Marine invasive species for high-value products' exploration: Unveiling the antimicrobial potential of Asparagopsis armata against human pathogens

Infectious diseases remain one of the leading global causes of death, mainly due to the increasing number of multi-resistant microorganisms. Therefore, novel antimicrobials are continuously needed. Marine organisms have already proven to be a rich source of bioactive compounds which can be used for the development of novel pharmacological drugs. Within these, seaweeds are an important resource still underexplored. Asparagopsis armata is a marine invasive seaweed that has spread along several coastlines of the world, inducing negative pressures in marine ecosystems. Therefore, it is crucial to develop strategies to counteract their impacts. In this work, A. armata was extracted with methanol and dichloromethane (1:1) and fractionated by column chromatography with different polarity solvents, providing 8 fractions (F1-F8). All the fractions were evaluated for their antimicrobial potential against important human pathogens, namely Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis, and Candida albicans. Additionally, their capacity to inhibit biofilms formation and the effects on cytoplasmatic membrane and DNA integrity were also assessed. The most active fractions were further purified and submitted to GC–MS analysis. The results showed that A. armata produces compounds with a high inhibitory activity against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, and C. albicans growth, possibly mediated by cytoplasmatic membrane disruption and DNA damage. GC–MS analysis suggested that the most active fractions were mainly composed of bromoditerpenes and fatty acids. The attained results point to the relevance of the invasive A. armata as a source of antimicrobial substances with broad-spectrum activity. The use of invasive species to obtain natural bioactive compounds presents a two-folded opportunity - high availability of the biological material for the extraction of bioactive compounds and, through specimen collection, the mitigation of the negative effects caused by invasive species, contributing to ecosystem integrity and sustainability.

Description

Authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through Strategic Project UID/MAR/04292/2020 and UID/Multi/04046/2020 granted to MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Red2Discovery Project (PTDC/MAR-BIO/6149/2014), co-financed by COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016791); MARINE INVADERS Project (PTDC/BIA-CBI/31144/2017), co-financed by COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031144); VALORMAR (Mobilizing R&TD Programs, Portugal 2020) co-funded by COMPETE (POCI-01-0247- FEDER-024517); SAICTPAC/0019/2015 - LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER016405 Oncologia de Precisão: Terapias e Tecnologias Inovadoras (POINT4PAC) and CrossAtlantic project (PTDC/BIA-OUT/29250/ 2017), co-financed by COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029250). This work was also supported by the European Union through EASME Blue Labs project AMALIA—Algae-to-MArket Lab IdeAs (EASME/EMFF/ 2016/1.2.1.4/03/SI2.750419) and the Integrated Programme of SR& TD SmartBioR (reference Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000018), co-funded by Centro 2020 Program, Portugal 2020, European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund and by UIDB/04046/2020 and UIDP/04046/2020 Centre grants from FCT, Portugal (to BioISI). Susete Pinteus and Joana Silva were supported by FCT grants SFRH/BD/ 96203/2013 and SFRH/BD/103255/2014, respectively.

Keywords

Bacterial biofilms Infectious diseases Marine invaders Marine natural products Microbial resistance Seaweed bioactive compounds

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/6129

Citation

Susete Pinteus, Marco F.L. Lemos, Marco Simões, Celso Alves, Joana Silva, Helena Gaspar, Alice Martins, Américo Rodrigues, Rui Pedrosa, Marine invasive species for high-value products' exploration – Unveiling the antimicrobial potential of Asparagopsis armata against human pathogens, Algal Research, Volume 52, 2020, 102091, ISSN 2211-9264, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2020.102091.