A Study on the Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Peptide 1018-K6 as Potential Alternative to Antibiotics against Food-Pathogen Salmonella enterica

Antimicrobial resistance has become one of the major global public health concerns, and itis indispensable to search for alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Recently, antimicrobial peptideshave received great attention because of their broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity at relatively lowconcentrations, even against pathogens such as Salmonella enterica, which is responsible for most foodborneillnesses. This work aimed at evaluating the antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity of the innatedefense peptide, named 1018-K6, against S. enterica. A total of 42 strains, belonging to three differentsubspecies and 32 serotypes, were included in this study. The antibiotic resistance profile of all thestrains and the cytotoxic effects of 1018-K6 on mammalian fibroblast cells were also investigated.Results revealed that MIC (minimum inhibitory concentrations) and MBC (minimum bactericidalconcentrations) values were in the ranges of 8-64 g/mL and 16-128 g/mL, respectively, althoughmost strains (97%) showed MICs between 16 and 32 g/mL. Moreover, sub-inhibitory concentrationsof 1018-K6 strongly reduced the biofilm formation in several S. enterica strains, whatever the initialinoculum size. Our results demonstrated that 1018-K6 is able to control and manage S. enterica growthwith a large potential for applications in the fields of active packaging and water disinfectants.