...

Multiple drug resistance (MDR) in bacteria has increased globally in recent times. This has reduced the efficacy of antibiotics and increasing the rate of therapeutic failure. Targeting efflux pump by natural and synthetic compounds is one of the strategies to develop an ideal broad-spectrum resistance-modifying agent. Very few inhibitors of AcrB f...

Global emergence and persistence of the multidrug-resistant microbes have created a new problem for management of diseases associated with infections. The development of antimicrobial resistance is mainly due to the sub-judicious and unprescribed used of antimicrobials both in healthcare and the environment. Biofilms are important due to their role...

Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) is emerging as a better alternative to traditional chemical-based techniques. During this study, extracts of different marine algae species Ulva rigida (green algae), Cystoseira myrica (brown Algae), and Gracilaria foliifera (red Algae) were utilized as reducing and capping agents to synthesize AuNPs. AuNP...

The global emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) within bacterial species have reached an alarming stage. These drug resistant bacteria are often resistant to variety of antimicrobial drugs and hence, referred to as multidrug resistant (MDR). The problem from drug resistant bacteria is not only the matter of concern for human healt...

The fungal biofilm-based infections are resistant to the most of currently available antifungal medications and affect many people worldwide. The pathogenicity of invasive fungal infection is usually accompanied by increased adhesion and the development of complex biofilms. Despite the development of several antifungal drugs that target the fungal...

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the global threats to human health and requires immediate attention. Biofilms associated bacterial infections are difficult to combat with existing antimicrobial therapy. Problematic group of bacterial pathogens such as ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter bauma...

Natural products as antibiofilm agents have been increasingly reported for their promising application in different clinical and environmental settings. However, present crises are mainly dealing with pathogenic biofilms and its control strategy in clinical settings. Medicinal plants are traditionally used in the treatment of various ailments inclu...

Infectious diseases are still one of the leading causes of human mortality and morbidity across the globe. Among bacteria, emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally has threatens the successful treatment of infectious diseases. The continuous emergence of new types of resistant bacterial pathogens have decreased the efficacy o...

Purpose Rhizospheric soil fungi are critical for plant and soil health. However, their multiple functional traits and impact on plant growth have not been systematically explored. Methods During this study, biochemical traits of 73 indigenous soil fungal isolates and 15 unidentified isolates related to plant growth promotion and production of extr...

The global rise in antimicrobial resistance and lack of discovery of new antimicrobials have created serious concerns. Targeting quorum sensing (QS) and biofilms of pathogenic bacteria is considered a promising approach in antimicrobial drug discovery. This study explored the inhibitory effect of plumbagin against biofilms and QS of Chromobacterium...

Imprudent and overuse of clinically relevant antibiotics in agriculture, veterinary, and medical settings contribute to the global epidemic scenario of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). There is a growing concern among researchers and stakeholders that the environment has been implicated as an AMR reservoir and plays a key role in the dissemination o...

Ever increasing spread of drug resistance among bacterial pathogens have rendered the current antibiotic therapy ineffective. Drug-resistant urinary tract infections caused by Gram negative bacterial pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Serratia marcescens are considered more severe and life threa...

Quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm inhibition are recognized as the novel drug targets for the broad-spectrum anti-infective strategy to combat the infections caused by drug-resistant bacterial pathogens. Many compounds from medicinal plants have been found to demonstrate anti-infective activity. However, broad-spectrum anti-QS and antibiofilm efficac...

There has been tremendous spread of antimicrobial resistance globally, mainly due to the excessive and unnecessary use of antibiotics, making the situation alarming. This has created a need for the development of alternative strategies to selectively target the bacterial pathogenicity without exerting selection pressure for the development of antim...

The intensive use of antimicrobial agents has led to the emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR) among microbial pathogens. Such microbial (MDR) infections become more problematic in chronic diseases in which the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents is highly reduced. To combat the problem of drug resistance, inhibition of bacterial quorum sensing (...

Breast cancer (BC) is a leading cause of cancer deaths in women in less developed countries and the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the U.S. In this study, we report the inhibition of E2-mediated mammary tumorigenesis by Cuminum cyminum (cumin) administered via the diet as cumin powder, as well as dried ethanolic extract. Groups of...

We report in this study for the first time the prevalence of multiple resistant Staphylococcus haemolyticus in clinical settings in Saudi Arabia. A total of 1060 clinical specimens of hospitalized patients were screened for the presence of S. haemolyticus in the period between September and December 2020. Primary identification of the isolates was...

Plastic materials have become a necessity of human life especially in the packaging of food commodities and biomedical procedures. Bioplastic is emerging as an effective alternative to fossil oil-based materials to avoid the environmental hazards of the plastic industry. During this study, chicken feathers were used as a substrate to isolate kerati...

