Antibiofilm activities of lactoferricin-related Trp- and Arg-rich antimicrobial hexapeptides against pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains.

Recently, several antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) varying in length from 12 to 37 residues, have been shown to act as antibiofilm agents. Here we report a study of twenty-three hexapeptides modeled after four different Trp- and Arg-rich AMPs, including the RRWQWR-NH2 peptide, derived from bovine lactoferrin. They were tested against the pathogenic Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 strain and a Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus MRSA strain. Both strains were engineered to express the GFP protein, and fluorescence detection was used to measure the ability of the peptides to prevent biofilm formation (MBIC) or to cause the breakdown of established biofilms (MBEC). Similar antibiofilm activities were obtained with the standard crystal violet dye assay. Most Trp- and Arg-rich hexapeptides displayed a potent antibiofilm activity against the Gram-positive S. aureus MRSA strain. In particular, hexapeptides with 3 Arg and 3 Trp were very effective, especially when they contained the three Trp in sequence. Somewhat unexpectedly, the antimicrobial (MIC) values correlated with the MBIC and MBEC values, which has not been seen for some other AMP/antibiofilm peptides. Our results demonstrate that short Trp- and Arg-rich peptides merit further studies as antibiofilm agents, that could be deployed to address part of the antimicrobial resistance problem.