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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1565714

This article is part of the Research TopicAccelerating Antibiotic Development from Natural Products: Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)View all 3 articles

Biofilm-mediated resistance to berberine in Escherichia coli Authors

Provisionally accepted
Yingfang WangYingfang Wang1,2*Ruinan ZhangRuinan Zhang2Pengfei WangPengfei Wang3Wenlu ZhangWenlu Zhang2Zhongjie LiZhongjie Li2Xinyue PangXinyue Pang4Fangfang HuangFangfang Huang2Sensen WangSensen Wang2Xingnuo LiuXingnuo Liu2He ZhangHe Zhang5*
  • 1Medical College, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
  • 2Henan University of Science and Technology School of Basic Medical Science and Forensic Medicine, Luoyang 471003, China, Luoyang, China
  • 3The Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology, Henan Luoyang,471023, China, Luoyang, China
  • 4Henan University of Science and Technology School of Medical Technology and Engineering, Henan Luoyang,471000, China, Luoyang, China
  • 5Henan University of Science and Technology School of Affiliated First Hospital , Henan Luoyang,471003, China, Luoyang, China

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Objective: To investigate the mechanism of biofilm-mediated resistance to berberine in Escherichia coli. Methods: The resistance of berberine against E. coli was induced by 1/2 MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration). Biofilm formation was detected by crystal violet staining. The mRNA level was detected by RT-qPCR, and the gene csgD was determined. the csgD-overexpressed strain was constructed. We measured the MIC of berberine against E. coli , as well as biofilm formation and the expression of mRNA. Results: The MIC after berberine induction was more than 32 times than the MIC before induction. the biofilm was significantly increased at 24, 48 and 72 hours (p<0.01) after berberine induction. In addition, the amount of biofilm production at 24, 48 and 72 hours was 1.3, 1.51 and 1.98 times after berberine induction than that before induction, respectively. The expression of csgD gene was significantly increased (p=0.016) after induction compared with that before induction. the MIC of csgD-overexpressed strain was about 5.8 times that before induction. The expression of csgD gene was significantly increased (p=0.016), which was 5.8 times higher than that before induction. The MIC of csgD-overexpressed strain was 100 μg/mL . Biofilm formation in csgD-overexpressed strain was 2.9 times higher than that of the control.The expression of biofilm-related genes, bcsA, luxS and csgD, was 45, 22.5 and 1628 times higher than that of the control, respectively. Conclusion: Berberine might increase biofilm formation by inducing the expression of csgD gene, which might result in drug resistance in E. coli.

Keywords: Escherichia coli, Berberine, drug resistance-related genes, Biofilm, csgD gene

Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 27 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhang, Wang, Zhang, Li, Pang, Huang, Wang, Liu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Yingfang Wang, Medical College, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
He Zhang, Henan University of Science and Technology School of Affiliated First Hospital , Henan Luoyang,471003, China, Luoyang, China

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