Project description:E. coli which cause urinary tract infections must respond to high osmolarity in the urinary tract as well as the presence of urea. We used microarrays to measure the differntial gene expression of uropathogenic strain CFT073 in conditions of high osmolarity of urea v. minimal media
Project description:E. coli which cause urinary tract infections must respond to high osmolarity in the urinary tract as well as the presence of urea. We used microarrays to measure the differntial gene expression of uropathogenic strain CFT073 in conditions of high osmolarity of urea v. minimal media RNA was extracted from CFT073 in each growth condition and hybridized to an Affymetrix microarray. The differentially expressed genes were analyzed by expression pattern and function.
Project description:Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the second most common infections encountered in the pediatric population, second only to respiratory tract infections. UTIs are also a major cause of morbidity and mortality. UTIs can often ascend causing infection in the upper urinary tract or even progress to bacteremia or urosepsis. Urosepsis accounts for 10-30% of septic shock cases and Uropathogenic E.coli (UPEC) is responsible for almost 75% of cases. Therefore, increased understanding of the effects of urosepsis at the cellular and organ specific level will provide the foundation for improvements in clinical care.
Project description:The establishment of bacterial infections at epithelial surfaces is determined by the balance of virulence attributes of the pathogen with the activity of innate host defenses. Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) are key responders in many bacterial infections, but the mechanisms by which pathogens subvert these early responses to establish infection are largely undefined. Here, we model these early interactions between human PMN and the primary cause of urinary tract infections, namely uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Our objective was to define virulence phenotypes of uropathogens (as compared with laboratory and commensal E. coli strains) that permit evasion of PMN activity. We found that UPEC strains resist phagocytic killing and dampen the production of antimicrobial reactive oxygen species by PMNs. Analysis of the global transcriptional responses of PMN to E. coli strains revealed that UPEC exposure downregulates the expression of PMN genes involved in proinflammatory signaling and PMN chemotaxis, adhesion, and migration. Consistent with these data, UPEC attenuated transepithelial neutrophil recruitment in an in vitro model of acute infection. We propose that these UPEC strategies are important in the establishment of epithelial infection, and that the findings are germane to a range of bacterial infections at epithelial surfaces. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression in human neutrophils in response to a uropathogenic bacteria compared to a closely related non-pathogenic strain relative to control samples with no bacteria. Our goal was to elucidate a pathogen-specific response. We chose an early time point of 60 minutes to evaluate the accute response to infection. Human neutrophils were exposed to pathogenic or commensal Escherichia coli for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays
Project description:We profiled both fractions of the urinary proteome for 33 human subjects with varied pathologies such as urinary tract infection (UTI), urogenital injury and commensal bacteria colonization. Using a LC-MS/MS based metaproteomic approach, we identified 5,327 non-redundant human proteins, 2,638 and 4,379 of which were associated with soluble urine (SU) and urinary pellet (UP) fractions, respectively, and approximately 1,206 non-redundant protein orthology groups derived from pathogens and commensal organisms of the urogenital tract
Project description:Proteus mirabilis is a primary cause of complicated urinary tract infections (UTI). Surprisingly, iron acquisition systems have been poorly characterized in this uropathogen despite the urinary tract being iron-limited. In this report the transcriptome of strain HI4320, cultured under iron limitation, was examined using microarray analysis. Of genes upregulated at least 2-fold, 45 were statistically significant and comprise 21 putative iron-regulated systems. Two of these systems, PMI0229-0239 and PMI2596-2605, are organized in operons and appear to encode siderophore biosynthesis genes.