The Bioactive Potential of Culturable Fungal Endophytes Isolated From the Leaf of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don.

INTRODUCTION: Endophyte is considered a source of natural bioactive secondary metabolites that provides an array of bioactive lead compounds. The present study was aimed to determine the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory potential of fungal endophytes isolated from Catharanthus roseus.

METHODS: A total of seven fungal endophytes crude extract were screened against bacterial pathogens. Of these, Curvularia geniculata CATDLF7 crude extract exhibited the most potent inhibitory activity against bacterial pathogens. Hence, CATDLF7 crude extract was subjected to chromatographic separation. This purification leads to the isolation of six pure compounds (1PS - 6PS). Of these, 3PS was found to be a major constituent and most effective against clinical isolates of methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 100 to 200 μg/ml. Based on the spectroscopic data, 3PS was characterized as α,β- dehydrocurvularin. This compound also showed synergistic interaction with norfloxacin and reduced its MIC up to 32-folds with a fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) of 0.09.

RESULTS: To understand the possible antibacterial mechanism of action, α,β-dehydrocurvularin alone (100 μg/ml) exhibited efflux pump inhibitory potential by 0.84 fold decreasing in ethidium bromide (EtBr) fluorescence. In addition, α,β-dehydrocurvularin inhibited inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6 production, which is further validated by molecular docking scores -4.921 and -5.641, respectively, for understanding orientation and binding affinity.

CONCLUSION: Overall, the results highlighted identifying bioactive compound α,β-dehydrocurvularin, which could be used as an antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent.