Curcumin inhibits the SOS response induced by levofloxacin in Escherichia coli

The role of RecA protein in bacterial resistance to antibiotics makes this protein attractive from a pharmacological point of view. In this study we demonstrate that curcumin is able to inhibit the SOS response in Escherichia coli induced by levofloxacin. The blaTEM-1 gene has been placed under the control of the LexA-binding box and used as reporter gene. The expression of TEM-1 β-lactamase enzyme was increased in the presence of ssDNA induced by levofloxacin, while, the presence of curcumin at 8 μg/ml, reduced dramatically the expression of the reporter gene. Moreover a simple microplate assay suitable for high-throughput screening has been developed.