Infection and Drug Resistance (Aug 2020)

Synergistic Effects from Combination of Cryptotanshinone and Fosfomycin Against Fosfomycin-Susceptible and Fosfomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

  • Ruan Z,
  • Cui J,
  • He Z,
  • Guo Y,
  • Jia X,
  • Huang X

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 2837 – 2844

Abstract

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Zijing Ruan,1,* Jiaqi Cui,2,3,* Zhenqing He,2 Yuting Guo,2 Xu Jia,2 Xinhe Huang1 1School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 2Non-Coding RNA and Drug Discovery Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pathology, Chengdu Fifth People’s Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xinhe HuangSchool of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 111, North 1st Section, 2nd Ring Road, Chengdu 610031, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected] JiaNon-Coding RNA and Drug Discovery Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected]: Fosfomycin is now widely used to treat methicillin-resistant S. aureus due to its unique antibacterial activity. However, fosfomycin-resistant S. aureus has rapidly emerged, it is urgent to find new treatments to eliminate fosfomycin-resistant S. aureus infection. The purpose of this study was to analyze the activity of cryptanshinone, a traditional Chinese medicine monomer, in combination with fosfomycin against fosfomycin-sensitive S. aureus (FSSA) and fosfomycin-resistant S. aureus (FRSA).Methods: The MICs of fosfomycin and/or cryptanshinone were determined by agar dilution assay and checkerboard microdilution assay. Furthermore, synergistic effects from fosfomycin and/or cryptanshinone were analyzed by the time-kill assay in vitro.Results: The combination of fosfomycin and cryptotanshinone had a synergistic effect on most (71.43%) of the FRSA and had a partial (28.57%) synergistic effect on a small part. In addition, time sterilization curve verified synergistic activity between cryptanshinone and fosfomycin against FSSA and FRSA, especially when fosfomycin was added for a second time.Conclusion: These data suggest that cryptanshinone combined with fosfomycin could be a novel treatment for FRSA and provide a new direction for the treatment of bacterial infections in the future.Keywords: traditional Chinese medicine, cryptanshinone, fosfomycin, synergistic effect, Staphylococcus aureus

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