Discovering the chemical profile, antimicrobial and antibiofilm potentials of the endophytic fungus Penicillium chrysogenum isolated from Artemisia judaica L. assisted with docking studies

The continuous impedance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to traditional antibacterial drugs due to biofilm formation resulted in a growing necessity to develop effective antibiofilm formation treatments. Thus, such a study was conducted to search for the natural metabolites from the endophytic Penicillium chrysoginum AJEF2 as a source of prospective antibiofilm-forming agents. Generally, the OSMAC (one strain many compounds) approach was undertaken to ascertain that the modified potato dextrose broth (MPDB) culture displayed substantial antibacterial potential towards various human pathogenic microorganisms (MICs = 125–500 µg/mL) and exhibited a remarkable percentage of biofilm inhibition against Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates by 92.3%. LC-ESI-HRMS analysis of such extract annotated seventeen metabolites that were screened for their inhibitory biofilm formation based on molecular docking simulation on LasR protein-specific quorum sensing. Interestingly, gladiolic acid, 8‑hydroxy-6-methylxanthone-1-carboxylic acid methyl ester, cyclo(L-tryptophanyl-l-tryptophanyl), and citreoanthrasteroid A, showed acceptable interaction energies and formed significant interactions inside the LasR active site. Those results highlight endophytic Penicillium chrysoginum AJEF2 as a potential source for antibiofilm compounds.