Tomatidine serves as an anti-inflammatory agent by inhibiting NF-κB and JNK signaling pathways. Additionally, it induces autophagy in both mammalian cells and C. elegans.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is responsible for difficult-to-treat and relapsing infections and constitutes one of the most problematic pathogens due to its multiple resistances to clinically available antibiotics. Additionally, the ability of S. aureus to develop small-colony variants is associated with a reduced susceptibility to aminoglycoside antibiotics and in vivo persistence. METHODS AND RESULTS: We have recently demonstrated that Tomatidine, a steroid alkaloid isolated from tomato plants, possesses anti-virulence activity against normal strains of S. aureus as well as the ability to potentiate the effect of aminoglycoside antibiotics. In addition, Tomatidine has shown antibiotic activity against small-colony variants of S. aureus. CONCLUSIONS: We herein report the first study of the structure-activity relationship of Tomatidine against S. aureus.