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Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Anti-virulent Disruption of Pathogenic Biofilms using Engineered Quorum-quenching Lactonases
Published on: January 1, 2016
Assessing the synergistic potential of bacteriophage endolysins and antimicrobial peptides for eradicating bacterial
Jaya Lakshmi Tyagi1, Payal Gupta1,2, Mayur Mohan Ghate1
1Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India.
Abstract:
Phage-encoded endolysins have emerged as a potential substitute to conventional antibiotics due to their exceptional benefits including host specificity, rapid host killing, least risk of resistance. In addition to their antibacterial potency and biofilm eradication properties, endolysins are reported to exhibit synergism with other antimicrobial agents. In this study, the synergistic potency of endolysins was dissected with antimicrobial peptides to enhance their therapeutic effectiveness. Recombinantly expressed and purified bacteriophage endolysin [T7 endolysin (T7L); and T4 endolysin (T4L)] proteins have been used to evaluate the broad-spectrum antibacterial efficacy using different bacterial strains. Antibacterial/biofilm eradication studies were performed in combination with different antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) such as colistin, nisin, and polymyxin B (PMB) to assess the endolysin's antimicrobial efficacy and their synergy with AMPs. In combination with T7L, polymyxin B and colistin effectively eradicated the biofilm of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and exhibited a synergistic effect. Further, a combination of T4L and nisin displayed a synergistic effect against Staphylococcus aureus biofilms. In summary, the obtained results endorse the theme of combinational therapy consisting of endolysins and AMPs as an effective remedy against the drug-resistant bacterial biofilms that are a serious concern in healthcare settings.
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