Evaluation of the Effect of L. Leaf Extracts on the Bacterial Antioxidant System and Cell Membrane Integrity of PA01 and NCTC8325.

(Indian borage) has been extensively studied for its medicinal properties, which can be exploited to develop new antimicrobial therapeutics. The current study investigated the effect of leaf extracts on the catalase activity, reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxidation, cytoplasmic membrane permeability, and efflux pump activity in NCTC8325 and PA01. As the enzyme catalase protects bacteria against oxidative stress, disruption of its activity creates an imbalance in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, which subsequently oxidizes lipid chains, leading to lipid peroxidation. In addition, bacterial cell membranes are a potential target for new antibacterial agents, as efflux pump systems play a crucial role in antimicrobial resistance. Upon exposure of the microorganisms to Indian borage leaf extracts, the observed catalase activity decreased by 60% and 20% in and respectively. The generation of ROS can cause oxidation reactions to occur within the polyunsaturated fatty acids of the lipid membranes and induce lipid peroxidation. To investigate these phenomena, the increase in ROS activity in and was studied using HDCFDA, which is oxidized to 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein (DCF) by ROS. Furthermore, the concentration of lipid peroxidation product (malondialdehyde) was assessed using the Thiobarbituric acid assay and was shown to increase by 42.4% and 42.5% in and respectively. The effect of the extracts on the cell membrane permeability was monitored using diSC3-5 dye and it was observed that the cell membrane permeability of increased by 58% and of by 83%. The effect on efflux pump activity was investigated using Rhodamine-6-uptake assay, which displayed a decrease in efflux activity of 25.5% in and 24.2% in after treatment with the extracts. This combination of different methods to study various bacterial virulence factors provides a more robust, mechanistic understanding of the effect of extracts on and . This study thus represents the first report of the assessment of the effect of Indian borage leaf extracts on bacterial antioxidant systems and bacterial cell membranes, and can facilitate the future development of bacterial resistance modifying agents derived from .