Prodigiosin as an antibiofilm agent against multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is known for forming bacterial biofilms that confer increased antimicrobial resistance. Combining antibiotics with antibiofilm agents is an alternative approach, but the antibiofilm ability of prodigiosin (PG), a potential antibiotic synergist, against antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) S. aureus remains to be understood. The antibiofilm activity of PG against 29 clinical AMR S. aureus strains was evaluated using crystal violet staining, and its synergistic effects with vancomycin (VAN) was confirmed using the checkerboard test. The viability and metabolic activity of biofilms and planktonic cells were also assessed. The results revealed that PG exhibited promising inhibitory activity against biofilm formation and synergistic activity with VAN. It effectively reduced the metabolic activity of biofilms and suppressed the production of exopolysaccharides, which might be attributed to the downregulation of biofilm-related genes such as sarA, agrA, and icaA. These findings suggest that PG could be used as a preventive coating or adjuvant against biofilms in clinical settings.

Keywords:

• Antibiofilm
• hospital-acquired infections
• multidrug resistance
• prodigiosin
• Staphylococcus aureus

Author contributions

JY: Methodology, formal analysis, validation, original draft writing; QY: Project administration, conceptualization, supervision, validation, original draft writing and review editing, resources, and funding acquisition; HN: Methodology, formal analysis, validation; JYL: Methodology; XRL: formal analysis; YLL: Conceptualization; HX: Conceptualization, supervision, validation, and resources acquisition. All data were generated in-house, and no paper mill was used. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of work, ensuring integrity and accuracy.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Consent for publication

All the authors approve the publication of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32100139), the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (No. KJQN202100412), and the Project of Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau (No. sl202100000725).