Bioactive plant waste components targeting oral bacterial pathogens as a promising strategy for biofilm eradication

The significance of this study lies in its exploration of bioactive plant extracts as a promising avenue for combating oral bacterial pathogens, offering a novel strategy for biofilm eradication that could potentially revolutionize oral health treatments. Oral bacterial infections are common in diabetic patients; however, due to the development of resistance, treatment options are limited. Considering the excellent antimicrobial properties of phenolic compounds, we investigated them against isolated oral pathogens using <i>in silico</i> and <i>in vitro</i> models. We performed antibiogram studies and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), antibiofilm, and antiquorum sensing activities covering phenolic compounds. Bacterial strains were isolated from female diabetic patients and identified by using 16S rRNA sequencing as <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>, <i>Bacillus chungangensis</i>, <i>Bacillus paramycoides</i>, and <i>Paenibacillus dendritiformis</i>. Antibiogram studies confirmed that all strains were resistant to most tested antibiotics except imipenem and ciprofloxacin. Molecular docking analysis revealed the significant interaction of rutin, quercetin, gallic acid, and catechin with transcription regulator genes <i>1RO5</i>, <i>4B2O</i>, and <i>5OE3</i>. All tested molecules followed drug-likeness rules except rutin. The MIC values of the tested compounds varied from 0.0625 to 0.5 mg/mL against clinical isolates. Significant antibiofilm activity was recorded in the case of catechin (73.5% ± 1.6% inhibition against <i>B. paramycoides</i>), cinnamic acid (80.9% ± 1.1% inhibition against <i>P. aeruginosa</i>), and vanillic acid and quercetin (65.5% ± 1.7% and 87.4% ± 1.4% inhibition, respectively, against <i>B. chungangensis</i>) at 0.25-0.125 mg/mL. None of the phenolic compounds presented antiquorum sensing activity. It was, therefore, concluded that polyphenolic compounds may have the potential to be used against oral bacterial biofilms, and further detailed mechanistic investigations should be performed.