Evaluation of antimicrobial peptide LL-37 for treatment of Staphylococcus aureus biofilm on titanium plate

Abstract

The antimicrobial peptide LL-37 belongs to the cathelicidin family and is one of the few human bactericidal peptides with potent antistaphylococcal activity. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the main infection bacteria in orthopedic implant therapy. Biofilm formation after bacterial infection brings more and more severe test for clinical antiinfection treatment. However, there are few studies on LL-37 in S. aureus infection of prosthesis. In this work, addition to research the antibacterial activity and the inhibitory effect on bacterial adhesion of LL-37, an in vitro model of S. aureus biofilm formation on titanium alloy surface was established to observe the inhibitory effect of LL-37. The results showed that LL-37 has a strong antibacterial effect on S. aureus in vitro, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is about 0.62mM. Moreover, LL-37 has significant impact on the adhesion of S. aureus when the concentration ≥0.16mM and significant anti-staphylococcal biofilm effects on static biofilm models at the concentration of 0.31 to 10mM. Additionally, LL-37 at 5m M had a significant destructive effect on S. aureus biofilm (P