School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea.
Curr Microbiol. 2012 Dec;65(6):726-32. doi: 10.1007/s00284-012-0229-x. Epub 2012 Sep 11.
Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of nosocomial infections due to its resistance to diverse antibiotics. This bacterium produces a large number of extracellular virulence factors that are closely associated with specific diseases. In this study, diverse plant flavonoids were investigated to identify a novel anti-virulence compound against two S. aureus strains. Flavone, a backbone compound of flavonoids, at subinhibitory concentration (50 μg/mL), markedly reduced the production of staphyloxanthin and α-hemolysin. This staphyloxanthin reduction rendered the S. aureus cells 100 times more vulnerable to hydrogen peroxide in the presence of flavone. In addition, flavone significantly decreased the hemolysis of human red blood by S. aureus, and the transcriptional level of α-hemolysin gene hla and a global regulator gene sae in S. aureus cells. This finding supported the usefulness of flavone as a potential antivirulence agent against antibiotic-resistant S. aureus.
金黄色葡萄球菌由于其对多种抗生素的耐药性，是导致医院感染的主要原因。该细菌产生大量的细胞外毒力因子，这些因子与特定疾病密切相关。在这项研究中，我们研究了多种植物类黄酮，以寻找一种针对两种金黄色葡萄球菌菌株的新型抗毒力化合物。类黄酮的基本骨架化合物——黄酮，在亚抑制浓度（50μg/ml）下，可显著降低金黄色葡萄球菌金黄色素和α-溶血素的产生。这种金黄色素的减少使金黄色葡萄球菌细胞在存在黄酮的情况下对过氧化氢的敏感性提高了 100 倍。此外，黄酮还显著降低了金黄色葡萄球菌对人红细胞的溶血作用，以及金黄色葡萄球菌细胞中α-溶血素基因 hla 和全局调节基因 sae 的转录水平。这一发现支持黄酮作为一种潜在的抗毒力剂对抗抗生素耐药性金黄色葡萄球菌的用途。
