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Chymotrypsin both directly modulates bacterial growth and asserts ampicillin degradation-mediated protective effect on bacteria

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Abstract

Recent studies have shown that some serine protease family members may play an important role in antibacterial activity. Chymotrypsin, a major member of the serine protease family, was used in our study to investigate whether it has a similar function. Optical absorbance, broth microdilution and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) assays were carried out to investigate the direct effect of chymotrypsin on bacteria. A disk diffusion test and LC-MS spectrometry were then used to investigate the effect of chymotrypsin on antibacterial activity of ampicillin. Chymotrypsin exhibited potentially antimicrobial properties to two kinds of Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis). However, the existence of chymotrypsin could also hinder the antibacterial activity of ampicillin, in part because chymotrypsin could degrade ampicillin in a dose-dependent manner. These results could be helpful in guiding current commercial usages of chymotrypsin and devising better strategies of clinical applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Nanjing Medical University Science and Technology Development Fund 06NMUZ005 and in part by the Priority Academic Development Program of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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  1. Wenbin Tan

    Present address: Department of Pathogen Biology, Jining Medical College, Jining, Shandong Province, 272067, People’s Republic China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathogen Biology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210029, People’s Republic China

    Dan Zhou, Zhengxia Liu, Donghui Zhang, Yang Xu, Wenbin Tan, Lei Ma, Yan Sun, Bo Shen & Changliang Zhu

  2. Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Modern Pathogen Biology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210029, People’s Republic China

    Dan Zhou, Zhengxia Liu, Donghui Zhang, Yang Xu, Lei Ma, Yan Sun, Bo Shen & Changliang Zhu

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  1. Dan Zhou
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  4. Yang Xu
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Correspondence to Donghui Zhang or Changliang Zhu.

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Zhou, D., Liu, Z., Zhang, D. et al. Chymotrypsin both directly modulates bacterial growth and asserts ampicillin degradation-mediated protective effect on bacteria. Ann Microbiol 63, 623–631 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13213-012-0512-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13213-012-0512-x

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