Investigation of different interactions between Staphylococcus aureus phages and pomegranate peel, grape seed, and black cumin extracts

Abstract

Today, antibiotic resistance is one of the most crucial problems so that researchers have begun to search for alternatives to antibiotics. Among these alternatives, phage therapy and phytotherapy became prominent. The present study aims to put forward a different approach by combining these two methods. For this purpose, Staphylococcus aureus phages were isolated from commercial mixtures. After that, extraction of phenolic compounds from pomegranate peels (Ps), grape seeds (GSs), and black cumin (NS) was carried out and antimicrobial activities were determined. Phage‐phenolic interactions were investigated by examining the effect of phenolic extracts on phage plaque sizes and then on phage titer and bacteria count. As a result, it was found that only the NS extract had a positive effect on phage activity and increased the size of phage plaques. However, no synergistic effect was observed in experiments performed in liquid media. It was also found that P and GS extracts inhibited phage activity. Practical Applications The present study was focused on effects of extracts obtained from pomegranate peel, grape seed, and black cumin on Staphylococcus aureus phage activity. It is known that antibiotic resistance constitutes a major obstacle to the pathogen elimination. In this study, phage therapy and phytotherapy, which are prominent methods in pathogen elimination, have been combined and the effect of phenolic compounds isolated from natural sources on phage activity and bacteria count have been examined. Given the results of the current study, it has been demonstrated that the combined use of phages and antimicrobial compounds could be an important alternative to combating pathogens. It is thought that this combined method should be taken into consideration both in the practice of phage therapy on humans and animals, and in applications in the food industry.

Investigation of phage and molasses interactions for the biocontrol ofE. coliO157:H7

“…In the experiments, we observed that molasses increased phage plaque size and burst size at inhibitory and subinhibitory concentrations. Similar to our results, it was reported that black cumin (Nigella sativa) extract increase the plaque size of S. aureus phage (Tayyarcan et al 2019). In literature, antimicrobial agents like antibiotics, essential oil and plant extracts have been used for enhancing the phage therapy applications.…”

“…In the phage synergism studies in the literature, synergism was mostly studied with antibiotics, but natural antimicrobial agents were not studied much. In a few studies; honey, chestnut honey, various plant extracts, bacteriocin and phenolic substances were studied to demonstrate phage synergism (Tayyarcan et al 2019;Oliveira et al 2017Oliveira et al , 2018Heo et al 2018). Although phage synergism studies have been conducted before with substances containing antimicrobials, there is no such research with molasses.…”

Pitanga and grumixama extracts: antioxidant and antimicrobial activities and incorporation into cellulosic films against Staphylococcus aureus

“…Due to the importance of S. aureus to cause diseases, the study of alternative ways to inhibit the growth of this pathogen has become necessary (Silva et al, 2017;Tong et al, 2015). Plant-derived bioactive compounds are promising, due to antimicrobial activity which have been generally demonstrated (Bouarab-Chibane et al, 2019;Garzón et al, 2020;Tayyarcan et al, 2019;Zola et al, 2019).…”

“…The pathogenicity is associated with the secretion of multiple virulence factors and the increasing resistance of S. aureus to various drugs is limiting treatment of infections (Wu et al, 2018). Hence, the development of alternative antimicrobial strategies involving new compounds has attracted great attention (Silva et al, 2017;Tayyarcan et al, 2019).…”

Wine Phenolic Compounds Differently Affect the Host-Killing Activity of Two Lytic Bacteriophages Infecting the Lactic Acid Bacterium Oenococcus oeni

“…When added as pure molecules, several PCs could induce proteome and transcriptome changes in probiotic LAB as well as commensal gut bacteria with significant effects on protein folding, cell wall synthesis and the production of exopolysaccharide and surface proteins [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Other authors also reported that bacterial cell surface alteration by PCs can modulate phage-host interactions in Lactobacillus casei [ 19 ] and more recently in Staphylococcus aureus [ 20 ]. Taking advantage of the recent isolation of lytic phages OE33PA [ 21 ] and Vinitor [ 22 , 23 ] infecting O. oeni , we explored the hypothesis that phage-host interactions may vary in the presence or absence of PCs.…”