Inhibition of Enterococcus faecalis Growth and Biofilm Formation by Molecule Targeting Cyclic di-AMP Synthetase Activity

Abstract

Introduction: Enterococcus faecalis is correlated with oral diseases including recurrent root canal treatment failure because of its biofilm formation ability and various virulence factors. Cyclic di-AMP (c-di-AMP) is an omnipresent second messenger involved in many crucial cellular physiological processes, including biofilm formation. ST056083 is a small molecule working as an inhibitor of the c-di-AMP synthetase DNA integrity scanning protein (DisA) in vitro. In this study, the impact of ST056083 on E. faecalis DisA activity, bacterial growth, and biofilm formation was tested.

Methods: The binding affinity between the protein and ligand was evaluated using the Amber score, and the binding mode was analyzed and visualized using UCSF Chimera (Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA). The effect of ST056083 on E. faecalis DisA was evaluated using the coralyne assay. The effect of ST056083 on E. faecalis biofilm formation was determined by the biofilm quantification assay, scanning electron microscopic examination, and 3-dimensional confocal laser scanning microscopic assay. The effect of ST056083 on E. faecalis exopolysaccharide synthesis was measured by the anthrone-sulfuric method.

Results: We expressed and purified E. faecalis DisA in vitro and confirmed the inhibitory effect of ST056083 on its biological activity. In addition, we showed the inhibitory effect of ST056083 on E. faecalis growth, biofilm formation, and exopolysaccharide synthesis.

Conclusions: Our findings enhance the understanding of the physiological role of c-di-AMP in E. faecalis and represent a preliminary study on the ST056083 inhibitory effect and mechanism.

Keywords: Biofilm; Enterococcus faecalis; ST056083; cyclic di-AMP.