Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Activity of a Recombinant Fragment of β-Thymosin of Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus

Abstract

With the aim to obtain new antimicrobials against important pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we focused on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from Echinoderms. An example of such peptides is Paracentrin 1 (SP1), a chemically synthesised peptide fragment of a sea urchin thymosin. In the present paper, we report on the biological activity of a Paracentrin 1 derivative obtained by recombination. The recombinant paracentrin RP1, in comparison to the synthetic SP1, is 22 amino acids longer and it was considerably more active against the planktonic forms of S. aureus ATCC 25923 and P. aeruginosa ATCC 15442 at concentrations of 50 µg/mL. Moreover, it was able to inhibit biofilm formation of staphylococcal and P. aeruginosa strains at concentrations equal to 5.0 and 10.7 µg/mL, respectively. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations allowed to rationalise the results of the experimental investigations, providing atomistic insights on the binding of RP1 toward models of mammalian and bacterial cell membranes. Overall, the results obtained point out that RP1 shows a remarkable preference for bacterial membranes, in excellent agreement with the antibacterial activity, highlighting the promising potential of using the tested peptide as a template for the development of novel antimicrobial agents.

Salmo salar fish waste oil: Fatty acids composition and antibacterial activity

“…Marine organisms are a very important source of antimicrobial agents (Richards et al, 2001;Schillaci et al, 2010;Schillaci et al, 2013;Spinello et al, 2018;Vazzana et al, 2018;Núñez Acuña et al, 2018) and, among them, the PUFAs are normally present at high levels in Salmo salar (Linder, Fanni & Parmentier, 2005;Morais et al, 2009). Different studies have shown the antimicrobial activity of the salmon PUFAs against Gram-positive bacteria due to their specific components such as eicosapentaenoic acid (Desbois, Mearns-Spragg & Smith, 2009;Desbois & Lawlor, 2013), docosahexaenoic acid (Coonrod, 1987;Feldlaufer et al, 1993;Gladyshev et al, 2009), γ-linolenic acid (Asthana et al, 2006) and dihomoγ-linolenic acid (Feldlaufer et al, 1993).…”

Changes in the proteome of sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus coelomocytes in response to LPS injection into the body cavity

“…The cellular response is mediated by a particular class of cells, the coelomocytes, that circulate in the coelomic cavity and can infiltrate tissues and organs being the first mediators of allograft rejections; they act, through different activating pathways [4,6,15,28,29] in response to host invasion, injury and cytotoxic agents. The humoral response is mainly due to molecules like lectins, cytokines and profilins, to the complement system and antimicrobial peptides [30][31][32]. For the purpose of this study, we treated Paracentrotus lividus sea urchins with LPS, at different exposure times, to induce an immunological response, and then, through a label free mass spectrometry approach, we analyzed the protein expression pattern to identify mechanisms, processes and pathways involved in the immune response.…”

Bright Spots in the Darkness of Cancer: A Review of Starfishes-Derived Compounds and Their Anti-Tumor Action

“…Sea cucumber are the most studied group and represent an excellent source of triterpene glycosides, the whose effects are widely confirmed in the literature [95,96,97]. Further, sea urchins have been the object of several studies, which have revealed the potential of biomolecules such as antimicrobial peptides [98,99,100]. Within this context, starfishes found clearly their considerable position among echinoderms because of the biological potential of their derived compounds.…”