A team of Finnish researchers has developed a new set of methods to test the antiviral and antibacterial effects of hundreds of unknown compounds from the Arctic Sea.
The team from the University of Helsinki targeted an enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) strain that causes severe diarrhea in children under the age of five, especially in developing countries. The compounds were derived from four species of actinobacteria and tested against EPEC stuck to colorectal cancer cells.
EPEC causes disease by sticking to cells in the human gut. Once it sticks to these cells, EPEC injects so-called “virulence factors” into the host cell to hijack its molecular machinery, and eventually kill it.
Two compounds showed strong antivirulence or antibacterial activity: one from an unknown strain (T091-5) in the Rhodococcus genus and the other from an unknown strain (T160-2) of Kocuria. The compound from T091-5 was most likely a phospholipid, a class of fatty phosphorus-containing molecules that play a key role in cell metabolism.
“Here we show how advanced screening tests can identify antivirulence and antibacterial metabolites from actinobacteria extracts,” said Dr. Päivi Tammela, Professor at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
The T091-5 molecule did not inhibit the growth of EPEC bacteria, unlike the T160-2 compounds.
Of the two species, T091-5 is the most promising, as EPEC is less likely to develop resistance to its antiviral effects.
Using sophisticated analytical techniques, the team found that the active component of T091-5 was likely a phospholipid – a family of fatty phosphorus-containing molecules that are important for cell metabolism. But this remains the subject of further studies, they said in the paper published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.
“The next steps are to optimize culture conditions for compound production and to isolate sufficient quantities of each compound to elucidate their respective structures and further investigate their respective biological activities,” Tammela said.
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