Investigating the antimicrobial potential of commercially available probiotic strains against S. Typhi

Abstract

Salmonella Typhi is the causal agent of typhoid fever, a potentially fatal disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria in Pakistan has made traditional antibiotic treatments less effective, necessitating the investigation of other therapeutic approaches. Probiotics, which are defined as live bacteria that provide health advantages when supplied in sufficient concentrations, have shown great potential in the treatment of a variety of infectious disorders. A detailed analysis was performed in this study to investigate the efficacy of probiotics against S. Typhi, revealing their mechanisms of action and potential as a supplementary or alternative therapy in the treatment of typhoid fever. The study begins with a review of the resistance of S. typhi strains against various classes of antibiotics. The study focuses on the probiotic candidates that have been extensively studied for their anti-typhoidal activity along with a newly proposed probiotic, Bacillus clausii. Following the agar diffusion test and the co-culture study, the efficacy of the proposed and the previously studied probiotic candidates against S. typhi has been compared and analyzed. As a result of successful inhibition of Bacillus clausii against S. Typhi, a detailed analysis of its secondary antimicrobial metabolites has been carried out, resulting in the identification of potentially effective antimicrobial peptides. The extensive docking of these antimicrobial peptides against S. typhi’s common antibiotic target proteins has revealed the possible processes involved in the inhibitory effect. As a result of this analysis, new antimicrobial peptides have been discovered against S. Typhi which present an attractive avenue for combating drug-resistant strains and reducing the global burden of typhoid fever. Before probiotics can be fully integrated into clinical practice for typhoid fever treatment, more research, particularly in the form of well-designed clinical studies, is needed to discover the appropriate probiotic formulations and dosages while considering safety and efficacy.