LAUSR

Persisters are a variant of bacteria responsible for non-inherited antibiotic resistance and tolerance. Listeria monocytogenes is a predominant food-borne pathogen causing listeriosis. Persister cell formation in L. monocytogenes population may be explained by the presence of toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems. Inhibition of TA complexes by antimicrobial peptides is suggested as a novel approach for fighting listeriosis. In this study, we used several valid servers to predict the protein models of three TA complexes and their regulatory Clp proteases in L. monocytogenes as well as their associated interactions following docking result analysis. Further, Peptiderive server was used to determine potential inhibitory peptides for toxin-antitoxin and antitoxin-ClpP interactions in L. monocytogenes . We studied the common toxin and ClpP residues with the antitoxin and with the derived peptide. These in silico-derived peptides would act as TA inhibitors paving the way for novel therapeutic developments to combat listeriosis infection.