Review of surfactin chemical properties and the potential biomedical applications

TLDR

Surfactin, an anionic cyclic lipopeptide produced by Bacillus species, is a potent biosurfactant with antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor, and hemolytic activities, and its rising relevance amid antibiotic resistance highlights its potential as a biomedical candidate. This review surveys the current state of knowledge on surfactin’s properties, biomedical potential, and application limitations. Surfactin’s amphipathic structure enables it to insert into phospholipid bilayers, inducing permeabilization and perturbation of target cells.

Abstract

Abstract Surfactin, a highly powerful biosurfactant produced by various strains of the genus Bacillus, exhibits antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor and hemolytic action. This anionic cyclic lipopeptide is constituted by a heptapeptide interlinked with a β-hydroxy fatty acid. Due to its amhipathic nature surfactin incorporates into the phospholipid bilayer and induces permeabilization and perturbation of target cells. The rising antibiotic resistance as well as a number of remarkable surfactin activities shows that it deserves special interest and is considered as a candidate compound for combating several health related issues. In this review, the current state of knowledge of surfactin properties, biomedical potential and limitations for its application is presented.