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In vitro and In vivo Antibacterial Effects of Nisin Against Streptococcus suis

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Abstract

Nisin is a promising therapeutic candidate because of its potent activity against Gram-positive bacteria. The present study aimed to describe the in vitro and in vivo antibacterial effects of nisin against Streptococcus suis, an important zoonotic pathogen. The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimal bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) of nisin against different S. suis strains ranged from 0.12 to 4.0 μg/mL and from 0.25 to 8.0 μg/mL, respectively. Time-killing curve assays illustrated that nisin killed 100% of tested virulent S. suis strains within 4 h when used at 2× MIC, which indicates the rapid bactericidal activity of nisin against the bacteria. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy revealed that nisin destroyed S. suis cell membrane integrity and affected its cellular ultrastructure, including a significantly wrinkled surface, intracellular content leakage, and cell lysis. In addition, nisin inhibited biofilm formation by S. suis in a concentration-dependent manner and exhibited strong degrading activities against preformed biofilms. More importantly, nisin displayed antimicrobial activity against S. suis infection in vivo. Upon treatment with 5.0–10 mg/kg nisin solution, the survival rates of mice challenged with a lethal dose of virulent S. suis virulent ranged 87.5–100%. Nisin significantly decreased bacterial proliferation and translocation in the mouse spleen, brain, and blood. These results indicate that nisin has potential as a novel antimicrobial agent for the clinical treatment and prevention of infection caused by S. suis in animals.

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All data during the study appear in the submitted article.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Joe Barber Jr., PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (2018YFD0500101), the Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (201303041), the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (31302114), and the Innovation of Agricultural Sciences in Jiangsu province (CX(14)5042). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Haodan Zhu and Lixiao Han contributed equally to the work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

    Haodan Zhu, Lixiao Han, Yanxiu Ni, Zhengyu Yu, Dandan Wang, Junming Zhou, Bin Li & Kongwang He

  2. Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for the Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Disease and Zoonose, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Haodan Zhu, Yanxiu Ni, Zhengyu Yu, Dandan Wang, Junming Zhou, Bin Li & Kongwang He

  3. Key Lab of Food Quality and Safety of Jiangsu Province, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

    Haodan Zhu, Yanxiu Ni, Zhengyu Yu, Dandan Wang, Junming Zhou, Bin Li & Kongwang He

  4. College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

    Lixiao Han & Wei Zhang

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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HZ, LH and KH. Performed the experiments: HZ, LH and DW. Analyzed the data: HZ, LH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YN, ZY, JZ, BL and WZ. Wrote and revised the manuscript: HZ, LH and KH. All authors read, advised and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Haodan Zhu or Kongwang He.

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Zhu, H., Han, L., Ni, Y. et al. In vitro and In vivo Antibacterial Effects of Nisin Against Streptococcus suis. Probiotics & Antimicro. Prot. 13, 598–610 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12602-020-09732-w

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