Metabolic shift of Staphylococcus aureus under sublethal dose of methicillin in the presence of glucose

This study demonstrated that a combination of glucose and a sublethal dose of antibiotic can reduce the survivability of S. aureus in a glucose concentration-dependent manner. Mass spectrometry-based targeted metabolic profiling detected massive metabolic profile shift of both methicillin-susceptible and resistant S. aureus after methicillin and glucose co-treatment. The dramatic alteration of metabolites from these metabolic pathways can be detected when 10 mg/L or higher concentration of glucose were added to methicillin treated culture. Our data also indicated that multiple biochemical metabolic pathways, including pyrimidine metabolism and valine, leucine, and isoleucine degradation showed a significant difference (p < 0.01) in comparison of control groups to glucose treatment groups. Taken together, this pilot study suggested that exogenous glucose in combination with a sublethal dose of antibiotics can disturb the metabolism of both methicillin-susceptible and resistant S. aureus, and enhance the antibiotic bactericidal effect.Graphical abstract
Source: Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research