Researchers worldwide are currently searching intensively for novel, active, and broad-spectrum antibiotics from diverse microbial sources including actinomycetes which are prominent makers of active metabolites in soil habitats. Isolation of novel actinomycetes strains from extreme and unexplored areas is one of the strategies to unravel potential of new active metabolites [16]. From this perspective, Muna island is a region with natural views of karst hills with dry soil and calcareous rock [17]. Such a harsh environmental allow microbial colonization with the ability to synthesize unique antibacterial compounds. At the same time, since the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and the ongoing effort to overcome infectious diseases, there is a high increasing demand for novel and effective antibiotics from various sources including actinomycetes [18]. Hence, our study was conducted to search for active metabolites against multidrug-resistant bacteria produced by soil actinomycetes.
The initial screening for antibacterial activity indicated that the 21 isolates had varying antibacterial activity (Fig. 2). The presence of antibacterial activity was showed by the formation of an inhibition zone around the actinomycetes colonies which indicated that bacterial cells targets is killed by active compounds produced by actinomycetes. We further identified 3 isolates encoding APM-7, APM-11, and APM-21 had the best ability to inhibit the growth of all five bacterial targets as indicated by the largest of the inhibition zone. Of note, the differences in the antibacterial activity of each isolate can be influenced by some factors such as compound structure, the concentration of active compounds, and the level of resistance of each targeted bacterial strain. In addition to corresponding results, those three potential actinomycetes isolates that can inhibit all bacterial target both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria are thought to be able to produce broad-spectrum antibacterial compounds [19]. Therefore, those three actinomycetes isolates were selected for further intensive analysis to extract its active compounds following antibacterial and antibiofilm assessment.
Our findings of antibacterial activity from three selected actinomycetes extracts showed that the inhibition zone diameters ranged from 7.3 ± 0.4 to 9.5 ± 1.7 and from 7.5 ± 0.5 to 15.0 ± 2.1 mm against MDR gram-negative and positive bacterial strains, respectively (Table 3). These results were in line with previous investigations whereby actinomycetes isolated from soils exhibited considerable antibacterial activity against both gram-negative and positive bacteria [20]. In comparing with previous studies derived from Indonesian actinomycetes strain, our results showed stronger antibacterial activity based on disc diffusion method. Extract from Streptomyces sp. strain H11 isolated from soil mangrove exhibited inhibition zone of 5.8 ± 1.4 and 4.96 mm against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively [21]. However, another extract from actinomycetes isolated from soil rhizosphere exhibited stronger activity with the inhibition zone of 9.23 and 8.9 mm against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively [22]. Of note, some previous research was tested against non-MDR bacterial strains. In addition, the chemical and physical characteristics of soil, as well as the soil microbial taxa, differed depending on the environmental condition. Microbials must adapt and develop to withstand distinct stress circumstances and, as a result, have the potential to produce novel active compounds with specific bioactivities [23]. Therefore, our three potential actinomycetes from Muna island soil represent an unexplored source to unravel potential active compounds. Notably, a few reports have demonstrated antibacterial activity from actinomycetes active compounds against MDR bacterial strain [24], but they have not been reported previously derived from local Indonesian actinomycetes strains.
Furthermore, the antibacterial capacity of natural products could be classified based on the range of their MIC values. According to [25], an extract is classified as very active if it has MIC value (< 100 µg/mL), active (100⎯500 µg/mL), moderate (500⎯1000 µg/mL), and less active (> 1000 µg/mL). Our results showed that the APM-7 extract was categorized active against MRSA, and moderate activity on E. coli and P. aeruginosa. In addition, APM-11 extract has an active category against all bacterial targets. As for APM-21 extract was highly active against MRSA, and moderate category on E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and B. subtilis. Interestingly, we recorded that the lowest antibacterial MIC value which categorized as very active was found on the APM-21 extract against MRSA (78 µg/mL) (Table 4). This result was lower than that previous study derived from S. lienomycini BOGE18 extract (isolated from Egypt) with an MIC value of 250 µg/mL against similar MDR S. aureus strain WS12 clinical isolates [24]. Based on this report, our potential isolate APM-21 has stronger antibacterial activity as shown by lower MIC value. On the other hand, as comparing with another actinomycetes strain from Indonesia, namely S. koyangensis strain SHP 9 − 3 (MIC value of 7.81 µg/mL), our MIC value against S. aureus is slightly larger indicating weaker activity [26]. However, in previous study used non-MDR clinical isolates of S. aureus strain. Based on those antibacterial assessments, it was found that most of the isolate, namely APM-21 was very active against MRSA as gram positive bacteria. This was majorly attributed to the morphological differences which presence of lipopolysaccharide in gram negative bacteria as hydrophobic layer resulted impermeable condition to lipophilic compounds. As for gram positive bacteria reported have only an outer peptidoglycan layer which is not sufficient as permeability barrier, thus will be more susceptible to the metabolites [11].
