Proteomic Study of Tolerant S. aureus Strains after Drug Combination Treatment

ABSTRACT: Several groups have shown that through evolution experiments, tolerance evolved rapidly under cyclic antibiotic treatment which then promote the emergence of resistance. In other words, intermittent antibiotic exposure will “train” the bacteria to become tolerant to the drug, and then boost the chances for them to become fully resistant. This evolutionary trajectory of evolving tolerance and resistance not only occurs in vitro, but also in clinical patients with MRSA blood infections. Despite the fact that repetitive antibiotic treatment will lead to tolerance and resistance development in bacterial populations, the difference on the evolutionary path between those treated with a single drug and drug combination remains unaddressed. In this study, we monitored the development of tolerance in MRSA by treating them with either daptomycin alone for 2 weeks (Scheme 1), or daptomycin combined with rifampin for two weeks (Scheme 2), in a cyclic manner. In addition, we also investigate another scenario where we treat MRSA cells with daptomycin alone for one week, and subsequently treat them with daptomycin and rifampin combination in the second week (Scheme 3). At the end of the evolution experiment, we observed that the population from Scheme 1 developed tolerance towards daptomycin, the population from Scheme 2 developed both tolerance and resistance towards daptomycin, while the population from Scheme 3 developed tolerance after a week of treatment, but then the tolerance phenotype diminished at the end of the second week due to the drug combination treatment. We subjected them to whole genome sequencing and identified single point mutations that are responsible for the observed phenotype. Through proteomics, we compared the proteome profile of the population evolved from scheme 1 (S1D14), scheme 2 (S2D14) and scheme 3 (S3D14), and we observed that these three populations employ distinct mechanisms to survive antibiotic treatment, suggesting that the treatment strategy for these populations should be tailored depending on the treatment conditions.

INSTRUMENT(S): timsTOF Pro

ORGANISM(S): Staphylococcus Aureus

SUBMITTER: Jordy Evan Sulaiman  

LAB HEAD: Henry Lam

PROVIDER: PXD021667 | Pride | 2021-07-27

REPOSITORIES: pride