Antibacterial substances of low molecular weight isolated from the blowfly, Lucilia sericata

Abstract

Low molecular weight compounds were isolated by high-performance liquid chromatography from the maggot or haemolymph extracts of Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae). Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, three compounds were obtained: p-hydroxybenzoic acid (molecular weight 138 Da), p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (molecular weight 152 Da) and octahydro-dipyrrolo[1,2-a;1',2'-d] pyrazine-5,10-dione (molecular weight 194 Da), also known as the cyclic dimer of proline (or proline diketopiperazine or cyclo[Pro,Pro]). All three molecules revealed antibacterial activity when tested against Micrococcus luteus and/or Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the effect was even more pronounced when these molecules were tested in combination and caused lysis of these bacteria.

In vitro antimicrobial activity of maggot excretions/secretions of Sarcophaga (Liopygia) argyrostoma (Robineau-Desvoidy)

“…This is in concordance with findings of Huberman et al (2007) and Barnes et al (2010) on L. sericata hemolymph extract and ES, respectively, where significant bactericidal activity against P. aeruginosa than against S. aureus were recorded. Also, Teh et al (2013) found that L. cuprina larval methanol extracts at 0.78 and 1.56 mg/ml concentrations were able to inhibit more than 50% of P. aeruginosa and E. coli, respectively, while 3.13 mg/ml was necessary to inhibit 50% bacterial growth of Klebsiella pneumonia.…”

“…The antimicrobial actions against a variety of Gram+ve and Gram-ve bacteria were studied from maggot's ES of L. sericata (Daeschlein et al, 2007;Huberman et al, 2007;Jaklic et al, 2008), Lucilia cuprina (Arora et al, 2010;El Shazely et al, 2013), Calliphora vicina (Barnes et al, 2010) and three Chrysomya species (Ratcliffe et al, 2015). Currently, there is a tendency to use modern biosurgery (that is, maggot therapy without maggots) instead of traditional biosurgery (Vilcinskas, 2011), where maggot's derivatives or active molecules could be therapeutically used in either their native or recombinant/synthetic form to face the antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals and communities.…”

Antimicrobial and Biofilm Inhibiting Diketopiperazines

“…anguillarum showing weak activity against S. aureus and M. luteus [40]. The authors concluded that because of …”

“…From the blowfly, Lucilia sericata, cyclo(L-Pro-L-Pro) 7 has been isolated and has been demonstrated to have antibacterial activities against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Micrococcus luteus [40]. From a Psychrobacter species in total sixteen different diketopiperazines have been isolated but only cyclo(L-Phe-L-Pro) 5 showed a protective effect against Vibrio vulnificus and induced cytotoxicity in human intestinal epithelial cells [41].…”

Prolyl Aminopeptidase from Streptomyces thermoluteus subsp. fuscus Strain NBRC14270 and Synthesis of Proline-Containing Peptides by Its S144C Variant

“…In addition to these dipeptides and tripeptides, a cyclic dipeptide (namely, diketopiperazine) containing proline shows several physiological functions. Cyclo[Pro-Pro] (cPP) exerts antibacterial activity against Micrococcus luteus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (8). Caspase-3 activation by cyclo[Pro-Phe] in HT-29 cells has been described (3).…”