We further report here the antibiofilm activity from those three potential actinomyces extracts. Biofilms are reported as the dominant microbial lifestyle, and are present in numerous conditions including industrial, clinical, and food treatment environments. The biofilm structure is crucial in antibiotic resistance mechanism because it protects microbial cells from the host immunity and avoids the penetration of antibiotics [27]. In this study, for the first time, the antibiofilm activity of extract from actinomycetes strains which isolated from Indonesia regions on MDR bacterial strains, were studied. The results showed that APM-11 extract (2× MIC) has the best antibiofilm ability against biofilms formed by E. coli, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, and B. subtilis with the inhibition value range from 61.18 to 72.27% (Fig. 3B). As for MRSA biofilm formation was inhibited at the highest inhibition value of 72.4% by APM-21 extract (2× MIC) (Fig. 3C). In present study were also investigated the eradication of cells biofilm which resulted in slightly similar with antibiofilm activity as APM-11 and APM-21 showed the highest percentage of eradication cells biofilm (Fig. 3D-F). It should be noted that several antibiofilm agents were previously reported from numerous actinomycetes strains, including Streptomyces sp. against S. aureus (MRSA) [28], Streptomyces sp. SBT343 against S. epidermidis [29], and S. lienomycini BOGE18 against S. aureus WS12 MDR strain [24] with diverse antibiofilm capacity. However, as compared to these previous studies, i.e., compared to S. lienomycini BOGE18 extract against S. aureus MDR strain, our extract has a lower inhibition antibiofilm value. This is presumably due to the sources of actinomycetes isolates not being the same, thus the active compounds have different characters and bioactivities.
Furthermore, three selected isolates were characterized by using nucleotide sequencing and identified as S. cyaneus (APM-7), S. coerulescens (APM-11), and S. panayensis (APM-21) (Table 6). Based upon the identity acquired by morphological, and phylogenetic analysis in the selected strains, we could assume the possibility of involvement from diverse active compounds which responsible for their broad-spectrum antibacterial activity. Interestingly, some previous studies have reported that those three identified Streptomyces spp. exhibited antibacterial activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria on non-MDR strains. Several compounds responsible for the antibacterial activity of the three Streptomyces spp. isolates have been identified i.e., cirramycin-B, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and cephamycin which isolated from S. cyaneus, S. coerulescens G60, and S. panayensis, respectively [30–32].
In our continuing effort to investigate the potency of three selected actinomycetes isolates, we have prompted further analysis to identify the chemical constituents present in those three actinomycetes extract through LC-MS/MS analysis. The results obtained indicated that our three extracts contained two putative compounds, namely rancinamycin III and enteromycin (Fig. 6A-C). These two compounds were previously reported to have been identified from several actinomycetes strains with highly antibacterial activity (Table 7) [33–34]. Therefore, the strong antibacterial activity of our three potential extracts is thought to be due to the presence of these two compounds. In addition, as for APM-7 extract also contained other putative compounds, namely 7-deoxyechinosporin, bromoisorumbrin, and maremycin which were reported to have antibacterial, cytotoxicity, and antifungal activities, respectively [35–38]. Furthermore, as for APM-11 extract, other putative compounds were also identified, namely ashimide and thiazohalostatin which were reported as having cytotoxic and cytoprotective activities, respectively [39–40]. Interestingly, the corresponding extract which had the strongest antibacterial activity against MRSA, namely APM-21 extract, was also identified other two putative compounds known as antibiotic from actinomycetes group, namely Paramagnetoquinone C and Caerulomycin I. For the record, these two compounds are known to have strong antibacterial activity [41–42]. Therefore, our results confirm that the antibacterial along with antibiofilm properties of these three potential extracts might be due to the presence of these promising compounds.