Grover Vishakha, Jain Ashish, Bhardwaj Amit, Mehta Manjula, Arora Suraj, Algarni Youssef A, Bavabeedu Shashit Shetty, Das Gotam, Ali Ahmed Babiker Mohamed, Ahmed Naseer, Heboyan Artak
Dr. HS Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.
SGT University, Gurugram, India.
J Clin Lab Anal. 2025 Feb;39(4):e25156. doi: 10.1002/jcla.25156. Epub 2025 Jan 24.
In the oral environment, the production of bacteriocins or antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) plays a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance by impeding the proliferation of closely related microorganisms. This study aims to conduct in silico genome screening of Streptococcus salivarius to identify potential antimicrobial compounds existing as hypothetical peptides, with the goal of developing novel synthetic antimicrobial peptides.
Draft genomes of various oral Streptococcus salivarius strains were obtained from the NCBI database and subjected to analysis using bioinformatic tools, viz. Expert Protein-Analysis System (Expasy), UniProt Knowledgebase (UniProtKB), European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite (EMBOSS), Pepwheel, and PEP-FOLD Peptide Structure Prediction Server. The antimicrobial potential of peptides was assessed through the Antimicrobial Peptide Database (AMP) and Bactibase. Two short peptides, viz. synthetic antimicrobial peptides (SAMPs), were designed based on current knowledge of hydrophobic and cationic residues, synthesized, and their efficacy against biofilm formation was evaluated with standard microbiological methods.
The synthesized short peptides reduced the growth and effectively inhibited biofilm formation by specific oral microbial strains, demonstrating their potential as antimicrobial peptides. Furthermore, the alignment of bacteriocin biosynthetic clusters among streptococcus strains revealed variations in putative bacteriocin amino acid sequences across different strains of the same organism.
Streptococcus salivarius emerges as a promising bioresource for the development of novel antimicrobial agents, particularly for combating biofilm-associated oral infections.
在口腔环境中，细菌素或抗菌肽（AMPs）的产生通过阻碍密切相关微生物的增殖在维持生态平衡方面发挥着关键作用。本研究旨在对唾液链球菌进行计算机基因组筛选，以鉴定作为假设肽存在的潜在抗菌化合物，目标是开发新型合成抗菌肽。
从NCBI数据库获取各种口腔唾液链球菌菌株的基因组草图，并使用生物信息学工具进行分析，即专家蛋白质分析系统（Expasy）、通用蛋白质知识库（UniProtKB）、欧洲分子生物学开放软件套件（EMBOSS）、Pepwheel和PEP-FOLD肽结构预测服务器。通过抗菌肽数据库（AMP）和细菌数据库评估肽的抗菌潜力。基于对疏水和阳离子残基的现有认识设计了两种短肽，即合成抗菌肽（SAMPs），进行合成，并使用标准微生物学方法评估它们对生物膜形成的功效。
合成的短肽降低了特定口腔微生物菌株的生长并有效抑制了生物膜形成，证明了它们作为抗菌肽的潜力。此外，链球菌菌株之间细菌素生物合成簇的比对揭示了同一生物体不同菌株之间假定细菌素氨基酸序列的差异。
唾液链球菌成为开发新型抗菌剂，特别是对抗生物膜相关口腔感染的有前途的生物资源。
