The potential of Streptococcus pyogenes and Escherichia coli bacteriocins in synergistic control of Staphylococcus...

Staphylococcus aureus has developed resistance to most conventional antibiotics and is a causative agent of serious infections. Alternative therapies are urgently needed. Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria, including Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Streptococcus pyogenes (S. pyogenes), and represent a potential solution. While several bacteriocins have shown promise, their synergy with bacteriocins from other bacterial species remains largely unexplored. This work used agar diffusion on Muller-Hinton Agar (MHA) with S. aureus as a test bacterium to evaluate E. coli, S. pyogenes and their combined bacteriocins. The bacteriocins of S. pyogenes showed the maximum antimicrobial activity of zone of inhibition (ZOI), 24.93 mm, compared to that of E. coli bacteriocin, which was 19.28 mm, and that of the combined ones at 100% concentration, 22.6 mm. The combined bacteriocins at 50% concentration showed a reduced activity of 18.35 mm. These observations suggest that the bacteriocins produced by S. pyogenes have higher specificity and activity against S. aureus, making them effective therapeutic agents in the fight against multidrug-resistant infections.