Fatty Acid Profiling of Lipid A Isolated from Indigenous Salmonella Typhi Strain by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry.

Typhoid, caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), is a major health problem worldwide especially in developing countries. Lipopolysaccharides are one of the main virulence factors of S. Typhi. Hydrophobic lipid A anchors the lipopolysaccharides into the bacterial outer membrane and also serves as the epicenter of endotoxicity, which is linked to the presence of several fatty acid chains. Fatty acid profiling is, therefore, very important to understand the endotoxicity of these pathogenic bacteria. To profile lipid A with respect to its fatty acid constituents, a S. Typhi was isolated from blood culture of a typhoid patient from the Faisalabad region of Pakistan. After its complete identification using biochemical and molecular techniques, this bacterium was cultivated in a fermentor. The cell pellet obtained was subjected to hot phenol process to extract and purify lipopolysaccharides. Acid hydrolysis of the lipopolysaccharides yielded lipid A, which was subjected to analyses using GC-MS after derivatization into their fatty acid methyl esters. The fatty acid methyl esters were identified on the basis of their retention times, compared with standards as well as characteristic mass fragmentation patterns of their respective mass spectra. This fatty acid profiling revealed the occurrence of dodecanoic acid (C12:0), tetradecanoic acid (C14:0), 3-hydroxy tetradecanoic acid (3-OH C14:0) and hexadecanoic acid (C16:0) in the lipid A component of S. Typhi strain with the relative percentage abundances 8.5%, 12.5%, 55.9% and 23.1%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]