Microcalorimetry studies on the antibacterial effect of crude monkshood polysaccharide

Microcalorimetry studies on the antibacterial effect of crude monkshood polysaccharide first-author †E-mail:guimeilin@sdu.edu.cnshaowei@sdu.edu.cn †E-mail:guimeilin@sdu.edu.cnshaowei@sdu.edu.cn guimeilin@sdu.edu.cn corresp ‡Corresponding Author ‡Corresponding Author †E-mail:guimeilin@sdu.edu.cnshaowei@sdu.edu.cn †E-mail:guimeilin@sdu.edu.cnshaowei@sdu.edu.cn guimeilin@sdu.edu.cn School of Pharmaceutical Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China School of Pharmaceutical Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China In this paper, crude monkshood polysaccharide was isolated from Radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata. The effects of crude monkshood polysaccharide on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were investigated by microcalorimetry. The power-time curves of the bacterial growth at various concentrations ( c ) of crude monkshood polysaccharide were plotted with a TAM air isothermal microcalorimeter at 37 °C. The growth rate constant ( μ ), inhibitory ratio ( I ), peak-height ( P m ), and peak-time ( t m ) were calculated. From the data, the relationship between μ and c also was established. The growth rate constant μ decreased with the increasing concentrations of crude monkshood polysaccharide. Moreover, P m reduced and t m increased with increasing concentrations. The experimental results revealed that crude monkshood polysaccharide had inhibitory activity towards S. aureus and E. coli . Results obtained from our study strongly suggest that microcalorimetry is a fast, simple, and more sensitive technology that can be easily performed to study the effect of drugs on bacteria. Crude monkshood polysaccharide Microcalorimetry Escherichia coli Staphylococcus aureus Inhibitory Introduction 1 Radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata (also known as monkshood or aconite), is the daughter root of Aconitum carmichaeli Debx. It is a traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) herb that belongs to the family of Ranunculaceae. It has been reported that Radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata presents some pharmacological activities, including reviving yang for resuscitation, alleviating pain, anti-inflammatory activity, hypoglycemic effects, and so on (China Pharmacopoeia Committee, 2005 2005 ). In recent research, more attention has been paid to the polysaccharides. Some activities of crude monkshood polysaccharide have been reported, including immunological activity (Li et al., 2008 2008 ), anti-cancer activity (Ren et al., 2008 2008 ), and hypoglycemic effect (Konno et al., 1985 1985 ; Yu and Wu, 2009 2009 ). Few studies concerning the effect of crude monkshood polysaccharide on bacteria have been reported. Thus, our aim is to investigate this further. Microcalorimetry, as a quantitative, inexpensive, and versatile method for measuring heat production, has been successfully applied in biochemistry, biophysics, and environmental sciences in recent years (Wadsö, 1995 1995 ; 1997 1997 ; 2001 2001 ). It allows for interaction in a heterogeneous medium, monitoring the process without disturbing the system, measuring the thermal effect of the system, and giving abundant thermodynamic and kinetic information (Critter et al., 2001 2001 ; Yan et al., 2007 2007 ). It is a good method to study the effect of drugs on bacteria. The heat output can be recorded in real time. Then the power-time curves of bacteria can be plotted. Using a mathematical growth model, a series of kinetic parameters can be calculated, such as the growth rate constant ( μ ), generation time ( t ), inhibitory ratio ( I ), minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), peak-height ( P m ), peak-time ( t m ), and total heat ( Q tot ). Microcalorimetry appears as a suitable technique to study the microbial activity (Li et al., 2001 2001 ; 2002 2002 ; Wadsö, 2002 2002 ; Wu et al., 2005 2005 ; Kong et al., 2008 2008 ). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of crude monkshood polysaccharide on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus by microcalorimetry. Materials and methods 1 Instrument 2 A 3114/3236 TAM air microcalorimeter (Thermometric AB, Sweden) was used to determine the metabolism of E. coli and S. aureus . The TAM air microcalorimeter is an eight-channel heat conduction calorimeter for heat flow measurements under isothermal conditions. Reactions could be carried out in the temperature range 5 to 90 °C. The temperature error was ±0.02 °C. The detection limit was 2 µW and baseline stability was 2×10 −6 µW over a period of 24 h (Kong et al., 2008 2008 ; Yang et al., 2008 2008 ). Materials 2 Crude monkshood polysaccharide was isolated from Radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata through water extraction and alcohol precipitate, and sequentially purified through Sevage method and dialysis (Yang et al., 2007 2007 ). It was a white powder, easily soluble in water. Bacteria E. coli (CMCC (B) 44102) and S. aureus (CMCC (B) 26003) were used as the tested bacteria, provided by the Shandong Institute for Drug Control. They were routinely cultured in a Luria-Bertani (LB) culture medium, which contained 5 g/L NaCl, 5 g/L yeast extract, and 10 g/L peptone. Medium pH was adjusted to 7.0–7.2. The LB culture medium was sterilized by autoclaving at 121 °C for 20 min before the experiment. Methods 2 The microcalorimetric measurement was made with the ampoule method. The LB culture medium, containing bacteria, was placed in 20 ml glass ampoules. Then different concentrations of crude monkshood polysaccharide were inoculated into each ampoule with a final volume of 10 ml. One ampoule without crude monkshood polysaccharide was used as the blank control. The ampoules were sealed and put into an eight-channel calorimeter block. The temperature was controlled at 37 °C. The power-time signals were recorded at an interval of 1 min until the recorder returned to the baseline (Burt, 2004 2004 ; Yang et al., 2008 2008 ). Results and discussion 1 Thermokinetics 2 In the growth phase, theoretical model is in accordance with the following law (Burt, 2004 2004 ): d N t /d t = μN t − βN t 2 , where N t is the bacterial number at time t , μ is the growth rate constant, and β is the fungi static rate constant. The integral of Eq. ( 1 1 ) is given by N t = K /(1+ α e − μt ), where K is the maximum density, and α is integral constant. If the power produced by every bacterium is P , then we can obtain PN t = KP /(1+ α e − μt ). Making P t = PN t and P m = PK , where P t is the power output at time t , and P m the maximum power output, then Eq. ( 2 2 ) can changed to P t = P m /(1+ α e − μt ). Eq. ( 3 3 ) is the logistic equation. According to the data P t and t obtained from the bacterial growth curves, the rate constant μ can be calculated. The inhibitory ratio I is an excellent index to indicate the inhibition of crude monkshood polysaccharide on E. coli and S. aureus , and it can be defined as: I =[( μ 0 − μ c )/ μ 0 ]×100%, where μ 0 and μ c are the growth rate constants of bacteria without and with crude monkshood polysaccharide, respectively. The corresponding values of μ , t m , P m , and I are shown in Table 1 1 . c : concentration of monkshood polysaccharide; μ : growth rate constant; r : correlation coefficient; t m : peak-time value; P m : maximum heat output; I : inhibitory ratio Bacteria c (mg/ml) μ (min −1 ) r t m (min) P m (mW) I (%) E. coli 0 0.3584 0.9998 80 1.2313 0.1 0.3387 0.9998 81 1.2226 5.50 0.4 0.3000 0.9997 89 1.1938 16.29 0.8 0.2770 0.9997 98 1.1678 22.71 1.6 0.2516 0.9997 100 1.1410 29.80 2.0 0.2341 0.9998 111 0.9403 34.68 S. aureus 0 0.2380 0.9998 120 0.4860 0.2 0.2068 0.9997 122 0.4757 13.11 0.4 0.1734 0.9997 133 0.4438 27.14 0.8 0.1380 0.9996 140 0.4226 42.02 1.6 0.1256 0.9998 143 0.4006 47.22 2.0 0.1150 0.9999 154 0.3900 51.68 Power-time curves 2 The power-time curves of E. coli and S. aureus growths of black control were plotted in Fig. 1 1 . We could see that the shapes of the curves were different. The focal points were power-time curves for the exponential growth, which