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Cell-Free Supernatant of Bacillus thuringiensis Displays Anti-Biofilm Activity Against Staphylococcus aureus

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Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is an important bacterial pathogen responsible for biofilm formation in medical devices. Due to the increasing antibiotic resistance of S. aureus, it is necessary to search for new anti-biofilm agents. In this study, the cell-free supernatant of Bacillus thuringiensis inhibited biofilm formation up to 93% and dispersed biofilms up to 83% without affecting the growth of S. aureus. The ethyl acetate extract of B. thuringiensis cell-free supernatant exhibited a dose-dependent anti-biofilm activity against S. aureus with the biofilm inhibition concentration ranging from 8 to 64 µg/mL. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the cell-free supernatant extract of B. thuringiensis resulted in a significant reduction in S. aureus biofilms. The ethyl acetate extract of cell-free supernatant of B. thuringiensis was found to contain various compounds with structural similarity to known anti-biofilm compounds. In particular, squalene, cinnamic acid derivatives, and eicosapentaene seem to act synergistically against S. aureus biofilms. Hence, B. thuringiensis cell-free supernatant proved to be effective against S. aureus biofilms. The results clearly show the potential of natural molecules produced by B. thuringiensis as alternative therapies with anti-biofilm activity instead of bactericidal properties.

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Data Availability

All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in this article.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2020R1A6A1A03044512).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Cell Culture, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do, 38541, Republic of Korea

    Subhasree Ray, Jun-O Jin, Inho Choi & Myunghee Kim

  2. Department of Life Science, School of Basic Science and Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Subhasree Ray

  3. Department of Medical Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do, 38541, Republic of Korea

    Jun-O Jin & Inho Choi

  4. Department of Food Science and Technology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do, 38541, Republic of Korea

    Myunghee Kim

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Contributions

Subhasree Ray, conceptualization, methodology, validation, and writing original draft; Jun-O Jin, review and editing; Inho Choi, review and editing, funding acquisition, and project administration; Myunghee Kim, conceptualization, data analysis, resources, and supervision. Subhasree Ray carried out all the experiments and data collection and wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Myunghee Kim.

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Ray, S., Jin, JO., Choi, I. et al. Cell-Free Supernatant of Bacillus thuringiensis Displays Anti-Biofilm Activity Against Staphylococcus aureus. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 195, 5379–5393 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-022-03971-z

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