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This work is the first to report the antibacterial characteristics and antibacterial mechanisms of MP1102, which is a variant of NZ2114, against pathogenic Clostridium perfringens. MP1102 exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against C. perfringens strains CVCC 61, CVCC 1163, and CVCC 2032 at a low minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.91 μM. MP1102 showed anti- C. perfringens activity over a wide pH range of 2.0 and 10.0, high thermal stability from 20 to 80 °C, and remarkable resistance to pepsin. The fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) indicated an additive or synergic effect between MP1102 and bacitracin zinc, nisin, vancomycin, virginiamycin, aureomycin, and ampicillin against C. perfringens (FICI = 0.3125-1.0). To further elucidate the antibacterial mechanism of MP1102, its effect on the C. perfringens CVCC 61 cell membrane and intracellular DNA was studied. Flow cytometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that MP1102 treatment resulted in the release of cellular contents by damaging the membrane. A DNA gel retardation and circular dichroism analysis demonstrated that MP1102 interacted with DNA and intercalated into the DNA base pairs. A cell cycle assay demonstrated that MP1102 affected cellular functions, such as DNA synthesis. These results suggested that MP1102 exhibited potential as a new antimicrobial agent against C. perfringens infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colibacillosis, caused by pathogenic Escherichia coli, is a common disease in animals and human worldwide with extensive losses in breeding industry and with millions of people death annually. There is thus an urgent need for the development of universal vaccines against colibacillosis. In this study, the BamA protein was analyzed in silico for sequence homology, physicochemical properties, allergenic prediction, and epitopes prediction. The BamA protein (containing 286 amino acids) clusters in E. coli were retrieved in UniProtKB database, in which 81.7 % sequences were identical (Uniref entry A7ZHR7), and sequences with 94.82 % identity were above 93.4 %. Moreover, BamA was highly conserved among Salmonella and Shigella and has no allergenicity to mice and human. The epitopes of BamA were located principally in periplasm and extracellular domain. Surf_Ag_VNR domain (at position 448-810 aa) of BamA was expressed, purified, and then used for immunization of mice. Titers of the rBamA sera were 1:736,000 and 1:152,000 against rBamA and E. coli and over 1:27,000 against Salmonella and Shigella. Opsonophagocytosis result revealed that the rBamA sera strengthened the phagocytic activity of neutrophils against E. coli. The survival rate of mice vaccinated with rBamA and PBS was 80 and 20 %, respectively. These data indicated that BamA could serve as a promising universal vaccine candidate for the development of a protective subunit vaccine against bacterial infection. Thus, the above protocol would provide more feasible technical clues and choices for available control of pathogenic E. coli, Salmonella, and Shigella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, more antimicrobial drug candidates are urgently needed to combat the rise in drug-resistance among pathogenic microbes. A new antimicrobial peptide, MP1102, a variant of NZ2114, was designed, evaluated, and overexpressed in Pichia pastoris. The total secreted protein in cultures reached 695 mg/l, and the concentration of the recombinant MP1102 (rMP1102) was 292 mg/l. rMP1102 was purified from the fermentation supernatant by one-step cation exchange chromatography to obtain a yield of 197.1 mg/l with 96.4 % purity. rMP1102 exhibited potent activity against Gram-positive bacteria, and its minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for four Staphyloccocus aureus ( S. aureus) strains ranged from 0.028 to 0.11 μM, and it had stronger activity (MIC = 0.04 to 0.23 μM) to 20 clinical isolates of MRSA (cMRSA) than rNZ2114 (MIC = 0.11 to 0.90 μM). rMP1102 was shown to kill over 99.9 % of tested S. aureus cells within 6 h when treated at one, two, and four times its MIC and over 90 % of S. aureus cells within 12 h at concentrations of 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg in a mouse thigh infection model. The higher sensitivity of MRSA to MP1102 than to its parental peptide, NZ2114, indicated by this initial pharmacodynamic analysis suggests a possible difference in the killing mechanism of these two molecules. rMP1102 caused less than 0.05 % hemolytic activity at 128 μg/ml and exhibited good thermostability from 20 to 80 °C, with its highest activity being observed at pH 8.0. These results suggest that this yeast expression system is feasible for large-scale production, and rMP1102 exerted stronger activity against S. aureus than NZ2114 via a different mechanism and exhibited potential as a new antimicrobial agent for S. aureus, especially MRSA infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]