A bacteriocin expression platform for targeting pathogenic bacterial species.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 6332, 2024 Jul 27.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39068147
ABSTRACT
Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides that are naturally produced by many bacteria. They hold great potential in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria, including ESKAPE pathogens. Engineered live biotherapeutic products (eLBPs) that secrete bacteriocins can be created to deliver targeted bacteriocin production. Here we develop a modular bacteriocin secretion platform that can be used to express and secrete multiple bacteriocins from non-pathogenic Escherichia coli host strains. As a proof of concept we create Enterocin A (EntA) and Enterocin B (EntB) secreting strains that show strong antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in vitro, and characterise this activity in both solid culture and liquid co-culture. We then develop a Lotka-Volterra model that can be used to capture the interactions of these competitor strains. We show that simultaneous exposure to EntA and EntB can delay Enterococcus growth. Our system has the potential to be used as an eLBP to secrete additional bacteriocins for the targeted killing of pathogenic bacteria.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Bacteriocins
/
Enterococcus faecium
/
Enterococcus faecalis
/
Escherichia coli
/
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication: