In vitro antimicrobial activity of berberine combined with vancomycin against Clostridium difficile / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the antimicrobial effect of berberine combined with vancomycin on isolated Clostridium difficile (CD) strains in vitro, in order to provide some new ideas for the treatment of CD-related diseases.@*Methods@#Thirty-five clinical isolated CD strains were selected for single or combined susceptibility tests of vancomycin (concentration range 0.062 5~4 mg/L) or berberine (concentration range 8~512 mg/L) to CD by agar dilution method , the drug sensitivity result of single and combined drugs were analysed.@*Results@#All 35 CD strains were sensitive to berberine and vancomycin, where the sensitivity ranges of berberine and vancomycin were 128 mg/L to 512 mg/L and 0.25 mg/L to 2 mg/L, respectively. The 50% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC50) values were 512 mg/L and 0.25 mg/L, and the 90% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC90) values were>512 mg/L and 1 mg/L, respectively. Different concentrations of berberine combined with 0.062 5-4 mg/L vancomycin respectively, the strongest synergistic effect was 128 mg/L berberine combined with 1 mg/L vancomycin (accounting for 5.71%), the strongest additive effect was 64 mg/L berberine combined with 0.5 mg/L vancomycin(accounting for 25.71%), the strongest irrelevant effect was 8 mg/L berberine combined with 0.0625 mg/L vancomycin (accounting for 97.14%), no antagonistic effect of berberine and vancomycin was found (χ2=9.85, P=0.003).@*Conclusions@#Berberine can increase the antimicrobial activity of vancomycin against CD, and has the synergistic value for clinical medication.