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Membrane Depolarization Sensitizes Pseudomonas aeruginosa Against Tannic Acid

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Abstract

The use of dietary polyphenols as antimicrobial agents has gained immense popularity in recent years, although few of them—like tannic acid has limited use in this field of research; one of the main reasons is its restricted access through the bacterial membrane. Dissipating the bacterial membrane potential with a sub-lethal dosage of the protonophore, carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone, enhanced the tannic acid-cytotoxicity with subsequent inhibition of aerobic respiration in Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains which otherwise exhibited a minimum response to tannic acid. However, ascorbic acid, an antioxidant and bacterial membrane-stabilizing compound, had rescued the cells from both tannic acid- and CCCP-mediated lethality. The results suggested that dispersing the membrane potential with a protonophore can enhance the antibacterial properties of tannic acid.

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Abbreviations

CCCP:

Carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazine

AA:

Ascorbic acid

TA:

Tannic acid

GA:

Gallic acid

OCR:

Oxygen consumption rate

Disc3(5):

3,3’-dipropylthiadicarbocyanine iodide

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Funding

This work was supported by research grants from the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India (Ref. 6242-P5/RGCB/PMD/DBT/SMNB/2015) to SB, from the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (Ref. ECR/2016/000898) to AR, and Institutional research fellowship to RY.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, B.S.Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, 600048, Tamil Nadu, India

    Md. Aashique, Rekha Yamini Kosuru & Soumen Bera

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Indian Academy Degree College, Bangalore, Karnataka, 5600043, India

    Amrita Roy

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  1. Md. Aashique
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  2. Amrita Roy
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  3. Rekha Yamini Kosuru
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  4. Soumen Bera
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Contributions

MA has conceptualized the work, designed and conducted the experiments, analyzed the data, and prepared the manuscript; AR has conceptualized the work and prepared the manuscript, RY has designed and conducted the experiments, and analyzed the data; SB has conceptualized the work, designed the experiments, prepared the manuscript, and supervised the overall work.

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Correspondence to Soumen Bera.

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Aashique, M., Roy, A., Kosuru, R.Y. et al. Membrane Depolarization Sensitizes Pseudomonas aeruginosa Against Tannic Acid. Curr Microbiol 78, 713–717 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-02330-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-02330-7

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