Issue 4, 2019

Nanoscale antiadhesion properties of sophorolipid-coated surfaces against pathogenic bacteria

Abstract

A current challenge in nanomedicine is to develop innovative strategies to fight infections caused by multiresistant bacterial pathogens. A striking example is antiadhesion therapy, which represents an attractive alternative to antibiotics to prevent and treat biofilm-associated infections on medical devices. By means of single-cell force nanoscopy, we demonstrate that sophorolipid (SL) biosurfactants feature unusually strong antiadhesion properties against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, two nosocomial pathogens involved in catheter-related infections, which represent a major public health problem worldwide. We find that the nanoscale adhesion forces of single bacteria are much weaker on SL monolayers than on abiotic alkanethiol monolayers. The remarkable antifouling efficacy of SL-surfaces is likely to involve repulsive hydration forces associated with sophorose headgroups. We also show that, owing to their surfactant properties, soluble SLs block bacterial adhesion forces towards abiotic surfaces. Collectively, our single-cell experiments demonstrate that sophorolipids exhibit strong and versatile antiadhesion properties, making them promising candidates to design anti-infective biomaterials.

Graphical abstract: Nanoscale antiadhesion properties of sophorolipid-coated surfaces against pathogenic bacteria

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
07 Janv. 2019
Accepted
05 Marts 2019
First published
25 Marts 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Horiz., 2019,4, 975-982

Nanoscale antiadhesion properties of sophorolipid-coated surfaces against pathogenic bacteria

C. Valotteau, N. Baccile, V. Humblot, S. Roelants, W. Soetaert, C. V. Stevens and Y. F. Dufrêne, Nanoscale Horiz., 2019, 4, 975 DOI: 10.1039/C9NH00006B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements