Antimicrobial enzymes: An emerging strategy to fight microbes and microbial biofilms

Abstract

With the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance, antimicrobial enzymes aimed at the disruption of bacterial cellular machinery and biofilm formation are under intense investigation. Several enzyme-based products have already been commercialized for application in the healthcare, food and biomedical industries. Successful removal of complex biofilms requires the use of multi-enzyme formulations that contain enzymes capable of degrading microbial DNA, polysaccharides, proteins and quorum-sensing molecules. The inclusion of anti-quorum sensing enzymes prevents biofilm reformation. The development of effective complex enzyme formulations is urgently needed to deal with the problems associated with biofilm formation in manufacturing, environmental protection and healthcare settings. Nevertheless, advances in synthetic biology, enzyme engineering and whole DNA-Sequencing technologies show great potential to facilitate the development of more effective antimicrobial and anti-biofilm enzymes.

Innovative Modifications for Preventing Mesh Infections

“…Antimicrobial enzymes consist of three different subgroups, namely proteolytic enzymes, polysaccharidedegrading enzymes, and oxidative enzymes [87].…”

Nanocellulose-Based Biosensors: Design, Preparation, and Activity of Peptide-Linked Cotton Cellulose Nanocrystals Having Fluorimetric and Colorimetric Elastase Detection Sensitivity

“…Enzymes can be formulated with nanocellulose as covalent linkages, salt bridges, and with physical inclusion complexes [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. The hydrophilic surface properties provide a biocompatible matrix for selective activity to occur.…”

“…Edwards et al reported very high lysozyme activity when the hydrolase was attached to cotton cellulose nanocrystals [18], which suggests the activity of anti-microbial enzymes can be bolstered when immobilized on cotton cellulose nanocrystals, and this approach may have further implications for use to detect as well as inhibit formation of microbial biofilms [19]. Finally it is noteworthy that cellulases have been used in an approach that demonstrates how enzymatic digestion of cellulose in combination with soft lithography can be used to obtain patterned surfaces [20].…”

Biofouling control of reverse osmosis membranes using free nitrous acid

“…Recently, biochemical enzymes have been examined aiming at cell lysis and biofilm dispersion [93,94]. For the purpose to destroy the structure of biofilm, polysaccharides lyases and proteases have been invented to cleave the structure of polysaccharides and proteins, respectively [12,93,94].…”

“…For the purpose to destroy the structure of biofilm, polysaccharides lyases and proteases have been invented to cleave the structure of polysaccharides and proteins, respectively [12,93,94]. However, this method cannot provide a comprehensive control for biofouling, since the enzymes are designed specifically to target on polysaccharides and proteins [13,95].…”