Artigo Acesso aberto Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

Disruption of Staphylococcus aureus biofilms using rhamnolipid biosurfactants

2017; Elsevier BV; Volume: 100; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3168/jds.2017-13012

ISSN

1529-9066

Autores

S.S. e Silva, J.W.P. Carvalho, Carolina Patrícia Aires, Márcia Nitschke,

Tópico(s)

Antimicrobial agents and applications

Resumo

Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen that has shown ability to establish biofilm communities that can represent a source of contamination and resistance in food processing. Rhamnolipids (RL) have attracted attention as candidates to replace synthetic surfactants, exhibiting high surface activity combined with its microbial origin, biodegradability, and low toxicity. In this work, an RL biosurfactant was evaluated regarding its ability to disrupt or remove S. aureus biofilms established on polystyrene plates using nutrient broth and skim milk as the growth media. Rhamnolipid treatment was performed at different surfactant concentrations and temperatures. Rhamnolipid removes up to 88.9% of milk-based biofilms, whereas for nutrient medium 35% removal was attained. The RL concentration affects the disruption of nutrient medium-based biofilms. High carbohydrate content of milk-based biofilms favors disruption by RL and the organization of RL molecules in solution showed a predominance of aggregates from 1 to 10 and 100 to 1,000 nm in all conditions studied. Biofilm disruption activity of RL is nutrient-specific and dependent on biofilm matrix composition. Staphylococcus aureus biofilms established in milk were significantly reduced using RL at low concentrations and temperatures. These findings suggest potential application of RL in milk (dairy) processing industries where low temperatures are applied.

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