Antibacterial activity of Nα-benzoyl-arginine-based surfactants and their possible mechanism of action

HERMET, M.; FAIT, M.E.; DI SANTO-MEZTLER, P.; PRAT, A.; VÁZQUEZ, R.; MATÉ, S.; DAZA MILLONE, M.A.; VELA, M.E.; LORENZO, J.; MORCELLE, S.R.; BAKÁS, L.

Southhampton

Simposio; Young Microbiologists Symposium; 2020

University of Southampton

Amino acid-based surfactants consist in a class of compounds of amphiphilic characteristics which have a chemical structure similar to natural lipoamino acids. They have shown very interesting properties, being the antimicrobial activity one of the most relevant. Within this context, arginine-based tensioactives are considered as the most promising of the family, since they have a satisfactory toxicity profile, high biodegradability, low impact strategy of manufacture and a wide biocidal spectrum. In the present communication we describe the antimicrobial activity of four monocatenary cationic arginine-based surfactants that our group obtained by an enzymatic strategy synthesis. Bz-Arg-NHCn∙HX (being n=10 or 12; X: Cl or Br, see Fig. 1) were sinthetized using papain as biocatalyst and purified through an eco-friendly methodology.The biocidal activity of the four compounds was assayed against a panel consisting on gram positive and gram negative bacterial strains. Interestingly, all the surfactants obtained demonstrated to be effective against the microorganisms tested as shown in Table 1.