Loratadine's antibiotic adjuvant effects in MRSA 43300
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ABSTRACT: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major threat to human health. Rather than depend on creating new antibiotics (to which bacteria will eventually become resistant), we are employing antibiotic adjuvants that potentiate existing antibiotics. Based on our previous work, loratadine, the FDA-approvide antihistamine, effectively potentiates cell-wall active antibiotics in multiple strains of MRSA. Furthermore, loratadine and oxacillin helped disrupt preformed biofilms and stop them from initially forming in vitro. To gain biological insight into how this potentiation and biofilm inhibition occurs, we used RNA-seq on treated MRSA 43300 cultures to examine antibiotic adjuvant affects transcritome-wide.
Project description:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major threat to human health, as the US mortality rate outweighs those from HIV, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis combined. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, antibiotic resistant bacterial infections acquired during hospital stays have increased. Instead of designing and deploying new antibiotics which MRSA would quickly develop resistance to, adjuvants are a key strategy to combatting these bacteria. We have evaluated several small molecule adjuvants that have strong potentiation with β-lactam antibiotics and have now investigated at the molecular level how the lead adjuvant exerts its effects. We hypothesized that the expression levels of key resistance genes would decrease once cotreated with a β-lactam antibiotic (oxacillin) and the adjuvant (compound 8). Furthermore, bioinformatic analyses would reveal biochemical pathways enriched in differentially expressed genes. RNA-seq analysis showed 176 and 233 genes significantly up and downregulated, respectively, upon cotreatment with oxacillin and compound 8. We identified four subclusters of genes that were regulated in similar patterns in response to drug treatment. Many of these genes displayed a similar pattern of expression where they were unaffected by compound 8 treatment alone, upregulated upon antibiotic challenge, and downregulated again upon cotreatment. GO categories that were significantly enriched among downregulated genes involved carbohydrate utilization and/or transport. Most of the biochemical pathways enriched with significantly downregulated genes involved carbohydrate utilization, such as the citric acid cycle (p=6.4x10-6) and the phosphotransferase system (p=1.8x10-5). The most populated pathway was S. aureus infection (p=3.0x10-3). Creating a network of affected gene products helped uncover potential master regulators for further investigation. This study revealed a dramatic impact of our lead adjuvant on the transcriptome that is consistent with a pleiotropic effect. These results point to this adjuvant as having potential broad therapeutic use in combatting MRSA infections.
Project description:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major human pathogen in both community and health care settings, which causes a wide range of infections. Its resistance to β-lactam antibiotics and methicillin in particular, greatly complicates treatment options and success rate due to the limited number of antibiotics with activity against MRSA. To further the development of alternative therapeutics, the mechanisms that mediate antibiotic resistance in MRSA need to be fully understood. Cannabinoid compounds including cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabinol (CBN) have shown promise as potential antibiotic adjuvants. In the present study, MRSA cells were subjected to antibiotic stress from methicillin in combination with three cannabinoid compounds, and subsequently analysed using metaproteomics to assess the metabolic response. Subjecting MRSA to methicillin made the cells more viable and increased their energy production, as well as upregulation of penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2). The cannabinoids all showed antimicrobial activity against MRSA, and inhibited the energy production of the cells as well as PBP2 when used in combination with methicillin. Furthermore, all three cannabinoid compounds inhibited resistance mechanisms in MRSA, resulting in a decrease in the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of methicillin when used in combination.
Project description:A leading cause of morbidity and mortality during influenza infection is the development of a secondary bacterial pneumonia, which is appropriately treated with antibiotics. In the absence of a bacterial superinfection, prescribing antibiotics is not indicated but has nevertheless become a common clinical practice for those presenting with a respiratory viral illness. We found that antibiotic use during an antecedent influenza infection impaired the lung innate immunologic defenses toward a secondary challenge with methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA). The antibiotics perturbed the gut microbiome causing a fungal dysbiosis that drives an increase in lung eosinophils. We also demonstrate eosinophils, through the release of major basic protein, impair macrophage ability to clear MRSA. Moreover, we provide clinical evidence that eosinophils positively correlate with antibiotic use and worsened outcomes in patients hospitalized for viral infections. Altogether, our work establishes a counterproductive effect of antibiotic treatment during influenza infection that have negative immunologic consequences in the lungs thereby increasing the risk of developing a secondary bacterial infection.
Project description:Persistent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia is life-threatening and occurs in up to 30% of MRSA bacteremia cases despite appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Isolates of MRSA that cause antibiotic-persistent MRSA bacteremia (APMB) typically have in vitro antibiotic susceptibilities equivalent to those causing antibiotic-resolving MRSA bacteremia (ARMB). Thus, persistence reflects host-pathogen interactions occurring uniquely in context of antibiotic therapy in vivo. However, host factors and mechanisms involved in APMB remain unclear. We compared DNA methylomes in circulating immune cells from patients experiencing APMB vs. ARMB. Overall, methylation signatures diverged in the distinct patient cohorts. Differentially methylated sites intensified proximate to transcription factor binding sites, primarily in enhancer regions. In APMB patients, significant hypo-methylation was observed in binding sites for CCAAT enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) and signal transducer / activator of transcription 1 (STAT1). In contrast, hypo-methylation in ARMB patients localized to glucocorticoid receptor and histone acetyltransferase p300 binding sites. These distinct methylation signatures were enriched in neutrophils and achieved a mean area under the curve of 0.85 when used to predict APMB using a classification model. These findings differentiate epigenotypes in patients experiencing APMB vs. ARMB, and suggest a risk stratification strategy for antibiotic persistence in patients treated for MRSA bacteremia.
Project description:Caerin 1 is a family of host-defense peptides with antimicrobial property originally isolated from Australia tree frog. Caerin 1.1+1.9 has been shown to inhibit multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria infection both in vitro and in vivo. In current study, we compare the MICs of caerin 1.1/1.9 with commonly used antibiotics against S. aureus, Copper-Green Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Streptococcus haemolyticus. We demonstrate that caerin 1.1/1.9 not only prevent the formation of biofilm by A. Baumann, but also have therapeutic effect on established biofilm. In addition, we find that caerin1.1/1.9 significantly inhibit the growth of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain in a murine skin infection model. The quantitative proteomic analysis suggested that caerin1.1/1.9 largely activate oxidative phosphorylation, as well as several pathways associated with tissue repair and growth, with respect to the untreated tissues infected with MRSA in mice. In summary, our results suggest that caerin 1.1/1.9 have the potential to be used as a drug candidate treating complicated antibiotic resistant bacterial infection in human.
Project description:The success of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) as pathogens is due to a combination of antibiotic resistance with high virulence. However, evolution of the exceptional virulence potential of CA-MRSA is not understood. Our previous study indicated that differential gene expression contributes substantially to this process. Thus, we here investigated the role of the pivotal virulence gene regulatory system agr in the most prevalent CA-MRSA strain USA300. Using a mouse subcutaneous infection model, we show that agr is essential for the development of CA-MRSA skin infections, the most frequent manifestation of disease caused by CA-MRSA. Furthermore, genome-wide analysis of gene expression revealed significant differences in agr-dependent virulence gene regulation between CA-MRSA, HA-MRSA, and laboratory strains. Our findings demonstrate that agr functionality is critical for CA-MRSA disease and indicate that an adaptation of the agr regulon to optimize expression of a broad set of virulence determinants may have contributed to the evolution of exceptionally pronounced virulence of CA-MRSA strains. Keywords: wild type vs mutant Wild type vs mutant agr strains.
