ABSTRACT: Successful termination of an intermittent outbreak caused by an emerging pandrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii clone ST457 in a tertiary hospital
Project description:Traditional vaccines are difficult to deploy against the diverse antibiotic-resistant, nosocomial pathogens that cause Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). We developed a unique, protein-free vaccine to present antibiotic-resistant HAIs. This vaccine protected mice from invasive infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Rhizopus delemar, and Candida albicans. Protection persisted even in neutropenic mice infected with A. baumannii or R. delemar. Protection was already apparent after 24 hours and lasted for up to 21 days after a single dose, with a second dose restoring efficacy. Protection persisted without lymphocytes but was abrogated with macrophages depletion. This vaccine induced trained immunity by altering the macrophage epigenetic landscape and the inflammatory response to infection.
Project description:RNA sequencing transcriptomics was performed on a highly multidrug resistant A. baumannii strain belonging to international clone I, AB5075_UW and a transposon insertion inactivated mutant of ABUW_1016 (cbl), which encodes a LysR-type transcriptional regulator.Transcriptomics suggests that Cbl controls expression of the genes involved in acquisition and reduction of various sulfur sources in A. baumannii.
Project description:Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as one of the most problematic opportunist bacterial pathogen responsible for hospital-acquired and community infections worldwide. Besides its high capacities to acquire antibiotic resistance mechanisms, it also presents high adhesion abilities on inert and living surfaces leading to biofilm development, a lifestyle conferring an additional protection against various treatments, and allowing it to persist for long periods in various hospital niches. Due to their increasing resilience to antimicrobial treatments, A. baumannii biofilms are difficult to control and ultimately eradicate. Overcoming the significant challenges pose by A. baumannii require fundamental insights into mechanisms involved in the development of mature biofilm and thus, may help to develop novel strategies for biofilm prevention and control. To unravel critical determinants of this sessile lifestyle, we compared the proteome profiles of bacteria grown in planktonic stationary phase with those of two A. baumannii strains (ATCC 17978 and SDF), harboring specific features regarding biofilm formation, grown in mature solid-liquid (S-L) biofilm using a proteomic quantitative study. Of interest, among the 69 common proteins determinants accumulated in the two strains at the S-L interface, we sorted out the MacAB-TolC system. This tripartite efflux pump appears to play a role in A. baumannii biofilm formation as demonstrated by using ΔmacAB-tolC deletion mutant. Complementary approaches allowed us to get an overview of the impact of macAB-tolC deletion in A. baumannii physiology. Indeed, this efflux pump appeared to be involved in the envelope stress response occurring in mature biofilm and contributes to maintain WT membrane rigidity as well as tolerance to high osmolarity conditions. In addition, this system is probably involved in the maintenance of iron and sulfur homeostasis. MacAB-TolC might help this pathogen facing and adapting to biofilm architecture which is heterogeneous in space and time, especially in mature biofilm. Increasing our knowledge of A. baumannii biofilm formation will undoubtedly help us develop new therapeutic strategies to tackle this emerging threat to human health.
Project description:Acinetobacter baumannii is a major cause of nosocomial infections which can survive in different hospital environments and its multidrug-resistant capacity is major concern now-a-days. ppGpp dependent stringent response mediates reprogramming of gene expression with diverse function in many bacteria. A baumannii A1S_0579 gene is responsible for ppGpp production. Transcriptome analysis of early stationary phase cultures represents several differentially expressed genes in ppGpp deficient strain (∆A1S_0579). We found that the expression of csu operon, which is important in pili biosynthesis for early biofilm formation, was significantly reduced in the ppGpp-deficient strain. Our findings showed that ppGpp signaling plays critical role in biofilm formation, surface motility, adherence and virulence of A baumannii. This study is the first demonstration of the association between ppGpp and pathogenicity of A. baumannii.
Project description:We performed RNAseq for gene expression analysis for six strains of Acinetobacter Baumannii isolated from blood samples (defined as strains 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6) of patients hospitalized at the University Hospital \\"San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d'Aragona\\" (Salerno, Italy)
Project description:A major reservoir for spread of the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is hopsital surfaces, where bacteria persist in a desiccated state. To identify gene products influencing desiccation survival, a transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) screen was performed. Using this approach, we identified genes both positively and negatively impacting the desiccation tolerance of A. baumannii.
