scholarly journals Immunological detection of AcAMP antimicrobial peptide secreted by Aspergillus clavatus

Author(s):  
Ehsan Zamani ◽  
Jamil Zargan ◽  
Hossein Honar ◽  
Abbas Hajizade ◽  
Ashkan Haji Noor Mohammadi ◽  
...  

Background and Objectives: Aspergillus clavatus antimicrobial peptide (AcAMP) is a fungi-derived peptide with a broad spectrum of activity against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Natural antimicrobial peptides, including AcAMP, have attracted many attentions in the development of new natural antibiotics against pathogenic bacteria, especially multidrug resistant ones. Materials and Methods: In the present study, acamp gene was codon-optimized and chemically synthesized in pUC57 cloning vector, subcloned into pET28a (+) expression vector and transferred into competent Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. The expression of AcAMP was induced by addition of Isopropyl β- d-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) and the expressed peptide was purified by Ni-NTA. BALB/c mice were immunized with the purified peptide and the ability of the immunized mice sera for the detection of the native AcAMP secreted by A. clavatus IRAN 142C was examined through ELISA and Western blotting techniques. Results: Both ELISA and Western blotting demonstrated the ability of the sera of the immunized mice to detect the native AcAMP. Conclusion: The results of the present work show that the raised antibody against recombinant AcAMP can be used to detect AcAMP peptide, an issue which paves the way to develop detection kits for the detection of AcAMP-producing organisms, purification of this valuable peptide for further investigations.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlin S. Witherell ◽  
Jason Price ◽  
Ashok D. Bandaranayake ◽  
James Olson ◽  
Douglas R. Call

AbstractMultidrug-resistant bacteria are a growing global concern, and with increasingly prevalent resistance to last line antibiotics such as colistin, it is imperative that alternative treatment options are identified. Herein we investigated the mechanism of action of a novel antimicrobial peptide (CDP-B11) and its effectiveness against multidrug-resistant bacteria including Escherichia coli #0346, which harbors multiple antibiotic-resistance genes, including mobilized colistin resistance gene (mcr-1). Bacterial membrane potential and membrane integrity assays, measured by flow cytometry, were used to test membrane disruption. Bacterial growth inhibition assays and time to kill assays measured the effectiveness of CDP-B11 alone and in combination with colistin against E. coli #0346 and other bacteria. Hemolysis assays were used to quantify the hemolytic effects of CDP-B11 alone and in combination with colistin. Findings show CDP-B11 disrupts the outer membrane of E. coli #0346. CDP-B11 with colistin inhibits the growth of E. coli #0346 at ≥ 10× lower colistin concentrations compared to colistin alone in Mueller–Hinton media and M9 media. Growth is significantly inhibited in other clinically relevant strains, such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. In rich media and minimal media, the drug combination kills bacteria at a lower colistin concentration (1.25 μg/mL) compared to colistin alone (2.5 μg/mL). In minimal media, the combination is bactericidal with killing accelerated by up to 2 h compared to colistin alone. Importantly, no significant red blood hemolysis is evident for CDP-B11 alone or in combination with colistin. The characteristics of CDP-B11 presented here indicate that it can be used as a potential monotherapy or as combination therapy with colistin for the treatment of multidrug-resistant infections, including colistin-resistant infections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Yitayal S. Anteneh ◽  
Qi Yang ◽  
Melissa H. Brown ◽  
Christopher M. M. Franco

