ABSTRACT
Aims@#The menace of antibiotic resistance has led to the search for alternatives, which in turn has diverted the attention to bacteriocins, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) produced by bacteria for their bactericidal properties. The aim of our study was to isolate and partially purify bacteriocin from lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and comparing its antimicrobial activity with antibiotics.@*Methodology and results@#Among 38 LAB screened using agar spot assay, LAB 28D1 showed the highest antimicrobial activity against the test bacterial strains. The proteinaceous nature of the antimicrobial compound extracted from LAB 28D1 was confirmed by its inactivation after treatment with proteolytic enzymes. The crude bacteriocin was found to be stable over a wide range of temperatures (60-100 °C) and pH (4-9). The bacteriocin was partially purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation (ASP) and the activity units were 204,800 AU/mL. The total protein and the specific activity of partially purified bacteriocin were found to be 24.585 mg and 124,954.24 AU/mg respectively. The molecular weight of partially purified bacteriocin was determined to be 8.5 kDa approximately. The efficacy of the partially purified bacteriocin against indicator bacterial strains was compared with antibiotics by the disc diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). According to our study, the hospital waste isolate Enterococcus spp. was found to be multidrug-resistant (MDR) but sensitive to bacteriocin from LAB (MIC 0.06 ± 0 µg/mL).@*Conclusion, significance and impact of the study@#Bacteriocin from LAB has potential in combating MDR enterococcal infections.