Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Danielle Orozco-Nunnelly

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Microbiology, Phytochemistry

ORCID Identifier(s)

0009-0000-0343-7513, 0000-0003-3381-0504, 0000-0002-6100-4633

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-24-2025

Abstract

Novel antimicrobial agents are crucial due to rising superbugs and declining drug development, threatening millions by 2050. In addition to being a terrestrial cause for concern, antimicrobial resistant microbes threaten the health of individuals during space travel. Recent studies show several opportunistic bacteria and fungi have colonized the International Space Station (ISS), and many strains possess antimicrobial resistance. Additionally, reports have highlighted how space travel may alter the immune system, placing astronauts at higher risk of infection. Therefore, our research focuses on testing bacterial and fungal pathogens that have been isolated on the ISS against methanolic and hexane extracts of various medicinal plants, such as Argemone mexicana. From previous work by our group, several antimicrobial compounds were isolated from the roots and leaves of A. mexicana, including berberine, chelerythrine and sanguinarine (work published in PLOS ONE in 2021). Since then, we have synthesized multiple rationally-designed variants of these original phytocompounds (over twenty berberine and four chelerythrine variants) and have tested these A. mexicana-inspired phytocompounds for altered antimicrobial activities. In this poster, we present the results from two novel berberine-variant compounds of particular interest due to their increased antibacterial effects against gram-positive bacteria, yet reduced toxicity against the eukaryotic fungal cell lines tested. Antimicrobial trends and mechanism alterations (via an alkaline phosphatase assay) for these unique compounds, as well as changes in drug potency in a simulated microgravity environment (using a clinostat) are presented herein. This work is funded through an Indiana Space Grant Consortium (INSGC) NASA grant.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

We are a group of undergraduate lab research students majoring in biology and chemistry. Focused on medicinal microbiology, we study the activity of plant compounds against common microbes. More specifically, this research focuses on the activity of berberine and its variants from the Mexican Prickly Poppy (Argemone mexicana). These compounds are tested against common microbes found in space on the International Space Station (ISS) in both control conditions and microgravity conditions.

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