Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a Gram-positive pathogen and forms biofilm easily. Bacteria inside biofilms display an increased resistance to antibiotics and disinfectants. The objective of the current study was to assess the antimicrobial activities of emodin, 1,2,8-trihydroxy-6-methylanthraquinone, an anthraquinone derivative isolated from Polygonum cuspidatum and Rheum palmatum, against S. aureus CMCC26003 grown in planktonic and biofilm cultures in vitro. In addition, a possible synergistic effect between emodin and berberine chloride was evaluated. As quantified by crystal violet method, emodin significantly decreased S. aureus biofilm growth in a dose-dependent manner. The above findings were further supported by scanning electron microscopy. Moreover, the present study demonstrated that sub-MICs emodin obviously intervened the release of extracellular DNA and inhibited expression of the biofilm-related genes (cidA, icaA, dltB, agrA, sortaseA and sarA) by real-time RT-PCR. These results revealed a promising application for emodin as a therapeutic agent and an effective strategy to prevent S. aureus biofilm-related infections.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31101845), and postdoctoral science-research developmental foundation of Heilongjiang Province (Grant no. LBH-Q12150). Special thanks to Dr. Dexing Ma for the revision of our manuscript language.
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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.
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Yan, X., Gu, S., Shi, Y. et al. The effect of emodin on Staphylococcus aureus strains in planktonic form and biofilm formation in vitro. Arch Microbiol 199, 1267–1275 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-017-1396-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-017-1396-8