Abstract
BackgroundAn increasing rate of antibiotic resistance among Gram-negative bacterial pathogens has created an urgent need to discover novel therapeutic agents to combat infectious diseases. Use of bacteriocins as therapeutic agents has immense potential due to their high potency and mode of action different from that of conventional antibiotics.ResultsIn this study, a novel bacteriocin E20c of molecular weight 6.5 kDa was purified and characterized from the probiotic strain of Enterococcus hirae. E20c had bactericidal activities against several multidrug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. Flow cytometry and scanning electron microscopy studies showed that it killed the Salmonella enterica cells by forming ion-permeable channels in the cell membrane leading to enhanced cell membrane permeability. Further, checkerboard titrations showed that E20c had synergistic interaction with antibiotics such as ampicillin, penicillin, ceftriaxone, and ciprofloxacin against a ciprofloxacin- and penicillin-resistant strain of S. enterica.ConclusionThus, this study shows the broad spectrum antimicrobial activity of novel enterocin E20c against various MDR pathogens. Further, it highlights the importance of bacteriocins in lowering the minimum inhibitory concentrations of conventional antibiotics when used in combination.
Highlights
An increasing rate of antibiotic resistance among Gram-negative bacterial pathogens has created an urgent need to discover novel therapeutic agents to combat infectious diseases
Purification and characterization of E20c E20c was purified from the cell free culture supernatant (CS) of E. hirae 20c by ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by cation-exchange chromatography
E. hirae 20c was selected for the purification of E20c as its CS inhibited the growth of several Gram-negative bacterial pathogens, and the strain possessed good probiotic properties with no known virulence factors or genes [15]
Summary
An increasing rate of antibiotic resistance among Gram-negative bacterial pathogens has created an urgent need to discover novel therapeutic agents to combat infectious diseases. According to a recent report, most of the new antimicrobials currently in clinical trials are the derivatives of the existing antibiotics [2]. Their modes of action are similar to the parent drug that offers a short term solution to the problem of antibiotic resistance. [7]; and nisin showed synergistic interaction with various antibiotics against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin resistant enterococci [8]. This strategy will, in turn, reduce the probability of development of antibiotic resistance among pathogens [9]
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