Escherichia coli as a Potential Candidate Against Food Borne Bacterial Infections

Abstract

The expanding familiarity with the dangers emanating from food-related pathogens as well as from the counterfeit synthetic additives used to control them has prompted restored enthusiasm for supposed ‘green advances’ including novel approaches for a minimal processing and exploitation of commensal bacterial strains as a source of novel antibacterial agents or in an alternative as a probiotic. The present article demonstrates detailed analysis of extracellularly released and intracellular proteins of non-pathogenic bacterial strains residing in human gut against pathogens involved in food-borne illness and toxication. Among the human microbiota, the cytosolic proteins of Escherichia coli DH5α (being a prominent and primitive bacterial species in human gut) have been found to be most active against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris, Salmonella typhi and Vibrio cholerae (the major food-borne pathogens) showing minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in the range of 62.50–250.0 μg/ml using resazurin-based microtitre dilution method. In disc diffusion assay, the MIC was found to be in the range of 6.25–25 μg/disc. Hence, Escherichia coli DH5α emerges as a source of novel antimicrobial proteins.