title: Enriching modern pharmacotherapy through synergy assessment for the combination of natural products and synthetic drugs.
abstract: 5-O-methylglovanon (5-O-MG) is a bioactive compound first isolated and characterized from Glycosmis plants. In this issue, Zhou et al. evaluated the anti-staphylococcal effects of 5-O-MG against ampicillin-resistant isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis. The authors showed that the combination of 5-O-MG and ampicillin significantly increased the susceptibility of Staphylococcus strains to the drugs by decreasing MICs with a comparable anti-staphylococcal effect to that of β-lactamase inhibitors, suggesting that herbal compounds such as 5-O-MG may be potential candidates for the inhibitor of β-lactamases. This study is another example of synergy assessment of natural products in drug development to likely enrich modern pharmacotherapy.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, Wonkwang-Oriental Medicines Research Institute, Wonkwang University, Iksan 570-749, Korea.
authors.forename: Brice W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Obiang-Obounou
authors.forename: Young Pyo
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Jang
mesh_terms: D000667:Ampicillin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002969:Clavulanic Acids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects*; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: C577802:5-O-methylglovanon; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D002969:Clavulanic Acids; D000667:Ampicillin