Reliable fluorescence technique to detect the antibiotic colistin, a possible environmental threat due to its overuse

Insights into colistin-mediated fluorescence labelling of bacterial LPS

Gram-negative bacterial infections are becoming untreatable due to their ability to mutate, and the gradual development of their resistance to the available antimicrobials. In recent times colistin, a drug of last resort, started losing its efficacy towards multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Colistin targets bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and destabilises the cytoplasmic membrane by disrupting the outer LPS membrane. In this study, we have tried to label the bacterial LPS, the main constituent of the cytoplasmic membrane of bacterial cells, to try to understand the interaction mechanism of LPS with colistin. The chemosensor, naphthaldehyde appended furfural (NAF) that selectively recognises colistin can label LPS, by showing its fluorescence signals. The computationally derived three-dimensional structure of LPS has been introduced to speculate on the possible binding mode of colistin with LPS, and this was also thoroughly studied with the help of quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics energy minimisation. Fluorescence microscopy and FE-SEM microscopic studies were also used to observe the change in the structural morphology of colistin-sensitive and resistant Salmonella typhi in different experimental conditions.