MEB and TC enrolled the subjects and collected the vaginal samples. ES and MCV carried out the Bioplex

immunoassay. PB supervised the study. All authors read and approved the manuscript.”
“Background Throughout the ages, natural products have been the most consistently successful source of lead compounds that have found many applications in the fields of medicine, pharmacy and agriculture. Microbial natural products have been the source of most of the antibiotics in current use for the treatment of various infectious diseases. Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, studies on soil bacteria and fungi have shown that microorganisms are a rich source of structurally unique bioactive substances buy Doramapimod [1]. After Penicillin, many other drugs including chlortetracycline, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, erythromycin, rifamycin, lincomycin, cephalosporin C, vancomycin, erythromycin, nalidixic acid, amphotericin B, nystatin, and daunorubicin the antitumor agent were discovered from microorganisms. Currently, many of the pathogens implicated in infectious disease are rapidly developing resistance to the available antibiotics [2] making treatment of these infections very difficult [3], hence the need to look for more effective antibiotics. Until recently, majority of antimicrobial

compounds were isolated from terrestrial microorganisms. In the last two decades however, the rate of discovery of novel compounds from this source has significantly declined, Mannose-binding protein-associated serine protease as exemplified by the fact that extracts from Selleck LBH589 soil-derived actinomycetes have yielded high numbers of clinically unacceptable metabolites [4]. The aquatic environment is now becoming increasingly appreciated as a rich and untapped reservoir of useful novel natural products. The marine environment alone is known to contain taxonomically diverse bacterial groups which Selleck MK-2206 exhibit unique physiological and structural characteristics that enable them to survive in extreme environmental conditions, with the potential production of novel secondary metabolites not

observed in terrestrial microorganisms [5]. Several compounds including pestalone, hypoxysordarin and equisetin, isolated from sea microorganisms have shown promising antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activities respectively. Salinosporamide A isolated from marine Salinispora tropica, has been shown to exhibit both anticancer and antimalarial activities and is currently undergoing clinical trial [6]. In Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries is a diverse array of aquatic habitats. These water bodies are reservoirs of enormous biological diversity which have not been exploited for bioactive natural products. In this study therefore, we report the presence of potent antimicrobial metabolite producing microorganisms in some aquatic habitats in Ghana.