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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1456046
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Leaders in Antibiotic Resistance: Pioneering Research and Future Directions View all 9 articles
Enterobactin and Salmochelin S4 inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus
Provisionally accepted- 1 Infectious Disease Unit, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
- 2 Department of Laboratories, Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health (Israel), Jerusalem, Israel
- 3 Kimron Veterinary Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Israel), Rishon LeZion, Israel
There is increasing demand for novel antimicrobial agents to tackle the antimicrobial resistance crisis. Here we report that two Enterobacteriaceae-produced siderophores, enterobactin and salmochelin S4, inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus isolates, including methicillin-resistance S. aureus (MRSA) clinical isolates. The MIC50 for different S. aureus isolates were 2-5 µM for salmochelin S4 and 5-10 µM for enterobactin. This inhibitory activity was partially repressed by adding Fe +3 . These siderophores also inhibited the growth of Enterococcus strains, including vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) clinical isolates, though less effectively than for S. aureus. The growth of various Gram-negative bacteria was barely affected by these siderophores. These results shed new light on the role of enterobactin and salmochelin in bacterial physiology and ecology and have potential for the development of novel strategies to combat the rapid rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus, Salmochelin, Enterobactin, siderophore, antibiotic
Received: 27 Jun 2024; Accepted: 12 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Davidov, Tejman Yarden, Robinson, Rahav and Nissan. 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:
Israel Nissan, Kimron Veterinary Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Israel), Rishon LeZion, Israel
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