Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen of both humans and animals, implicated in a wide range of infections. The emergence of antibiotic resistance has resulted in S. aureus strains that are resistant to almost all available antibiotics, making treatment a clinical challenge. Development of novel antimicrobial approaches is now a priority worldwide. Bacteria produce a range of antimicrobial peptides; the most diverse of these being bacteriocins. Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesised peptides, displaying potent antimicrobial activity usually against bacteria phylogenetically related to the producer strain. Several bacteriocins have been isolated from commensal coagulase-negative staphylococci, many of which display inhibitory activity against S. aureus in vitro and in vivo. The ability of these bacteriocins to target biofilm formation and their novel mechanisms of action with efficacy against antibiotic-resistant bacteria make them strong candidates as novel therapeutic antimicrobials. The use of genome-mining tools will help to advance identification and classification of bacteriocins. This review discusses the staphylococcal-derived antimicrobial peptides displaying promise as novel treatments for S. aureus infections.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus is a frequent opportunistic pathogen of humans and animals that is capable of causing a variety of infections including skin and soft tissue infections, mastitis, urinary tract infections (UTIs), osteomyelitis, meningitis, food poisoning, biofilm-associated infections or septicaemia [1,2,3].These can range from trivial and self-limiting to severe and life-threatening
Carson et al [140] investigated 441 non-aureus staphylococci (NAS) isolates; 40 of the isolates showed inhibitory activity against a bovine mastitis S. aureus strain; of these, 23 inhibited MRSA. These strains belonged to S. capitis, S. chromogenes, S. epidermidis, S. pasteuri, S. simulans and S. xylosus. Five of these species inhibited S. aureus in well-diffusion assays using chloroform-extracted cell-free supernatant; all five supernatants were inactivated by proteinase K, suggesting the active components are bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances (BLIS) secreted by the bacteria
This protective activity is often mediated by bacteriocins, which are ribosomally synthesised peptides produced by bacteria that possess antimicrobial activity
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus is a frequent opportunistic pathogen of humans and animals that is capable of causing a variety of infections including skin and soft tissue infections, mastitis, urinary tract infections (UTIs), osteomyelitis, meningitis, food poisoning, biofilm-associated infections or septicaemia [1,2,3]. Bacteriocins possess several advantages over traditional antibiotics as a treatment for bacterial infections They typically possess a very narrow spectrum of activity, resulting in less disruption to the microbiota, which can increase susceptibility to pathogenic invasion and has been associated with several inflammatory or metabolic diseases [54]. They are amenable targets for bioengineering, and can be modified relatively to improve characteristics such as potency, solubility, and stability [56,59] They show antimicrobial activity at very low concentrations compared to antibiotics (typically nanomolar concentrations) [46]. As bacteriocins typically display antimicrobial activity against strains closely phylogenetically related or within the same niche as the producer, staphylococcal bacteriocins (referred to as staphylococcins) could be promising candidates for the treatment of S. aureus infections [64,65]. This review will explore fully and partially characterised staphylococcins, and their therapeutic potential as novel alternatives to traditional antimicrobials in the treatment of S. aureus infections
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