Bactericidal and antibiofilm activity of bactenecin-derivative peptides against the food-pathogen Listeria monocytogenes: New perspectives for food processing industry

Antimicrobial peptides have received great attention for their potential benefits to extend the shelf-life of food-products. Innate defense regulator peptide-1018 (IDR-1018) represents a promising candidate for such applications, due to its broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, although food-isolated pathogens have been poorly investigated. Herein, we describe the design and the structural-functional characterization of a new 1018-derivative peptide named 1018-K6, in which the alanine in position 6 was replaced with a lysine. Spectroscopic analysis revealed a noticeable switch from β-sheet to helical conformations of 1018-K6 respect to IDR-1018, with a faster folding kinetic and increased structural stability. Moreover, 1018-K6 evidenced a significant antibiofilm/bactericidal efficiency specifically against Listeria monocytogenes isolates from food-products and food-processing environments, belonging to serotype 4b involved in the majority of human-listeriosis cases, with EC50 values two- five-fold lower than those measured for IDR-1018. Therefore, a single amino-acid substitution in IDR-1018 sequence produced severe changes in peptide conformation and antimicrobial performances.