Polysorbate slows E. coli toxin production

E. coli loves a good biofilm. These multicellular communities, usually encased in a protective slime, allow E. coli to thrive. However, if the biofilm hosting the E. coli is obliterated the E. coli becomes harmless. Researchers from Michigan State University believe the biofilm obliteration blocks the E. coli’s ability to produce its deadly toxin.

Not only that, the researchers also established that polysorbate 80, a GRAS, FDA-approved additive found in everything from ice-cream to cosmetics, obliterated E. coli's ability to form biofilms.

The polysorbate did not reduce the numbers of E. coli bacteria, it simply prevented the production of the toxin. In vivo experimentation using mice models showed that stripped of their ability to cause disease the bacteria simply pass through the mice’s intestinal tract without causing damage.

The researchers used the same strain of E. coli O104:H4 that sickened a total of 3816 people in Germany and France in 2011. This foodborne disease outbreak resulted in at least 54 deaths and 845 incidents of haemolytic-uremic syndrome. The incidence of HUS at 22% was unusually high. Originally thought to have been caused by an enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) strain of E. coli it was ultimately established that the disease outbreak had been caused by an enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) strain that had acquired the genes to produce Shiga toxins.

The finding that polysorbates attack the protective biofilm in which E. coli lives and renders the deadly bacteria harmless has been featured in the current issue of the journal Biofouling.