Elucidation of antimicrobial efficacy and mode of action of lintetralin and mupirocin derived from Phyllanthus niruri against proteus mirabilis through transcriptome analysis

Prevalence of bacterial multidrug resistance is a multifactorial problem raising healthcare threats globally rendering commercial antibiotic ineffective. Medicinal plants act as unexplored resources for the development of potent drugs. Phyllanthus niruri is reported to exhibit diverse biological properties including antimicrobial, antifungal, anticancer properties. Possible binding affinity of targeted bioactive phytochemicals (Lintetralin and Mupirocin) from methanolic leaf extract of Phyllanthus niruri against the resistance genes in Proteus mirabilis was predicted through in-silico analysis. This study suggested that lintetralin showed lowest minimum docking score (-3.830 Kcal/mol) against atfE protein, -3.248 Kcal/mol against lpxA protein and -3.103 Kcal/mol against mrpH protein from Proteus mirabilis . Similarly, mupirocin showed lowest minimum docking score of –7.552 Kcal/mol with atfE protein, - 6.976 Kcal/mol with lpxA protein and -6.851 Kcal/mol with mrpH protein from Proteus mirabilis. The study revealed that lintetralin and mupirocin are potent antimicrobials, which can be used as potential alternative to antibiotics to combat MDR.