Antibacterial and Synergy of Berberines with Antibacterial Agents against Clinical Multi-Drug Resistant Isolates of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Abstract

Antibacterial activity of berberine (Ber) and 8-acetonyl-dihydroberberine (A-Ber) alone and combined uses with antibacterial agents ampicillin (AMP), azithromycin (AZM), cefazolin (CFZ) and levofloxacin (LEV) was studied on 10 clinical isolates of SCCmec III type methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Susceptibility to each agent alone was tested using a broth microdilution method and the chequerboard and time-kill tests for the combined evaluations, respectively. The alone MICs/MBCs (μg/mL) ranges were 32–128/64–256 (Ber) and 32-128/128-512 (A-Ber). Significant synergies were observed for the Ber (A-Ber)/AZM and Ber (A-Ber)/LEV combinations against 90% of the tested MRSA strains, with fractional inhibitory concentration indices (FICIs) values ranged from 0.188 to 0.500. An additivity result was also observed for the Ber/AZM combination by time-kill curves. These results demonstrated for the first time that Ber and A-Ber enhanced the in vitro inhibitory efficacy of AZM and LEV to a same extent, which had potential for further investigation in combinatory therapeutic applications of patients infected with MRSA.

Antioxidant Effect of Berberine and its Phenolic Derivatives Against Human Fibrosarcoma Cells

“…The antioxidant capacity of berberine has demonstrated both direct (Jang et al, 2009;Bashir and Gilani, 2011) and indirect activities (Hwang et al, 2002;Tan et al, 2007). Recently, berberine has been structurally modified to yield new derivatives which are able to improve their biological functions: antibacterial (Zuo et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2013), antifungal (Liu et al, 2014), antiprotozoal (Bahar et al, 2011), and anticancer activities (Zhang et al, 2012;Lo et al, 2013).…”

The enhancement of cardiac toxicity by concomitant administration of Berberine and macrolides

“…But the latest researches confirmed that a five-days AZM therapy could increase the risk of cardiovascular death and the effect of AZM on hERG current remains still unclear (Ray et al, 2012;Svanstrom et al, 2013). In recent years, some researches proved that use of BBR combined with antibacterial agents (azithromycin, cefazoline and levofloxacin) was against clinical Multi-Drug resistant isolates of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (Zuo et al, 2012). Several studies indicated that BBR and CLR inhibited hERG currents (Nilsson and Webster, 2014;Schramm et al, 2011).…”

The bacteriostatic effect and mechanism of berberine on Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in vitro

“…Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is one of the most common pathogenic bacteria in pyogenic infections, causing systemic infections such as local pyogenic infections, pneumonia, pseudomembranous enteritis, pericarditis and sepsis [1]. In recent years, the emergence of Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is resistance to most beta-lactam, has severely limited treatment options [2][3].…”