Effect of berberine on Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and their mixtures as determined by isothermal microcalorimetry

Abstract

The strong toxicity of pathogenic bacteria has resulted in high levels of morbidity and mortality in the general population. Developing effective antibacterial agents with high efficacy and long activity is in great demand. In this study, the microcalorimetric technique based on heat output of bacterial metabolism was applied to evaluate the effect of berberine on Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, individually and in a mixture of both using a multi-channel microcalorimeter. The differences in shape of the power-time fingerprints and thermokinetic parameters of microorganism growth were compared. The results revealed that low concentration (20 μg/mL) of berberine began to inhibit the growth of E. coli and mixed microorganisms, while promoting the growth of B. subtilis; high concentration of berberine (over 100 μg/mL) inhibited B. subtilis. The endurance of E. coli to berberine was obviously lower than B. subtilis, and E. coli could decrease the endurance of B. subtilis to berberine. The sequence of half-inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of berberine was: B. subtilis (952.37 μg/mL) > mixed microorganisms (682.47 μg/mL) > E. coli (581.69 μg/mL). Berberine might be a good selection of antibacterial agent used in the future. The microcalorimetric method should be strongly suggested in screening novel antibacterial agents for fighting against pathogenic bacteria.

Berberine augments ATP-induced inflammasome activation in macrophages by enhancing AMPK signaling

“…In this study, we provided a new explanation for its antimicrobial activity other than its direct bactericidal effect as previously reported [2, 4, 7, 29]. Our data showed that berberine significantly augmented the NLRP3 inflammasome activation in response to ATP triggering, resulting in increased pyroptosis and release of mature IL-1β, in murine macrophages.…”

◾ Calorimetric Approaches to Studying Complex Protein Structure–Function–Stability Relationships in Conformational Diseases: The Case of Cystathionine β-Synthase

“…This is especially relevant in understanding the growing importance of the role of gut microflora to general health and well-being. There have been far fewer studies looking at defined mixed cultures with the aim of investigating the relationship between two or more bacteria (i.e., Schaffer et al 2004;Kong et al 2012;Vazquez et al 2014), yet IMC is ideally suited to such investigations. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the role that IMC can play in characterizing bacterial growth, especially in mixed cultures, and in the development of pharmaceutical products.…”

Thermal activities of 6-gingerol, 8-gingerol and 6-shogaol on the potentiation of mitochondria thermogenesis based on microcalorimetry

“…It is able to measure the heat output from various biological processes, and the involved microorganisms include bacteria, fungi and mitochondria as well. Growth of these microorganisms results in an increase in heat flow over time which is documented by a continuous real-time electronic signal [25][26][27][28][29]. And in this study, heat flow curves and relative thermal parameters obtained by microcalorimetry were analyzed to compare the effects of three subjects.…”