Mashezha Rumbidzai, Mombeshora Molly, Mukanganyama Stanley
Department of Biochemistry, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Biochem Res Int. 2020 Apr 21;2020:6926320. doi: 10.1155/2020/6926320. eCollection 2020.
is among the common nosocomial pathogens. Antibiotics have been used to treat infections. However, there has been increased mortality associated with drug-resistant strains of . Extracellular proteases have been implicated to be responsible for the transition of from an adhesive pathogen to an invasive pathogen. The development of resistant strains has necessitated the search for new sources of drugs. Plants have been traditionally used as sources of therapeutic molecules. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of tormentic acid and the extracts from on the production of extracellular proteases by . The broth microdilution antibacterial susceptibility assay was used to determine the antibacterial effects of tormentic acid and the extracts on . Both extracts showed a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 50 g/ml. The water : ethanol (50 : 50) and the dichloromethane : methanol (50 : 50) extracts were found to be bactericidal against S. at a concentration of 100 g/ml and 50 g/ml, respectively. The effect of tormentic acid and extracts on extracellular protease production was investigated using the protease assay. A zone of proteolytic activity (Pr) was measured as the ratio of the diameter of the colony to the total diameter of colony plus zone of hydrolysis. The extracts reduced the production of extracellular proteases, while tormentic acid completely inhibited the production of extracellular proteases by . The Pr value for tormentic acid was found to be 1. The Pr values of the dichloromethane : methanol extract and the water : ethanol extract were 0.92 and 0.84, respectively. In conclusion, tormentic acid was shown to inhibit extracellular protease production; therefore, there is need to explore its use in antivirulence therapy to combat infections.
是常见的医院病原体之一。抗生素已被用于治疗感染。然而，与耐药菌株相关的死亡率有所上升。细胞外蛋白酶被认为是导致从粘附性病原体转变为侵袭性病原体的原因。耐药菌株的出现使得人们必须寻找新的药物来源。植物传统上一直被用作治疗分子的来源。本研究的目的是确定 tormentic 酸和[植物名称]提取物对[病原体名称]细胞外蛋白酶产生的影响。采用肉汤微量稀释抗菌药敏试验来测定 tormentic 酸和提取物对[病原体名称]的抗菌作用。两种提取物的最低抑菌浓度（MIC）值均为 50μg/ml。水:乙醇（50:50）和二氯甲烷:甲醇（50:50）提取物分别在浓度为 100μg/ml 和 50μg/ml 时对[病原体名称]具有杀菌作用。使用蛋白酶测定法研究了 tormentic 酸和提取物对细胞外蛋白酶产生的影响。蛋白水解活性区（Pr）以菌落直径与菌落加水解区总直径的比值来衡量。提取物降低了细胞外蛋白酶的产生，而 tormentic 酸完全抑制了[病原体名称]细胞外蛋白酶的产生。tormentic 酸的 Pr 值为 1。二氯甲烷:甲醇提取物和水:乙醇提取物的 Pr 值分别为 0.92 和 0.84。总之，tormentic 酸被证明能抑制细胞外蛋白酶的产生；因此，有必要探索其在抗毒力治疗中用于对抗[病原体名称]感染的用途。
