title: Recent patents on bacteriocins: food and biomedical applications.
abstract: Most types of bacteria produce bacteriocins, which are proteinaceous extracellular compounds that can inhibit the growth of other undesirable microorganisms. Bacteriocins are receiving increasing attention, due to their many applications, ranging from their initial application in strategies for food preservation to more recent proposed uses in biomedical strategies aimed at fighting certain bacterial infections. Thus, while nisin has a long history of use as a safe additive in certain food products for the purpose of food preservation, certain bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacteria, which are generally recognised as safe microorganisms, or their extracellular extracts are receiving increased attention as protective cultures or antimicrobial extracts in minimally processed food products. More recently, a number of these bacteriocinproducing cultures have been proposed for use in other applications, such as in probiotics, for the inhibition of biofilms in the food industry, or even as coadjuvants of combined therapeutical strategies along with other antimicrobial agents in biomedical applications. This review aims to provide a brief overview of the most relevant recent patents in this field.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Applied Microbiology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Oran University, B.P. 16, Es-Senia, Oran, 31100 Algeria.
authors.forename: Zineb
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Benmechernene
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fernandez-No
authors.forename: Mebrouk
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kihal
authors.forename: Karola
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Böhme
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Calo-Mata
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barros-Velazquez
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D018441:Biofilms; D005285:Fermentation; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005519:Food Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D008892:Milk; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009561:Nisin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D010330:Patents as Topic; D019936:Probiotics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001430:Bacteriocins; D009561:Nisin; D019344:Lactic Acid