Abstract
Microbial pigments are considered as one of the main sources of natural types, and the attention to them is increasing in the food and pharmaceutical industries. This study aimed to investigate the effects of pigments extracted from Micrococcus roseus (PEM) on the gene expression of a and b staphylococcal enterotoxins (sea and seb) and their acute toxicity. Real-time PCR was used to study the anti-enterotoxigenic activity of PEM against Staphylococcus aureus at sub-inhibitory concentrations. In addition, the acute toxicity of PEM was evaluated on albino mice through alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferas (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) of liver and its histopathological changes. Based on the results, the expression of sea and seb was decreased in the presence of PEM at sub-inhibitory concentrations. The 2(-∆∆CT) was measured 0.02 and 0.01 for the expression of sea and seb of S. aureus grown in the MHB containing 16 mg/ml PEM. The results showed that the expression of seb is more sensitive to PEM compared to the expression of sea. After treatment of mice with PEM for two weeks, the condition of mice was normal, and the results of liver enzymatic activities and histopathological changes showed insignificant difference compared to the control sample.