Fig. 5: ent-T inhibits S. aureus quorum sensing and cell damage.
From: Skin androgens regulate Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity via quorum sensing
a, Structure of testosterone and its stereoisomer ent-T. b,c, Wild-type S. aureus (HG003) treated with 100 nM of ent-T, AIP-II or untreated (vehicle). The percentage of bacterially induced haemolysis (b) and neutrophil killing (c) (n = 3 from single neutrophil and RBC donors) is shown. Means ± s.e.m. (error bars) are plotted. ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001 by 1-way ANOVA. d–f, qRT-PCR for psmα expression in AD30 strains (n = 3) (d), MRSA agr type II (e) and MRSA type III (f) S. aureus strains treated with 10 nM of testosterone or 10 nM of ent-T (n = 3). Relative expression of psmα is normalized to housekeeping gene gyrA expression. Means ± s.e.m. (error bars) are plotted. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 by paired 2-tailed Student’s t-test (d); *P < 0.05 by unpaired 2-tailed Student’s t-test (e,f). g, Male wild-type mice were epicutaneously infected with 1 × 106 CFU CA-MRSA-agr-P3 S. aureus quorum-sensing reporter treated with ent-T or vehicle (similar to in vivo analysis of Fig. 2j). Representative images (right) and bioluminescence quantified over time (left). Vehicle (n = 5), ent-T 1 mM (n = 5) or ent-T 100 μM (n = 5). Means ± s.e.m. (error bars) are plotted. ****P < 0.0001 of ent-T-treated groups compared with control by 2-way ANOVA. See Extended Data Fig. 8.
