Publications by authors named "Imen Akrout"

Antibiotics play a crucial role in human and animal medical healthcare, but widespread use and overuse of antibiotics poses alarming health and environmental issues. Fluoroquinolones constitute a class of antibiotics that has already become ubiquitous in the environment, and their increasing use and high persistence prompt growing concern. Here we investigated a fungal secretome prepared from the white-rot fungus , which is able to effectively degrade the environmentally persistent fluoroquinolone, levofloxacin.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study investigated a white-rot fungus known for its ligninolytic enzymes, focusing on a dye-decolorizing peroxidase (DyP) and its potential to biotransform antibiotics.
  • The enzyme was cloned, expressed, and characterized, revealing optimal activity at pH 3 and stability between 30 °C and 50 °C, with the ability to decolorize various industrial dyes.
  • Results showed that DyP1 effectively biotransformed several fluoroquinolone antibiotics, highlighting its potential for biotechnological use in environmental applications.
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Continued widespread use of antibiotics, especially fluoroquinolones, raises environmental concerns, as its driving bacterial resistance and disrupts microbial ecosystems. Here we investigate the biodegradation of ten fluoroquinolone antibiotics (six for medical use and four for veterinary use) by ligninolytic fungi, including , , , , , , , , and . The results show significant variations between strains in the efficiency of antibiotic transformation.

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Despite various plans to rationalize antibiotic use, antibiotic resistance in environmental bacteria is increasing due to the accumulation of antibiotic residues in the environment. This study aimed to test the ability of basidiomycete fungal strains to biotransform the antibiotic levofloxacin, a widely-used third-generation broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone, and to propose enzyme targets potentially involved in this biotransformation. The biotransformation process was performed using fungal strains.

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The wastewater from hospitals, pharmaceutical industries and more generally human and animal dejections leads to environmental releases of antibiotics that cause severe problems for all living organisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the capacity of three fungal strains to biotransform the fluoroquinolone levofloxacin. The degradation processes were analyzed in solid and liquid media.

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