Pectolinarin Inhibits the Bacterial Biofilm Formation and Thereby Reduces Bacterial Pathogenicity

Bacterial biofilms are a growing problem as it is a major cause of nosocomial infection from urinary catheters to chronic tissue infections and provide resistance to a variety of antibiotics and the host’s immune system. The effect of pectolinarin on the biofilm formation in Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrinus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Cutibacterium acnes, and Porphyromonas gingivalis was studied in TSBg (tryptic soy broth supplemented with 1% glucose). Pectolinarin inhibited biofilm formation of E. faecalis (IC₅₀ = 0.39 µg/mL), E. faecium (IC₅₀ = 0.19 µg/mL), E. coli (IC₅₀ = 0.25 µg/mL), S. mutans (IC₅₀ = 1.2 µg/mL), S. sobrinus (IC₅₀ = 1.4 µg/mL), S. aureus (IC₅₀ = 0.39 µg/mL), P. aeruginosa (IC₅₀ = 0.9 µg/mL), P. acnes (IC₅₀ = 12.5 µg/mL), and P. gingivalis (IC₅₀ = 9.0 µg/mL) without inhibiting the bacterial growth. Pectolinarin also showed increased susceptibility of antibacterial activity with commercially available antibiotics including ampicillin, vancomycin, streptomycin, and oxytetracyclin against E. faecalis and E. faecium. Finally, pectolinarin dose-dependently reduced the expression of genes including cytolysin genes (cylLS, cylR2 and cylM), quorum sensing (QS) genes (fsrB, fsrC, gelE, ebpA, ebpB, acm, scm and bps), and biofilm virulence genes (esp) of E. faecalis and E. faecium. Pectolinarin reduced the bacterial biofilm formation, activated the antibacterial susceptibility, and reduced the bacterial adherence. These results suggest that bacterial biofilm formation is a good target to develop the antibacterial agents against biofilm-related infections.