Department of Microbiology, Showa Pharmaceutical University, Machida, Tokyo, Japan.
J Antibiot (Tokyo). 2011 Aug;64(8):547-9. doi: 10.1038/ja.2011.49. Epub 2011 Jul 20.
To investigate the mechanism of action by which farnesol functions as an antibacterial agent and inhibits Staphylococcus aureus growth, the growth rates of S. aureus cultured in farnesol versus S. aureus cultured in farnesol and supplemented with 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-CoA or mevalonate were compared. The investigation was designed to observe whether farnesol affected on the mevalonate pathway by using the intermediate metabolites of the pathway. The resulting growth curves demonstrated that mevalonate reduced the antibacterial activity of farnesol, but HMG-CoA did not inhibit farnesol. These results suggest that farnesol affects the mevalonate pathway. Moreover, farnesol inhibited HMG-CoA reductase activity in an in vitro enzymatic assay.
为了研究法呢醇作为一种抗菌剂并抑制金黄色葡萄球菌生长的作用机制，比较了法呢醇培养的金黄色葡萄球菌与法呢醇和 3-羟基-3-甲基戊二酰辅酶 A（HMG-CoA）或甲羟戊酸补充物培养的金黄色葡萄球菌的生长速率。该研究旨在观察法呢醇是否通过该途径的中间代谢物影响甲羟戊酸途径。所得生长曲线表明，甲羟戊酸降低了法呢醇的抗菌活性，但 HMG-CoA 并未抑制法呢醇。这些结果表明法呢醇影响了甲羟戊酸途径。此外，法呢醇在体外酶测定中抑制了 HMG-CoA 还原酶的活性。
