Trehalose Lipid Biosurfactant Reduces Adhesion of Microbial Pathogens to Polystyrene and Silicone Surfaces: An Experimental and Computational Approach

Abstract

Rhodococcus fascians BD8, isolated from Arctic soil, was found to produce biosurfactant when grown on n-hexadecane as the sole carbon source. The glycolipid product was identified as the trehalose lipid with a molecular mass of 848 g mol−1. The purified biosurfactant reduced the surface tension of water from 72 to 34 mN m−1. The critical micelle concentration of trehalose lipid was 0.140 mg mL−1. To examine its potential for biomedical applications, the antimicrobial and antiadhesive activity of the biosurfactant was evaluated against several pathogenic microorganisms. Trehalose lipid showed antimicrobial activity against resistant pathogens. The largest antimicrobial activities of trehalose lipid were observed against Vibrio harveyi and Proteus vulgaris. The highest concentration tested (0.5 mg mL−1) caused a partial (11–34%) inhibition of other Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and 30% inhibition of Candida albicans growth. The trehalose lipid also showed significant antiadhesive properties against all of the tested microorganisms to polystyrene surface and silicone urethral catheters. The biosurfactant showed 95 and 70% antiadhesive activity against C. albicans and Escherichia coli, respectively. Finally, the role and application of trehalose lipid as an antiadhesive compound was investigated by the modification of the polystyrene and silicone surfaces. The intermolecular interaction energy calculations were performed for investigated complexes at the density functional level of theory. The results indicate that the presence of aromatic moieties can be substantial in the stabilization of trehalose lipid-surface complexes. The antimicrobial and antiadhesive activities of trehalose lipid make them promising alternatives to synthetic surfactants in a wide range of medical applications. Based on our findings, we propose that, because of its ability to inhibit microbial colonization of polystyrene and silicone surfaces, trehalose lipid can be used as a surface coating agent.

Fungistatic and Fungicidal Capacity of a Biosurfactant Extract Obtained from Corn Steep Water

“…It is interesting to remark that even though the biosurfactant evaluated in this work did not achieve a fungicidal effect on C. albicans, it showed a higher efficiency in terms of the growth inhibition at lower concentrations than other biosurfactant extracts, such as those produced, for instance, from Rhodococcus fascians BD8 [37] (see Table 5). Moreover, in this work, at temperatures higher than 35 • C, it was possible to achieve a fungistatic effect.…”

A Multifunctional Biosurfactant Extract Obtained from Corn Steep Water as Bactericide for Agrifood Industry

“…Although it showed to be less effective than the biosurfactant extract obtained from CSW. In addition, biosurfactants extracted from Rhodococcus fascians BD8 have been studied in order to assess their antimicrobial activity against E. coli [28], though it was not able to achieve the minimum inhibitory concentration of 50%.…”

Recent Advances in Biomedical, Therapeutic and Pharmaceutical Applications of Microbial Surfactants

“…When absorbed on the polystyrene surfaces, BS exhibited a good concentration-dependent antiadhesive activity strongly influenced by the type of microorganism tested. In addition, the trehalose lipid was also able to inhibit the biofilm formation of E. coli , E. faecalis , E. hirae and C. albicans on polystyrene and glass in co-incubation conditions and preserved silicone surfaces from microbial colonization when urethral catheters were incubated or coated with it [ 114 ].…”