Prospecção da atividade antimicrobiana de polissacarídeos extraídos das paredes celulares das leveduras Kluyveromyces marxianus, Kluyveromyces lactis e Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Polysaccharides from the most diverse sources, may have pharmacological activities such as, for example, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, anticoagulant and antimicrobial. Bearing in mind that this last activity has not yet been evaluated, according to our bibliographic survey, for the cell wall polysaccharides of the yeasts Kluyveromyces marxianus and Kluyveromyces lactis, the objective of this study was to verify the antimicrobial activity of polysaccharides extracted from the cell walls of the yeasts Kluyveromyces marxianus CCT7735 and Kluyveromyces lactis CBS2359 and compare them to a non-Kluyveromyes yeast like Saccharomyces cerevisiae CAT-1. The susceptibility tests were performed in Petri dishes (90 x 15 mm) using the Kirby-Bauer disc-diffusion method as recommended by the M 100 supplement of the 29th edition of the Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute. Ten microliters of the polysaccharide solution (10 mg/mL) solubilized in distilled water and sterilized by filtration were deposited on sterile paper discs (6 mm). Polysaccharides were tested against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 (positive control: 100/10 μg of piperacillin-tazobactam); Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 (positive controls: 30 μg of cefoxitin and 10 units of penicillin); Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 (positive controls: 100/10 μg of piperacillin-tazobactam and 10 μg of gentamicin); Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 700603 (positive control: 10 μg gentamicin) and Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 (positive controls: 30 μg tetracycline and 10 units of penicillin). None of the cell wall polysaccharide samples evaluated inhibited the growth of the pathogenic bacteria strains tested. Thus, at least in native molecules, polysaccharides did not show antimicrobial activity. We suggest that further studies be carried out with the samples evaluated, either for other pharmacological applications/activities or with the chemical modification or modification of the concentration of these polysaccharides, followed by a new test for antimicrobial activity, among others.