CBD resistant Salmonella strains are susceptible to epsilon 34 phage tailspike protein

Iddrisu Ibrahim; Joseph Atia Ayariga; Junhuan Xu; Ayomide Adebanjo; Boakai K Robertson; Michelle Samuel-Foo; Olufemi S Ajayi

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1075698

CBD resistant Salmonella strains are susceptible to epsilon 34 phage tailspike protein

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Mar 7:10:1075698. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1075698. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Iddrisu Ibrahim¹, Joseph Atia Ayariga², Junhuan Xu², Ayomide Adebanjo², Boakai K Robertson¹, Michelle Samuel-Foo², Olufemi S Ajayi²

Affiliations

¹ The Microbiology Program, College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (C-STEM), Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL, United States.
² The Industrial Hemp Program, College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (C-STEM), Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL, United States.

Abstract

The rise of antimicrobial resistance is a global public health crisis that threatens the effective control and prevention of infections. Due to the emergence of pandrug-resistant bacteria, most antibiotics have lost their efficacy. Bacteriophages or their components are known to target bacterial cell walls, cell membranes, and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and hydrolyze them. Bacteriophages being the natural predators of pathogenic bacteria, are inevitably categorized as "human friends", thus fulfilling the adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Leveraging on their lethal capabilities against pathogenic bacteria, researchers are searching for more ways to overcome the current antibiotic resistance challenge. In this study, we expressed and purified epsilon 34 phage tailspike protein (E34 TSP) from the E34 TSP gene, then assessed the ability of this bacteriophage protein in the killing of two CBD-resistant strains of Salmonella spp. We also assessed the ability of the tailspike protein to cause bacteria membrane disruption, and dehydrogenase depletion. We observed that the combined treatment of CBD-resistant strains of Salmonella with CBD and E34 TSP showed poor killing ability whereas the monotreatment with E34 TSP showed considerably higher killing efficiency. This study demonstrates that the inhibition of the bacteria by E34 TSP was due in part to membrane disruption, and dehydrogenase inactivation by the protein. The results of this work provides an interesting background to highlight the crucial role phage protein such as E34 TSP could play in pathogenic bacterial control.

Keywords: Salmonella; antibacterial agent; cannabidiol; phage; resistance.