Enhancement of the antibacterial potential of plantaricin by incorporation into silver nanoparticles

Abstract

Background Bacteriocins are proteinaceous compounds produced from lactic acid bacteria. Bacteriocins are well-known for their antibacterial potential and safety for application in food. However, the commercial availability of bacteriocin is facing several limitations; among them is the low yield and short stability period. That calls for a new strategy for overcoming these hurdles. Among these approaches is incorporating bacteriocin in nanoparticles. So, the aim of this study was to enhance the plantaricin produced from isolated Lactobacillus plantarum strain using nanotechnology. Results In this study, the plnEF genes encoding plantaricin EF have been identified and sequenced (accession number of MN172264.1). The extracted bacteriocin (EX-PL) was obtained by the ammonium sulfate method. Then, it was used for biosynthesizing plantaricin-incorporated silver nanoparticles (PL-SNPs). The synthesized nanoparticles were confirmed by SEM-EDAX analysis. The antibacterial activity of both combined (PL-SNPs) and extracted plantaricin (EX-PL) were tested against some strains of foodborne pathogenic bacteria. The results revealed that the antibacterial activities were increased by 99.2% on the combination of bacteriocin with the silver nanoparticle. The MIC of EX-PL (7.6 mg/mL) has been lowered after incorporating into silver nanoparticles and reached 0.004 mg/mL for PL-SNPs. Despite that extracted plantaricin showed no inhibitory activity towards Listeria monocytogenes, plantaricin-incorporated silver nanoparticles displayed inhibitory activity against this strain. Furthermore, the stability period at 4 °C was increased from 5 days to 60 days for EX-PL and PL-SNPs, respectively. Conclusions Plantaricin-incorporated silver nanoparticles possess higher antibacterial activity and more stability than the free one, which makes it more fitting for combating foodborne pathogens and open more fields for applications in both food and pharmaceutical industries. Graphical abstract

Utilization of novel bacteriocin synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for their application in antimicrobial packaging for preservation of tomato fruit

“…Different studies have been documented in the literature about the utilization of probiotics or bacteriocin to synthesize AgNPs. Amer et al (2021) utilized bacteriocin plantaricin to synthesize AgNPs to enhance the antimicrobial potential of plantaricin. In another study, the probiotic strain of Lactococcus lactis was used to synthesize AgNPs (Saravanan et al, 2017).…”

An Update on the Effectiveness of Probiotics in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer

“…Hence, there is a need to examine alternative systems, such as liposomal delivery, for the delivery of antimicrobial and anticancer peptides (Figure 7) [155,156]. Nanotechnology is a valuable strategy to improve bacteriocin formulations and incorporate them into nanoparticles for delivery [157,158]. Nisin, a bacteriocin, has been successfully used in implants and delivered in vivo to prevent the growth of Staphylococcus aureus [159].…”

Enhancing antibacterial properties of bacteriocins using combination therapy

“…With Ag NPs Staphylococcus aureus and Sh. Flexneri [8] Plantaricin and Ag NPs Listeria monocytogenes and other food-borne pathogens [67] Combined Bacteriocins and Bacteriophages…”

“…, bacteriocin produced by Lactobacillus paracasei and silver NPs (AgNPs) conjugates have greater antibacterial activity against MDR pathogens such as S. aureus and Pseudomonas aeuroginosa due to increased cell membrane disruption, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and disrupted DNA replication and protein synthesis. Similarly, plantaricin, a bacteriocin produced by Lactobacillus plantarum and coupled with AgNPs has shown to exhibit enhanced antibacterial activity against different foodborne pathogenic bacteria such as L. monocytogenes, Proteus mirabilis, E. coli, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, Salmonella Paratyphi A, Streptococcus faecalis, Shigella flexneri, and B. cereusi[67]. AgNPs-nisin, gold NPs (AuNPs)-nisin, and copper oxide NPs (CuONPs)-nisin conjugates are also known to display increased antibacterial properties against a large spectrum of pathogens like S.…”