Antimicrobial Activity of Sertraline on Listeria monocytogenes

Yidi Wang; Lili Li; Pingyao Cai; Rikke Heidemann Olsen; Shuai Peng; Hecheng Meng

doi:10.3390/ijms24054678

Antimicrobial Activity of Sertraline on Listeria monocytogenes

Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Feb 28;24(5):4678. doi: 10.3390/ijms24054678.

Authors

Yidi Wang¹, Lili Li², Pingyao Cai¹, Rikke Heidemann Olsen³, Shuai Peng^{4

5}, Hecheng Meng¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.
² Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
³ Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark.
⁴ Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Clean Production and High Value Utilization of Bio-Based Textile Materials, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China.
⁵ College of Life Science, South-Central Minzu University, Wuhan 430074, China.

Abstract

We explored the antimicrobial activity of sertraline on Listeria monocytogenes and further investigated the effects of sertraline on biofilm formation and the virulence gene expression of L. monocytogenes. The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration for sertraline against L. monocytogenes were in the range of 16-32 μg/mL and 64 μg/mL, respectively. Sertraline-dependent damage of the cell membrane and a decrease in intracellular ATP and pH_in in L. monocytogenes were observed. In addition, sertraline reduced the biofilm formation efficiency of the L. monocytogenes strains. Importantly, low concentrations (0.1 μg/mL and 1 μg/mL) of sertraline significantly down-regulated the expression levels of various L. monocytogens virulence genes (prfA, actA, degU, flaA, sigB, ltrC and sufS). These results collectively suggest a role of sertraline for the control of L. monocytogenes in the food industry.

Keywords: Listeria monocytogenes; antimicrobial activity; biofilm; sertraline; virulence.

MeSH terms

Anti-Infective Agents* / pharmacology
Bacterial Proteins* / genetics
Bacterial Proteins* / metabolism
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / drug effects
Listeria monocytogenes* / drug effects
Listeria monocytogenes* / genetics
Listeria monocytogenes* / pathogenicity
Sertraline* / pharmacology
Virulence / drug effects
Virulence / genetics
Virulence Factors* / genetics
Virulence Factors* / metabolism

Substances

Anti-Infective Agents
Bacterial Proteins
Sertraline
Virulence Factors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation (grant number 31901789, 32001796) and Basic Research Project of Guangzhou (grant number: 202002030630020049).