Evaluation of lipophosphoramidates-based amphiphilic compounds on the formation of biofilms of marine bacteria.

The bacteriostatic and/or bactericidal properties of few phosphoramide-based amphiphilic compounds on human pathogenic bacteria were previously reported. In this study, the potential of two cationic ( and ) and two zwitterionic ( and ) amphiphiles as inhibitors of marine bacterial growth and biofilm formation were investigated. Results showed that the four compounds have little impact on the growth of a panel of 18 selected marine bacteria at a concentration of 200 µM, and up to 700 µM for some bacterial strains. Interestingly, cationic lipid and zwitterionic lipids and effectively disrupt biofilm formation of sp. 4M6 and sp. D02 at 200 µM and to a lesser extent of seven other bacterial strains tested. Moreover, ecotoxicological assays on four species of microalgae highlighted that compounds and have little impact on microalgae growth with EC50 values of 51 µM for the more sensitive species and up to 200 µM for most of the others. Amphiphilic compounds, especially zwitterionic amphiphiles and seem to be promising candidates against biofilm formation by marine bacteria.