Iacovelli Federico, Romeo Alice, Lattanzio Patrizio, Ammendola Serena, Battistoni Andrea, La Frazia Simone, Vindigni Giulia, Unida Valeria, Biocca Silvia, Gaziano Roberta, Divizia Maurizio, Falconi Mattia
Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Aug 4;24(15):12432. doi: 10.3390/ijms241512432.
Tea Tree Oil (TTO) is an essential oil obtained from the distillation of leaves and branches. Due to its beneficial properties, TTO is widely used as an active ingredient in antimicrobial preparations for topical use or in cosmetic products and contains about 100 different compounds, with terpinen-4-ol, γ-terpinene and 1,8-cineole (or eucalyptol) being the molecules most responsible for its biological activities. In this work, the antimicrobial activity of whole TTO and these three major components was evaluated in vitro against fungi, bacteria and viruses. Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out on a bacterial membrane model and a Coxsackievirus B4 viral capsid, to propose an atomistic explanation of their mechanism of action. The obtained results indicate that the strong antimicrobial activity of TTO is attributable to the induction of an altered membrane functionality, mediated by the incorporation of its components within the lipid bilayer, and to a possible ability of the compounds to bind and alter the structural properties of the viral capsid.
茶树油（TTO）是一种通过蒸馏树叶和树枝获得的精油。由于其有益特性，TTO被广泛用作局部抗菌制剂或化妆品中的活性成分，它含有约100种不同的化合物，其中萜品-4-醇、γ-萜品烯和1,8-桉叶素（或桉油精）是对其生物活性起主要作用的分子。在这项工作中，对整个TTO及其这三种主要成分的抗菌活性进行了体外抗真菌、细菌和病毒的评估。在细菌膜模型和柯萨奇病毒B4病毒衣壳上进行了分子动力学模拟，以对其作用机制提出原子层面的解释。所得结果表明，TTO的强大抗菌活性归因于其成分融入脂质双分子层所介导的膜功能改变，以及这些化合物可能具有的结合并改变病毒衣壳结构特性的能力。