were plotted in Fig. 2 2 . It could be seen that the increase of the heat output became slower with increasing concentration of crude monkshood polysaccharide. High concentration of crude monkshood polysaccharide needed more time to reach the same heat output. Relationship between μ and c 2 The values of the growth rate constant μ in Table 1 1 showed that crude monkshood polysaccharide had potent antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus . The relationships between μ and c were demonstrated in Fig. 3 3 . The μ of the bacterial growth declined with increasing of the c . That was mainly because some bacteria were killed, and some metabolized continuously at a lower heat production rate. This rate directly depended on the concentration of crude monkshood polysaccharide. The correlations between μ and c could be formulated according to following equations: for E. coli : μ =−0.0324 c 3 +0.1252 c 2 −0.1822 c +0.3569 ( r =0.9993); for S. aureus : μ =−0.0325 c 3 +0.1433 c 2 −0.2189 c +0.2406 ( r =0.9984). Relationship between I and c 2 According to Eq. ( 4 4 ) and the relation between μ and c , the inhibitory ratio I was calculated. As shown in Table 1 1 , the inhibition ratio increased with increasing concentration of crude monkshood polysaccharide. It demonstrated that crude monkshood polysaccharide had inhibitive effect on E. coli and S. aureus . At the same concentration, the inhibitory ratio I was larger on S. aureus than on E. coli . The phenomenon illustrated that crude monkshood polysaccharide had a greater inhibitive effect on S. aureus than on E. coli . Relationship between P m and c 2 From Table 1 1 , it could be seen that the max heat output P m with crude monkshood polysaccharide was less than that of blank control, and a decrease in the value of P m was observed when c was increasing. The main reason could be that the number of the survivors decreased with increasing concentration of crude monkshood polysaccharide. There was a similar effect on E. coli and S. aureus . The results indicated that crude monkshood polysaccharide had an inhibitory effect on the growths of E. coli and S. aureus . Relationship between t m and c 2 Experimental results for the t m as a function of c are presented in Table 1 1 . The peak-time t m of crude monkshood polysaccharide was longer than that of blank control. With increasing concentration of crude monkshood polysaccharide, the t m prolonged. This was mainly because, after the treatment with crude monkshood polysaccharide, there was a partial inhibition of the bacteria and the remaining survivors maintained growth and metabolized at a lower rate. There was a similar effect on E. coli and S. aureus . The results also indicated that crude monkshood polysaccharide had an inhibitory effect on the growths of E. coli and S. aureus . Conclusions 1 As shown in this work, the inhibitory effect of crude monkshood polysaccharide on the growths of E. coli and S. aureus was found by microcalorimetry. The power-time curves of E. coli and S. aureus at different concentrations of crude monkshood polysaccharide were plotted. The parameters such as the growth rate constant ( μ ), inhibitory ratio ( I ), peak-height ( P m ), and peak-time ( t m ) were calculated. The relationships between μ and c were also established. The μ decreased with increasing concentration of crude monkshood polysaccharide. 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Asia-Pacific Tradit Med , 2009 . 5 ( 7 ): 11 - 12 . (in Chinese) . The monkshood polysaccharide’s infection on the insulin resistance of uptake of glucose for fat cell model 10.1631/jzus.B1100006 Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. Y2007C141), the Independent Innovation Foundation of Shandong University (No. 2010TS041), and the Award Program for Outstanding Young Scientist of Shandong Province (No. 2007BS02002), China 2010-01-07 2011-06-16 2011-04-16 2022-01-05 Copyright © Zhejiang University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 2011 Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B (Biomedicine and Biotechnology) 07 12