Abstract
The emergence of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) dwarfs the current antibiotic development and calls for the discovery of new antibacterial agents. Aloe-emodin is a plant-derived compound that holds promise to battle against these strains. This work reports the antimicrobial activity of aloe-emodin against S. epidermidis and other Gram-positive pathogenic species, manifesting minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBCs) around 4–32 and 32–128 μg/mL, respectively. For Gram-negative bacteria tested, the MICs and MBCs of aloe-emodin were 128–256 and above 1024 μg/mL, respectively. Aloe-emodin at the MBC for 4 h eradicated 96.9% of S. epidermidis cells. Aloe-emodin treatment led to deformities in the morphology of S. epidermidis cells and the destroy of the selective permeability of the cell membranes. Analysis of the transcriptional profiles of aloe-emodin-treated cells revealed changes of genes involved in sulfur metabolism, L-lysine and peptidoglycan biosynthesis, and biofilm formation. Aloe-emodin therefore can safely control Gram-positive bacterial infections and proves to target the bacterial outer membrane.
Highlights
The excessive use of antibiotics as human and veterinary medicines, as well as in animal production, has had significant effects on public health (Economou and Gousia, 2015)
Aloe-emodin has a variety of biological activities (Dong et al, 2020), including inhibiting bacterial biofilm formation (Xiang et al, 2017)
The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of aloe-emodin were independent of the resistance levels to other drugs, indicating its unique anti-bacterial mechanism
Summary
The excessive use of antibiotics as human and veterinary medicines, as well as in animal production, has had significant effects on public health (Economou and Gousia, 2015). Staphylococcus epidermidis is a Gram-positive bacterium commonly found on the skin and in the mucosa of humans and animals (Kleinschmidt et al, 2015). It is one of the most common causes of bacteremia and sepsis (Otto, 2017; Lam et al, 2018), in individuals with traumatic. The reference strain Staphylococcus aureus M2 CVCC1882 (MSSA), Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 33591 (MRSA), Staphylococcus aureus ATCC43300 (MRSA), Streptococcus pneumoniae ATCC 49619, Escherichia coli BNCC133264, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, and Pseudomonas. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 were used to indicate the antibacterial activity of aloe-emodin on the different sources of bacterial
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