Antimicrobial activity of Ib-M peptides against Escherichia coli O157: H7

PLoS One. 2020 Feb 13;15(2):e0229019. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229019. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The development of new antimicrobial peptides has become an attractive alternative to conventional antibiotics due to the increasing rates of microbial drug resistance. Ib-M corresponds to a family of cationic synthetic peptides, 20 amino acids in length, that have shown inhibitory effect against the non-pathogenic strain Escherichia coli K-12. This work evaluated the antimicrobial potential of Ib-M peptides against the pathogenic E. coli O157: H7 using a reference strain and a clinical isolate. The Ib-M peptides showed antibacterial activity against both strains of E. coli O157: H7; the minimum inhibitory concentration of Ib-M peptides ranged from 1.6 to 12.5 μM and the minimum bactericidal concentration ranged from 3.7 to 22.9 μM, being Ib-M1 and Ib-M2 the peptides that presented the highest inhibitory effect. Time-kill kinetics assay showed a reduction of the bacterial population by more than 95% after 4 hours of exposure to 1xMIC of Ib-M1. Low cytotoxicity was observed in VERO cells with 50% cytotoxic concentration in the range from 197.5 to more than 400 μM. All peptides showed a random structure in hydrophilic environments, except Ib-M1, and all of them transitioned to an α-helical structure when the hydrophobicity of the medium was increased. In conclusion, these findings support the in vitro antimicrobial effect of Ib-M peptides against the pathogenic bacteria E. coli O157: H7 and prove to be promising molecules for the development of new therapeutic alternatives.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Chlorocebus aethiops
  • Drug Resistance, Microbial
  • Escherichia coli O157 / drug effects*
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Vero Cells

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Financing Fund for Science, Technology and Innovation Francisco José de Caldas, COLCIENCIAS (financing contract RC N°778 of 2016) and the Universidad de Santander-UDES. Dr J. F. received the funding to accomplish this project. The funders had no role in study, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.