European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF DISINFECTANTS AND THEIR EFFECT ON MYCOPLASMAS

*Rupali, Khushal Patel and Niev Nadar

ABSTRACT

Mycoplasma is characterised phenotypically by its complete cell wall absence and tiny size. This absence of a cell wall is used taxonomically to separate mycoplasmas from other bacterial species. Mycoplasma belongs to the class Mollicutes. (Wilson & Miles, 1955). Mycoplasmas have a variety of unique properties, such as sensitivity to osmotic shock, resistance to penicillin, formation of egg-shaped colonies and sensitivity to detergents which is caused due to the absence of detergents. Mycoplasmas are also highly susceptible to mutations and can acquire antibiotic resistance by various pathways, including gene mutation, active efflux of the anti-mycoplasmal agent and the acquisition of the resistance gene (Bebear & Bebear, 2002; Pereyre et al., 2002; Raherison et al., 2002; Reinhardt et al., 2002). These factors, too, are responsible for the resistance shown by Mycoplasma against various surface disinfectants. Commonly all surface disinfectants claim to have a 99 per cent microorganism-killing capacity, which co-relates to their efficacy. There are a few reasons why these disinfectant brands cannot claim 100 per cent efficacy. A few of these are the presence of organisms such as Mycoplasma which are resistant to specific anti-microbial agents, and another factor is their high mutagenic properties allowing them to develop antimicrobial resistance. Another factor is human error, which includes the formulation of the disinfectant, the time of exposure, and various other factors like the pH (Artasensi et al., 2021). This review aims to illustrate the clinical reasons surface disinfectants cannot claim 100 per cent antimicrobial efficacy by considering a few factors and the relations of mycoplasma to commonly used surface disinfectants like bleach.

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