CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The antimicrobial peptide Microcin J25(G12Y) present advantageous features for its use as a food preservative, such us: temperature and pHresistant, in vitro and in vivo inactivation by digestive enzymes, no effect on coliform intestinal natural population and antimicrobial activityagainst important foodborne pathogens like Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella and Shigella. It is known that the efficiency of antimicrobialpeptides can decreases when they are added directly to the food since the presence of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, salts, enzymes and pHstrongly influence the activity of these agents. To overcome this inconvenient the development of novel formulations like, microcapsules,hydrogels, lipid-based delivery systems, are all examples of carriers for peptide delivery that may improve the therapeutic index of antimicrobialpeptides by protecting their activity and improving their bioavailability. In this report we analyze the activity of MccJ25(G12Y) included in twodifferent carriers formulations, microcapsules and hydrogels. Two natural polymers were used to perform these formulations, brea gum was usedas wall material for spray drying microencapsulation and a mix of brea gum/pectin to hydrogels preparation. In vitro activity for bothformulations was assayed against different foodborne pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, in this assays we observed that the peptide activity wasnot altered by microencapsulation process or during hydrogel formulation. On the other hand the activity of microencapsulated microcin wasassayed in a food model of beef burgers artificially contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 observing a significant decrease respect to the initialbacterial load. In summary our results reinforce the potential of MccJ25(G12Y) as a possible food biopreservant.