the effect of ferula assa-foetida l and carum copticum hydroalcoholic extract on the expression levels of staphylococcus aureus genes involved in quorum sensing

Background: quorum sensing is a microbial cell-to-cell communication process. quorum sensing bacteria produce and release extracellular messenger molecules called autoinducers. gram-positive and gram-negative, homoserine lactones, and oligopeptides are autoinducers used to communicate and regulate gene expression. objectives: the goal of this study was to assess the impact of subinhibitory concentrations of ferula assa-foetida l oleo-gum resin and carum copticum fruit on the expression of tst and hld genes of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) and methicillin-sensitive s. aureus (mssa) strains. methods: this analytical study was performed using standard strains of mrsa (atcc 33591) and mssa (atcc 29213). suspensions of mrsa and mssa bacteria were incubated at 37°c for 7 and 16 hours in the presence of ethanol extracts from f. assa-foetida and c. copticum. the expression of the hld and tst genes was then assessed using the real-time pcr protocol and sybr green master mix. the data analysis was carried out using the 2-δδct method. results: the hld gene expression (rnaiii) of mrsa after 7 and 16 hours of exposure to the smic of the f. assa-foetida extract showed a fold change of -1 and 0.08, respectively, in comparison with controls. after 7 and 16 hours of exposure to the smic of the c. copticum extract, the fold change was -0.23 and -0.27, respectively. after exposure to the smic of the c. copticum extract for 16 hours, the fold change in the expression of the tst (tsst-1) mssa gene was 0.37 lower than that of the control sample. conclusions: the results indicate that smics of ethanol extracts from f. assa-foetida and c. copticum can be used to control the expression of virulence genes in pathogenic bacteria, such as mrsa and mssa.