Exploring the antibacterial, antibiofilm, and antivirulence activities of tea tree oil-containing nanoemulsion against carbapenem-resistant Serratia marcescens associated infections

Abstract

Carbapenem-resistant Serratia marcescens (CRE-S. marcescens) has recently emerged as an opportunistic human pathogen that causes various nosocomial and respiratory tract infections. The prognosis for CRE-S. marcescens-related infections is very poor and these infections are difficult to treat. This study investigated the synthesis of tea tree oil nanoemulsion (TTO-NE) and its impact on CRE-S. marcescens both in vitro and in vivo. TTO-NE was characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and effectively eradicated bacterial planktonic and sessile forms, reduced bacterial virulence factors, and generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the bacterial cell. Notably, TTO-NE was efficient in reducing the colonization of CRE-S. marcescens in a C. elegans in vivo model. The data suggest that TTO-NE might be an excellent tool to combat infections associated with CRE-S. marcescens.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Antibacterial
• carbapenem-resistance
• nanoemulsion
• Serratia marcescens
• tea tree oil

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Chancellor of Techno India University, West Bengal, for providing the necessary infrastructural and laboratory facilities. The authors are also grateful to Dr Sandhya Koushika, Associate Professor of the Department of Biological Science at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), for providing C. elegans and E. coli OP50 strains. The authors are also grateful to Mrs Sheolee Ghosh Chakraborty for supporting the CLSM, Mr Dipak Chandra Konar for supporting the DLS facilities at the Bose Institute, Kolkata, West Bengal, and Dr Ritesh Tiwari for supporting the flow cytometry facilities at the Centre for Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CRNN), University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that would influence the work reported in this paper.

Funding statement

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Not applicable for this manuscript.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.