Chemical aspects of polyphenol-protein interactions and their antibacterial activity

Abstract

The hunt for novel antibiotics has become a global public health imperative due to the rise in multidrug-resistant microorganisms, untreatable infection cases, overuse, and inefficacy of modern antibiotics. Polyphenols are getting much attention in research due to their multiple biological effects; their use as antimicrobial agents is attributed to their activity and that microbes have a hard time developing resistance to these natural compounds. Polyphenols are secondary metabolites produced in higher plants. They are known to possess various functional properties in the human body. Polyphenols also exhibit antibacterial activities against foodborne pathogens. Their antibacterial mechanism is based on inhibiting bacterial biofilm formation or inactivating enzymes. This review focused on polyphenol-protein interactions and the creation of this complex as a possible antibacterial agent. Also, different phenolic interactions on bacterial proteins, efflux pump, cell membrane, bacterial adhesion, toxins, and other bacterial proteins will be explored; these interactions can work in a synergic combination with antibiotics or act alone to assure bacterial inhibition. Additionally, our review will focus on polyphenol-protein interaction as a possible strategy to eradicate bacteria because polyphenols have shown a robust enzyme-inhibitory characteristic and a high tendency to complex with proteins, a response that neutralizes any bactericidal potential.

Keywords:

• Antimicrobial activity
• chemical
• polyphenol interaction
• protein

Author contributions

Sanusi Shamsudeen Nassarawa designed the study and wrote the manuscript. Gulzar Ahmad Nayik, S. Dutta Gupta, Franklin Ore Areche, and Yash D. Jagdale, Mohammad Javed Ansari, Hassan A.Hemeg, Ammar AL-Farga & Saqer S. Alotaibi helped in developing the whole concept and editing. The final version of the manuscript has been read and approved by all listed authors.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Funding

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

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.