The misuse and overuse of antibiotics have led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms, which decreases the chance of treating those infected with existing antibiotics. This resistance calls for the search of new antimicrobials from prolific producers of novel natural products including marine sponges. Many of the novel active compounds reported from sponges have originated from their microbial symbionts. Therefore, this study aims to screen for bioactive metabolites from bacteria isolated from sponges. Twelve sponge samples were collected from South Australian marine environments and grown on seven isolation media under four incubation conditions; a total of 1234 bacterial isolates were obtained. Of these, 169 bacteria were tested in media optimized for production of antimicrobial metabolites and screened against eleven human pathogens. Seventy bacteria were found to be active against at least one test bacterial or fungal pathogen, while 37% of the tested bacteria showed activity against Staphylococcus aureus including methicillin-resistant strains and antifungal activity was produced by 21% the isolates. A potential novel active compound was purified possessing inhibitory activity against S. aureus. Using 16S rRNA, the strain was identified as Streptomyces sp. Our study highlights that the marine sponges of South Australia are a rich source of abundant and diverse bacteria producing metabolites with antimicrobial activities against human pathogenic bacteria and fungi.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (50) ◽  
pp. e2114013118
Author(s):  
Tamara N. Grund ◽  
Melanie Radloff ◽  
Di Wu ◽  
Hojjat G. Goojani ◽  
Luca F. Witte ◽  
...  

The treatment of infectious diseases caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens is a major clinical challenge of the 21st century. The membrane-embedded respiratory cytochrome bd-type oxygen reductase is a critical survival factor utilized by pathogenic bacteria during infection, proliferation and the transition from acute to chronic states. Escherichia coli encodes for two cytochrome bd isoforms that are both involved in respiration under oxygen limited conditions. Mechanistic and structural differences between cydABX (Ecbd-I) and appCBX (Ecbd-II) operon encoded cytochrome bd variants have remained elusive in the past. Here, we demonstrate that cytochrome bd-II catalyzes oxidation of benzoquinols while possessing additional specificity for naphthoquinones. Our data show that although menaquinol-1 (MK1) is not able to directly transfer electrons onto cytochrome bd-II from E. coli, it has a stimulatory effect on its oxygen reduction rate in the presence of ubiquinol-1. We further determined cryo-EM structures of cytochrome bd-II to high resolution of 2.1 Å. Our structural insights confirm that the general architecture and substrate accessible pathways are conserved between the two bd oxidase isoforms, but two notable differences are apparent upon inspection: (i) Ecbd-II does not contain a CydH-like subunit, thereby exposing heme b595 to the membrane environment and (ii) the AppB subunit harbors a structural demethylmenaquinone-8 molecule instead of ubiquinone-8 as found in CydB of Ecbd-I. Our work completes the structural landscape of terminal respiratory oxygen reductases of E. coli and suggests that structural and functional properties of the respective oxidases are linked to quinol-pool dependent metabolic adaptations in E. coli.


2014 ◽  
Vol 77 (8) ◽  
pp. 1394-1401 ◽  
Author(s):  
KANJANA CHANGKAEW ◽  
FUANGFA UTRARACHKIJ ◽  
KANOKRAT SIRIPANICHGON ◽  
CHIE NAKAJIMA ◽  
ORASA SUTHIENKUL ◽  
...  

Antimicrobial resistance in bacteria associated with food and water is a global concern. To survey the risk, 312 Escherichia coli isolates from shrimp farms and markets in Thailand were examined for susceptibility to 10 antimicrobials. The results showed that 17.6% of isolates (55 of 312) were resistant to at least one of the tested drugs, and high resistance rates were observed to tetracycline (14.4%; 45 of 312), ampicillin (8.0%; 25 of 312), and trimethroprim (6.7%; 21 of 312); 29.1% (16 of 55) were multidrug resistant. PCR assay of the tet(A), tet(B), tet(C), tet(D), tet(E), and tet(G) genes detected one or more of these genes in 47 of the 55 resistant isolates. Among these genes, tet(A) (69.1%; 38 of 55) was the most common followed by tet(B) (56.4%; 31 of 55) and tet(C) (3.6%; 2 of 55). The resistant isolates were further investigated for class 1 integrons. Of the 55 resistant isolates, 16 carried class 1 integrons and 7 carried gene cassettes encoding trimethoprim resistance (dfrA12 or dfrA17) and aminoglycosides resistance (aadA2 or aadA5). Two class 1 integrons, In54 (dfrA17-aadA5) and In27 (dfrA12-orfF-aadA2), were found in four and three isolates, respectively. These results indicate a risk of drug-resistant E. coli contamination in shrimp farms and selling places. The occurrence of multidrug-resistant E. coli carrying tet genes and class 1 integrons indicates an urgent need to monitor the emergence of drug-resistant E. coli to control the dissemination of drug-resistant strains and the further spread of resistance genes to other pathogenic bacteria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Pang Chen ◽  
Eric H-L Chen ◽  
Sheng-Yung Yang ◽  
Pin-Shin Kuo ◽  
Hau-Ming Jan ◽  
...  

