Evaluation of the antimicrobial mode of berberine by LC/ESI-MS combined with principal component analysis

In this investigation, metabolic profiles of Staphylococcus aureus treated by berberine and nine antibacterial substances with known modes of action were acquired by HPLC/ESI-MS. After data pretreatment, those profiles acquired were reduced into several MS vectors. Then, principal component analysis was carried out upon those vectors to classify those drugs according to their mechanisms. From the result obtained by principal component analysis, the possible antibacterial mode of berberine was evaluated.