Potential antimicrobial effect of plant essential oils and virulence genes expression in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates

Vet World Vol.13 April-2020 Article-9

Research Article

Veterinary World, 13(4): 669-675

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.669-675

Mohammad H. Gharaibeh¹, Mohammad S. Khalifeh¹, Esam M. Zattout¹, and Luay F. Abu-Qatouseh²

1. Department of Basic Veterinary Medical Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030 Irbid 22110 Jordan.
2. Department of Pharmacology and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Petra, Amman, Jordan.

Background and Aim: This study aimed to investigate the antibacterial efficacy of eight commercially available essential oil (EO) blends and characterize the effect on the expression of some virulence genes against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Materials and Methods: In vitro evaluation of the antimicrobial effects of oils against MRSA was performed using the disk diffusion method and by measuring the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The EOs (A-F) were contained (β-pinene, carvacrol, carvone, dimethyl trisulfide, linalool, limonene, menthol, monoterpene hydrocarbons, and thymol) in different amounts. In addition, a real-time polymerase chain reaction was also used to determine the gene expression of the virulence genes (intercellular adhesion cluster [ica]-9, ica-15, and RNA III) against MRSA (ATCC 43300) after treatment with selected oils.

Results: Among the eight EOs evaluated, EO (D), (E), and (A) showed, in general, the greatest antimicrobial activity against MRSA. EO at 1/3 MIC has effectively down-regulated ica-9 and ica-15 of MRSA by 17.83 and 4.94 folds, respectively. Meanwhile, EO (A) has effectively down-regulated RNAIII by 3.74 folds. Our results indicated that some of the EOs exhibit promising antimicrobial effects against MRSA isolates. Moreover, the results of the analyzed virulence genes related to the pathogenicity of MRSA were down-regulated at the sub-MIC concentrations of EOs, indicated that EOs could be successfully used to suppress the virulence factors and, consequently, decreased the pathogenicity of MRSA.

Conclusion: These encouraging results indicate that some of the EOs used in this study can be utilized as a natural antibiotic for the treatment of MRSA disease. Keywords: accessory gene regulator locus, antibacterial activity, essential oils, intercellular adhesion cluster, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, minimum inhibitory concentration, virulence factors.

Keywords: accessory gene regulator locus, antibacterial activity, essential oils, intercellular adhesion cluster, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, minimum inhibitory concentration, virulence factors.

How to cite this article: Gharaibeh MH, Khalifeh MS, Zattout EM, Abu-Qatouseh LF (2020) Potential antimicrobial effect of plant essential oils and virulence genes expression in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates, Veterinary World, 13(4): 669-675.

Received: 14-10-2019 Accepted: 04-03-2020 Published online: 13-04-2020

Corresponding author: Mohammad H. Gharaibeh E-mail: mhgharaibeh@just.edu.jo

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.669-675

Copyright: Gharaibeh, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.