Searching for new antimicrobials is a pressing issue to conquer the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria and fungi. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) usually have antimicrobial mechanisms different from those of traditional antibiotics and bring new hope in the discovery of new antimicrobials. In addition to antimicrobial activity, stability and target selectivity are important concerns to decide whether an antimicrobial peptide can be applied in vivo. Here, we used a simple de novo designed peptide, pepD2, which contains only three kinds of amino acid residues (W, K, L), as an example to evaluate how the residues and modifications affect the antimicrobial activity against Acinetobacter baumannii, stability in plasma, and toxicity to human HEK293 cells. We found that pepI2 with a Leu→Ile substitution can decrease the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) against A. baumannii by one half (4 μg/mL). A D-form peptide, pepdD2, in which the D-enantiomers replaced the L-enantiomers of the Lys(K) and Leu(L) residues, extended the peptide half-life in plasma by more than 12-fold. PepD3 is 3-residue shorter than pepD2. Decreasing peptide length did not affect antimicrobial activity but increased the IC50 to HEK293 cells, thus increased the selectivity index (SI) between A. baumannii and HEK293 cells from 4.7 to 8.5. The chain length increase of the N-terminal acyl group and the Lys→Arg substitution greatly enhanced the hemolytic activity, hence those modifications are not good for clinical application. Unlike colistin, the action mechanism of our peptides relies on negatively charged lipids rather than lipopolysaccharides. Therefore, not only gram-negative bacteria but also gram-positive bacteria can be killed by our peptides.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-18
Author(s):  
Nayan Chandra Das ◽  
Farzana Hossaini ◽  
Saurab Kishore Munshi

The present study was carried out to assess the degree of microbiological proliferation in tannery wastes and the surrounding environment of the tannery industries. In this regard, a total of 8 tannery waste (n=4) and environmental (n=4) samples were tested. All the samples contained a huge load of bacteria and fungi in an average of 108 cfu/g or ml. An extended numbers of pathogenic bacteria were recovered. Among the pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus spp. was predominant. Most of the samples exhibited the presence of Pseudomonas spp. Salmonella spp. and fecal coliform were found each in one sample. Bacillus spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp. and Vibrio spp. were found in few samples. The average load of the pathogens was 104 cfu/g or ml. All the pathogenic isolates were found to be multidrug resistant. Higher resistance was found against penicillin and streptomycin. Tannery waste after lather treatment sample showed antibacterial activity against all the pathogens tested. Overall, presence of pathogenic microorganisms with multidrug resistance traits may pose serious public health threats. Stamford Journal of Microbiology, Vol.7(1) 2017: 14-18


2001 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 3763-3766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve A. Carlson ◽  
Timothy S. Frana ◽  
Ronald W. Griffith

ABSTRACT Microcin 24 is an antimicrobial peptide secreted by uropathogenicEscherichia coli. Secretion of microcin 24 provides an antibacterial defense mechanism for E. coli. In a plasmid-based system using transformed Salmonella enterica, we found that resistance to microcin 24 could be seen in concert with a multiple-antibiotic resistance phenotype. This multidrug-resistant phenotype appeared when Salmonella was exposed to an E. coli strain expressing microcin 24. Therefore, it appears that multidrug-resistant Salmonellacan arise as a result of an insult from other pathogenic bacteria.


2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Roden

There is a real need to take all means possible to control the spread of pathogenic bacteria and fungi in health facilities. The use of biocide containing antimicrobial surfaces is one additional option being strongly promoted to complement the standard cleaning and disinfection practices. The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in medical facilities has resulted in significant media attention and the widespread dissemination of information to the general population. The fear of germs, fuelled by headlines of ?superbugs? plus recent viral pandemics, is also being used to support advertising campaigns to sell similar products for household use.


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