Project description:The success of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) as pathogens is due to a combination of antibiotic resistance with high virulence. However, evolution of the exceptional virulence potential of CA-MRSA is not understood. Our previous study indicated that differential gene expression contributes substantially to this process. Thus, we here investigated the role of the pivotal virulence gene regulatory system agr in the most prevalent CA-MRSA strain USA300. Using a mouse subcutaneous infection model, we show that agr is essential for the development of CA-MRSA skin infections, the most frequent manifestation of disease caused by CA-MRSA. Furthermore, genome-wide analysis of gene expression revealed significant differences in agr-dependent virulence gene regulation between CA-MRSA, HA-MRSA, and laboratory strains. Our findings demonstrate that agr functionality is critical for CA-MRSA disease and indicate that an adaptation of the agr regulon to optimize expression of a broad set of virulence determinants may have contributed to the evolution of exceptionally pronounced virulence of CA-MRSA strains. Keywords: wild type vs mutant
Project description:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) remains a global health threat with an over 14% fatality rate, in case of invasive infection, in 2011. Multi-drug resistance is the main reason for the failure of therapy. Use of antimicrobial drug combinations with synergistic effect is increasingly seen as a critical strategy to combat multi-drug resistant pathogens such as MRSA. However, the mechanism of synergistic effect has yet been systematically studied. In this work, we investigated a new erythromycin derivative, SIPI-8294, which has been demonstrated to have synergistic effect with oxacillin against MRSA, unlike its parent compound erythromycin. To obtain insights into the mechanism for the synergistic effect, label-free quantitative proteomics was employed. Cultured MRSA was exposed to sub-inhibitory doses of oxacillin, SIPI-8294, erythromycin, and combinations of SIPI-8294/oxacillin and erythromycin/oxacillin to reveal the global proteome responses to drug treatment. Results showed that 200 proteins were differentially expressed in SIPI-8294/oxacillin-treated cells. Among these proteins, the expression levels of penicillin binding protein 2a and β-lactamase, two proteins mainly responsible for oxacillin resistance, were four times lower in the SIPI-8294/oxacillin treatment group than in the erythromycin/oxacillin treatment group. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis also revealed similar trends at the transcription level. These results suggest that the synergistic mechanism may be related to interference with the known oxacillin resistance mechanism. The data also provided some evidence that the combination of SIPI-8294 and oxacillin appears to impact oxidation-reduction homeostasis and cell wall biosynthesis.
Project description:Several groups have shown that through evolution experiments, tolerance and resistance evolved rapidly under cyclic antibiotic treatment. In other words, intermittent antibiotic exposure performed in a typical adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiments will “train” the bacteria to become tolerant/resistant to the drug. Although ALE has added new knowledge regarding the impact of varying treatment conditions on the evolution of tolerance/resistance, the role of some parameters such as population bottlenecks remains poorly understood. In this study, we employed ALE to investigate the evolution of methicillin-resistant S. aureus under repetitive daptomycin treatment using a modified protocol that incorporated population bottleneck following antibiotic exposure. We observed that although tolerance development is slower under bottlenecking conditions, the populations finally attained tolerance mutation in the yycH gene after twelve cycles of treatment. Extending the evolution experiment and changing the treatment scheme to a fast evolution protocol (treatment during exponential phase without bottlenecking) led to the emergence of daptomycin resistance (mutation in mprF gene). Through proteomics, we uncovered the differential adaptation strategies of these daptomycin tolerant and resistant MRSA strains, and how they respond differently to antibiotics compared to the ancestral wild-type.
Project description:Recurrent epidemics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have illustrated that the effectiveness of antibiotics in clinical application is rapidly fading. A feasible approach is to combine natural products with existing antibiotics to achieve an antibacterial effect. In this molecular docking study, we found that theaflavin (TF) preferentially binds the allosteric site of penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP2a), inducing the PBP2a active site to open, which is convenient for β-lactam antibiotics to treat MRSA infection, instead of directly exerting antibacterial activity at the active site. Subsequent TMT-labeled proteomics analysis showed that TF treatment did not significantly change the landscape of the Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) USA300 proteome.Checkerboard dilution tests and kill curve assays were performed to validate the synergistic effect of TF and ceftiofur, and the fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) was 0.1875.Our findings provide a potential therapeutic strategy to combine existing antibiotics with natural products to resolve the prevalent infections of multidrug-resistant pathogens.