Purification and characterization of a novel bacterial Lipopeptide(s) biosurfactant and determining its antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties

Lipopeptide(s) (LPs), a biomolecule containing a lipid head attached to a peptide tail, have different medicinal properties, which have paved the way for scientists interest in them. Their antimicrobial and anticancerous properties are the most explored. In this decade, many LPs were approved by the FDA to be used as drugs against different diseases. In the present study, LPs were extracted and purified from the Pseudomonas sp. OXDC12 strain. Different chromatographic techniques such as affinity chromatography (DEAE column) and size exclusion chromatography (Sephadex G-25) were used to purify the molecule. Later purified LPs were characterised via techniques such as TLC, HPLC, and MALDI-TOF and were found to be of a surfactant nature. The LPs biosurfactant substantially reduced the surface tension from 64 mN/m to ~35 mN/m at a 30 mg/L critical micelle concentration (CMC). The LPs biosurfactant showed antifungal activity against Fusarium oxysporum (21.0 +/- 2.4mm), Candida albicans (18.0 +/- 1.3 mm) and Mucor sp. (23.0 +/- 1.6 mm) and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus MTCC96 (4.0 +/- 0.6), Salmonella typhimurium NCTC 74 (11.0 +/- 0.2), Klebsiella pneumoniae (12.0 +/- 0.3) and Escherichia coli MTCC1687 (8.6 +/- 0.7) respectively. The purified LPs also showed cytotoxic and antiproliferative activities towards a few transformed cell lines, such as RD (IC50 32.47 mu g/mL), Hep-2 C (IC50 35.48 mu g/mL), Vero (IC50 27.96 mu g/mL) and MCF-7 (IC50 46.01 mu g/mL).

Automated summary

Lipopeptides (LPs) are biomolecules with lipid heads attached to peptide tails. They have shown various medicinal properties, with antimicrobial and anticancer effects being the most studied. In this study, LPs were extracted and purified from the Pseudomonas sp. OXDC12 strain, and their surfactant nature was characterized. The purified LPs exhibited antimicrobial and antifungal activity, as well as cytotoxic and antiproliferative effects on transformed cell lines.