Piper nigrum is a widely used plant in traditional remedies and known for its numerous biological properties. However, fraction-based antioxidant activity and their antimutagenic potential are not yet fully investigated. Different extracts of the seeds P. nigrum were obtained by sequential extraction in different solvents. All extracts were evaluat...

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among bacterial pathogens have created a global threat to human health and the environment. Targeting the quorum sensing (QS) linked virulent traits of bacteria is considered to be a novel approach for addressing the problem of AMR. In this study, green synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgN...

Advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) are the final product of glycation, highly reactive in nature and contribute directly or indirectly to numerous complications related to diabetes. In this study, the antiglycation activity of glyburide was investigated using HSA as model protein, both against glucose and methylglyoxal mediated glycation. The po...

Microbial biofilms have emerged as a compelling research and development topic due to their significance in agriculture, industry, health care, and management of environmental stressors. Innovative approaches using biochemical and molecular tools have advanced our understanding of biofilm development and its structural analysis. Research on microbi...

Diabetes and its related complications are responsible for severe morbidity and deaths round the globe. Diabetic foot infections (DFIs) are severe and dreadful complication of diabetes mellitus. DFI/DFUs are colonized with numerous pathogenic, multi-drug-resistant microorganisms and progression in colonization of these microorganism leads to biofil...

Drought ranks among the most severe environmental stressors that adversely affect crop productivity. Use of stress-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is expected to ameliorate the drought stress in plants. Therefore, in this study, a novel strain, Pseudomonas azotoformans FAP5 with multifunctional traits was obtained from screenin...

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen that may cause a wide range of infections and is a frequent cause of soft tissue and bloodstream infections. It is a successful pathogen due to its collective virulence factors and its ability to evade the host immune systems. The review aims to highlight how S. aureus destroys and damage the host cel...

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This study evaluates the impact of two separate incubation periods (4 and 6 weeks) on the morphology of sol−gel-fabricated ZnO nanospikes (ZNs), that is, ZN1 and ZN2, respectively. We further analyzed the inhibitory effects of ZN1 and ZN2 on quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1) and Chromobacterium violaceum (st...

In vitro eradication of the C. albicans and S. mutans mixed biofilms by eugenol alone and in combination with the antimicrobial drugs. Previously characterized strains of C. albicans (CAJ-01 and CAJ-12) and S. mutans MTCC497 were used to evaluate the eradication of biofilms using XTT reduction assay, viability assay, time dependent killing assay an...

Acidobacteria represents an underrepresented soil bacterial phylum whose members are pervasive and copiously distributed across nearly all ecosystems. Acidobacterial sequences are abundant in soils and represent a significant fraction of soil microbial community. Being recalcitrant and difficult-to-cultivate under laboratory conditions, holistic, p...

Food producing animals harbouring bacteria carrying drug resistance genes especially the metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) pose high risk for the human population. In addition, formation of biofilm by these drug resistant pathogens represents major threat to food safety and public health. In this study, metallo-β-lactamases (MβLs) producing Pseudomonas...

Probiotics are live microorganisms or bacterial cultures that can have beneficial effects for the host when ingested. Probiotics must survive stressful conditions of the gastrointestinal tract by tolerating acid, bile, and gastric enzymes and must adhere to intestinal epithelial cells to colonize the gut. Moreover, probiotics should have antimicrob...

In this study, the antibiofilm activity of essential oil compounds eugenol and thymol alone and in combination with fluconazole and vancomycin against Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus pre-formed mixed biofilms was investigated. Strong biofilm forming strains of C. albicans (CAJ-01 and CAJ-12) and S. aureus MTCC3160 were selected for this...

It is important to understand the nature and mechanism of interaction of drugs with serum albumins as such interactions govern their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Plumbagin is a natural phytocompound, mainly present in the bark of Plumbaginaceae family plants and it has numerous therapeutic potentials. In this study, the interaction of plu...

In this study fungal profiles of agricultural field soil irrigated with industrial wastewater and sewage containing varying concentrations of heavy metals (Chromium, Nickel, Cobalt, Copper and Cadmium) have been investigated. The impact of long term heavy metal contamination on emergence of heavy metal tolerant soil fungal population, changes in mo...

Antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic bacteria has become a global threat to human health. Due to poor progress in development of new antimicrobial drugs, there is greater need for the development of novel alternative strategies to combat problem of multidrug resistance. Moreover, there is focus on ecofriendly approach for the synthesis nanopar...

An array of diverse bioactive secondary metabolites synthesized by plants is known for their pharmacological and therapeutic properties. Considerable progress has been made in the last several years on understanding on mutation-related health problems and the potential role of plant extracts and phytocompounds as antimutagenic agent. Various in vit...

Bird fecal matter is considered a potential source of pathogenic microbes such as yeast species that contaminate the environment. Therefore, it needs to be scrutinized to assess potential environmental health risks. The aim of this study was to investigate the diversity of the yeasts in pigeon fecal droppings, their antifungal susceptibility patter...

Abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought and excessive heat are associated with significant loss of crop productivity globally, and require effective strategies for their reduction or tolerance. Biofilm-forming rhizobacteria, which harbor multifarious plant growth promoting traits and tolerance to abiotic stress, are believed to benefit plant hea...

The emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogenic bacteria is a clinical problem that requires novel anti-infective agents. Targeting pathogenic biofilms is considered a promising strategy to control bacterial infections. In this study, bioactive extracts of Carum copticum were investigated for their anti-biofilm efficacy against ext...

Crop productivity is severely affected by drought, and its incidence is predicted to enhance under environmental fluctuations and climate change throughout the world. Scarcity of water induced loss in crop growth as well as yields due to major changes in metabolic pathways and gene regulation. Innovative approaches using biochemical and molecular m...

Plant root linked bacteria that live on the plant roots as ectophytes or endophytes and can directly boost plant development through augmenting nourishment absorption of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other important minerals or changing the level of phytohormones and indirectly by diminishing the harmful impact of different phytopathogens in the form o...

Early antibiotic discovery program has witnessed significant role of mainly Streptomyces in antibiotic/drug discovery program. Due to various constraints, both academic and industry levels, the discovery of new antibiotics with novel mode of action is drastically slowed down in the last three decades. Rapid development and spread of multidrug-resis...

The worldwide emergence of resistant bacteria to multiple antimicrobial drugs is one of the greatest hurdles to chemotherapy. Multidrug resistance (MDR) is the capability of pathogenic bacteria to survive lethal doses of antimicrobial drugs. One of the underlying mechanisms of survival under stressful conditions is the extrusion of drugs through me...

Emergence of antibiotic resistance is a never-ending process in the bacteria due its vast capacity to resist and acquire various resistance mechanisms against antibacterial drugs. Campylobacter is a well-known pathogenic bacteria to human and animals and survive in different environment including foods. Species of campylobacters is responsible of g...

The global emergence and spread of multi-drug resistance in bacterial pathogens has led the researchers to focus on the development of alternative measures or therapeutic agents to combat microbial infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria. Recent advances in nanotechnology have given a new hope for the development of novel nano-based formulatio...

Over the last two decades, the development of new antibacterial drugs has been very limited due to many reasons. In light of the alarming situation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), it is now vital to act promptly to develop new ways to combat the resistance problem through an integrated approach. Despite the slow progress of drug discovery by pha...

Excessive and unabated use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. The ineffectiveness of current antibiotic therapy and the slow development of new drugs with novel modes of action have made the task of combating MDR infections even more difficult. The problem of multi-drug resistance among pathogens has pro...

The use and abuse of antimicrobials have led to the emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria and the spread of resistant organisms and is one of the major global threats for healthcare professionals. Alternatives to conventional antibiotics for combating resistant infections are the need of the hour. Nanotechnology-based drugs offer a ray o...

The tremendous increase of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens has posed a serious threat in the management of infectious diseases. The human eye is known to commensally host the normal flora, including the opportunistic pathogens. The researchers have isolated and characterized numerous microbes belonging to different genera from healthy eye,...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Plumbago zeylanica is a species of Plumbago and grows throughout the tropical and sub-tropical climates of the world. The paste of this plant is used for topical applications. It is used for the cure of skin sicknesses, infections and intestinal worms. Aim of the study: To evaluate broad-spectrum inhibitory effect of...

Role of biofilm in disease development and enhance tolerance to antifungal drugs among Candida species has necessitated search for new anti-fungal treatment strategy. Interference in pathogenic biofilm development by new antifungal compounds is considered as an attractive anti-infective strategy. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evalua...

Exopolysaccharides (EPS) particularly, from Lactic acid bacteria have received increasing attention in food, medical, and pharmaceutical applications. The present work aims to isolate, characterize and identify exopoly saccharide-producing bacteria from fermented fruits and vegetables and dairy products. A total of 55 isolates were isolated from fe...

Effective rhizosphere colonization by plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is a prerequisite for its persistence performance under plant-root soil system. Therefore, to obtain effective strains, we have evaluated twelve strains of fluorescent Pseudomonas sp. from wheat rhizosphere exhibiting multifarious plant growth promoting (PGP) activiti...

Salinity ranks among the most severe environmental stressors that limit crop productivity. Use of microbial inoculants with desired traits is believed to be effective strategy to combat plant abiotic stress. Therefore, the objective was to isolate salt tolerant Bacillus spp. with multifunctional plant growth promoting traits including biofilm devel...

Glycation is predominantly a non-enzymatic reaction of free amino groups of biological macromolecules like protein and DNA with the reducing sugars or other metabolic intermediates. Its end product is called advanced glycation end products (AGEs) whose rate of formation is enhanced under hyperglycaemia. Glycation induces structural and functional c...