Sublethal concentrations of manuka honey inhibit
binding of S. pyogenes to a wound-associated
ligand
To establish whether manuka honey affected binding of S.
pyogenes MGAS6180 to the wound-associated proteins
fibronectin and fibrinogen, 1 mg of each of these two
protein ligands was immobilized to the surface of a
microtitre plate. The extent of binding inhibition using a
sublethal dose (20 % w/v) of manuka honey was compared
with adherence observed in the absence of manuka honey.
Binding of S. pyogenes to fibronectin in the presence of
20 % (w/v) manuka honey was reduced by 74 %, which was
found to be statistically significant (P50.01); conversely no
such reduction in binding was observed for fibrinogen
(P50.38) (Fig. 6). This is the first time that evidence to
suggest that manuka honey has the potential to inhibit
binding to human protein ligands has been reported