The rumen microbiome: an underexplored resource for novel antimicrobial discovery

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising drug candidates to target multi-drug resistant bacteria. The rumen microbiome presents an underexplored resource for the discovery of novel microbial enzymes and metabolites, including AMPs. Using functional screening and computational approaches, we identified 181 potentially novel AMPs from a rumen bacterial metagenome. Here, we show that three of the selected AMPs (Lynronne-1, 2 and 3) were effective against numerous bacterial pathogens, including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). No decrease in MRSA susceptibility was observed after 25 days of sub-lethal exposure to these AMPs. The AMPs bound preferentially to bacterial membrane lipids and induced membrane permeability leading to cytoplasmic leakage. Topical administration of Lynronne-1 (10% w/v) to a mouse model of MRSA wound infection elicited a significant reduction in bacterial counts, which was comparable to treatment with 2% mupirocin ointment. Our findings indicate that the rumen microbiome may provide viable alternative antimicrobials for future therapeutic application.

A versatile and straightforward process to turn plastics into antibacterial materials

“…36 Indeed, such compounds are known to enter cells and form fluorescent complex with DNA only after membrane damages and are therefore a good probe to monitor membrane integrity. [36][37][38] Incubation of E. coli as model bacteria and propidium iodide onto PLA -that displayed very good antibacterial properties -was monitored by fluorescence (the details of the test are described in ESI). Cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was used as a positive control (added in solution on a non additivated PLA surface), since this compound is known to lyse efficiently all the bacteria present in the medium and would represent the upper limit for the fluorescent value.…”