Outer membrane vesicles from ?-lactam-resistant Escherichia coli enable the survival of ?-lactam-susceptible E. coli in the presence of ?-lactam antibiotics.

ABSTRACT: Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) containing various bacterial compounds are released from mainly gram-negative bacteria. Secreted OMVs play important roles in the ability of a bacterium to defend itself, and thus contribute to the survival of bacteria in a community. In this study, we collected OMVs from ?-lactam antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli established by conjugation assay and the parental ?-lactam antibiotic-susceptible strain, and performed comparative proteomic analysis to examine whether these OMVs carried ?-lactam-resistant compounds. We also investigated whether both types of OMVs could protect susceptible cells from ?-lactam-induced death and/or directly degrade ?-lactam antibiotics. Several proteins that can be involved in degrading ?-lactam antibiotics were more abundant in OMVs from ?-lactam-resistant E. coli, and thus OMVs from ?-lactam resistant E. coli could directly and dose-dependently degrade ?-lactam antibiotics and fully rescue ?-lactam-susceptible E. coli and other bacterial species from ?-lactam antibiotic-induced growth inhibition. Taken together, present study demonstrate that OMVs from ?-lactam-resistant E. coli play important roles in survival of antibiotic susceptible bacteria against ?-lactam antibiotics. This finding may pave the way for new efforts to combat the current global spread of antibiotic resistances, which is considered to be a significant public health threat.

SUBMITTER: Kim SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5876404 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature