Project description:Staphylococcus aureus is a notorious bacterial pathogen that causes a broad range of human diseases, and isolates that are resistant to several antibiotic classes including last resort antibiotics like vancomycin and daptomycin complicate the situation. We characterized S. aureus VC40, a strain that shows full resistance to vancomycin (MIC of 64 M-BM-5g/ml) and daptomycin (MIC of 4 M-BM-5g/ml) as well as a decreased susceptibility to further cell wall active agents. Genome sequencing revealed mutations in genes encoding the histidine kinases WalK and VraS that control cell envelope related processes and gene expression profiling indicated the induction of the respective regulons in strain VC40. Reconstitution of the mutations in walK or vraS into the susceptible S. aureus NCTC 8325 background resulted in a considerably increased resistance to vancomycin and daptomycin with MICs surpassing the clinical breakpoints for these antibiotics, thereby generating vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) strains. As observed for S. aureus VC40, the walKwalk and vraS mutations also led to an increased expression of the respective regulons in the NCTC 8325 background. Phenotypic studies showed that S. aureus VC40 as well as the walKwalk and vraS mutants of strain NCTC 8325 were characterized by a significantly thickened cell wall, a decreased growth rate, a reduced autolytic activity and an increased resistance to lysostaphin-induced lysis. These results demonstrate that the WalK and VraS histidine kinases act as major switches which allow S. aureus to rapidly develop vancomycin resistance up to the VISA level via mutation of one single gene locus and concomitantly contribute to cross-resistance to other antibiotics including the last resort antibiotic daptomycin. Microarray was used to evaluate alteration in the transcriptome of mutS mutant and compared to the parental strain VC40
Project description:Staphylococcus aureus is a notorious bacterial pathogen that causes a broad range of human diseases, and isolates that are resistant to several antibiotic classes including last resort antibiotics like vancomycin and daptomycin complicate the situation. We characterized S. aureus VC40, a strain that shows full resistance to vancomycin (MIC of 64 µg/ml) and daptomycin (MIC of 4 µg/ml) as well as a decreased susceptibility to further cell wall active agents. Genome sequencing revealed mutations in genes encoding the histidine kinases WalK and VraS that control cell envelope related processes and gene expression profiling indicated the induction of the respective regulons in strain VC40. Reconstitution of the mutations in walK or vraS into the susceptible S. aureus NCTC 8325 background resulted in a considerably increased resistance to vancomycin and daptomycin with MICs surpassing the clinical breakpoints for these antibiotics, thereby generating vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) strains. As observed for S. aureus VC40, the walKwalk and vraS mutations also led to an increased expression of the respective regulons in the NCTC 8325 background. Phenotypic studies showed that S. aureus VC40 as well as the walKwalk and vraS mutants of strain NCTC 8325 were characterized by a significantly thickened cell wall, a decreased growth rate, a reduced autolytic activity and an increased resistance to lysostaphin-induced lysis. These results demonstrate that the WalK and VraS histidine kinases act as major switches which allow S. aureus to rapidly develop vancomycin resistance up to the VISA level via mutation of one single gene locus and concomitantly contribute to cross-resistance to other antibiotics including the last resort antibiotic daptomycin.
Project description:Polymyxin B is considered as a last-resort antibiotic for multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant gram-negative bacterial infections. Addressing Salmonella resistance to polymyxin B is crucial for global public health. In this study, transcriptomic detection and analysis were used to clarify the mechanisms by which CpxA-deleted S.typhimurium is involved in resistance to polymyxin B stress, which may be related to processes such as increased assembly of bacterial flagella.
Project description:There is an urgent need for novel antibiotics against carbapenem and 3rd generation cephalosporin-resistant Gram-negative pathogens, for which the last-resort antibiotics have lost most of their efficacy. We describe here a novel class of synthetic antibiotics that was inspired from natural product-derived scaffolds. The antibiotics have an unprecedented mechanism of action, which targets the main component (BamA) of the Bam folding machinery required for folding and insertion of ß-barrel proteins into the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. This OMPTA (outer membrane protein-targeting antibiotic) class shows potent activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative ESKAPE pathogens and overcomes colistin-resistance both in vitro and in vivo. A clinical candidate has the potential to address life threatening Gram-negative infections with high unmet medical need.
Project description:Daptomycin (DAP) is the last-resort treatment for heterogeneous Vancomycin-Intermediate-Staphylococcus aureus (hVISA) and Vancomycin-Intermediate-S.aureus (VISA), and DAP-resistance onset which is also linked to reduced vancomycin susceptibility, is an increasing public health problem. To have more insight into the mechanisms of daptomycin resistance, the comparative transcriptomes of two DAP-R (1C-3B) clinical isogenic isolates vs their DAP-S (1A-3A) counterparts were investigated by Illumina RNA-seq, the Rockhopper tool, computational filtering analyses and bioinformatic tools.
Project description:There is an urgent need for novel antibiotics against carbapenem and 3rd generation cephalosporin-resistant Gram-negative pathogens, for which the last-resort antibiotics have lost most of their efficacy. We describe here a novel class of synthetic antibiotics that was inspired from natural product-derived scaffolds. The antibiotics have an unprecedented mechanism of action, which targets the main component (BamA) of the Bam folding machinery required for folding and insertion of ß-barrel proteins into the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. This OMPTA (outer membrane protein-targeting antibiotic) class shows potent activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative ESKAPE pathogens and overcomes colistin-resistance both in vitro and in vivo. A clinical candidate has the potential to address life threatening Gram-negative infections with high unmet medical need.
Project description:Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa often causes multidrug-resistant infections in immunocompromised patients and polymyxins are often used as the last-line therapy. Alarmingly, resistance to polymyxins has been increasingly reported worldwide recently. To rescue this last-resort class of antibiotics, it is necessary to systematically understand how P. aeruginosa alters its metabolism in response to polymyxin treatment, thereby facilitating the development of effective therapies. To this end, a genome-scale metabolic model (GSMM) was employed to analyse bacterial metabolic changes at the systems level. Findings: A high-quality GSMM iPAO1 was constructed for P. aeruginosa PAO1 for antimicrobial pharmacological research. Model iPAO1 encompasses an additional periplasmic compartment and contains 3,022 metabolites, 4,265 reactions and 1,458 genes in total. Growth prediction on 190 carbon and 95 nitrogen sources achieved an accuracy of 89.1%, outperforming all reported P. aeruginosa models. Notably, prediction of the essential genes for growth achieved a high accuracy of 87.9%. Metabolic simulation showed that lipid A modifications associated with polymyxin resistance exert a limited impact on bacterial growth and metabolism, but remarkably change the physiochemical properties of the outer membrane. Modelling with transcriptomics constraints revealed a broad range of metabolic responses to polymyxin treatment, including reduced biomass synthesis, upregulated amino acids catabolism, induced flux through the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and increased redox turnover. Conclusions: Overall, iPAO1 represents the most comprehensive GSMM constructed to date for Pseudomonas. It provides a powerful systems pharmacology platform for the elucidation of complex killing mechanisms of antibiotics.
Project description:Drug resistance and tolerance eliminate the therapeutic potential of antibiotics against pathogens. Antibiotic tolerance by bacterial biofilms often leads to persistent infections, but its mechanisms are unclear. To uncover antibiotic tolerance mechanisms in biofilms, we applied stable isotope labeling with amino acids (SILAC) proteomics to selectively label and compare proteomes of sensitive and tolerant subpopulations of biofilms formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa towards colistin, a 'last-resort' antibiotic against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. Migration was essential in forming colistin-tolerant biofilm subpopulations, as colistin-tolerant cell-aggregates migrated with type IV pili, onto the top of killed biofilm. The colistin-tolerant cell-aggregates employed quorum sensing (QS) to initiate the formation of fresh colistin-tolerant subpopulations, highlighting multicellular behavior in antibiotic tolerance development. Erythromycin treatment which inhibits motility and QS, boosted biofilm eradication by colistin. This novel ‘-omics’ strategy to study antibiotic tolerant cells provides key insights for designing novel treatments against infections unsuppressed by conventional antimicrobials.