Project description:Cefiderocol (CFDC) is a novel chlorocatechol-substituted siderophore approved to treat complicated urinary tract infections and for hospital-acquired and ventilator-acquired pneumonia. In previous work, human fluids, were shown to increase the minimum inhibitory concentration (MICs) of Acinetobacter baumannii against CFDC and reduce the expression of genes related to iron uptake systems, which could explain the need for higher concentrations of CFDC to exert inhibitory action. Herein, we analyzed the impact of human urine (HU), which contains low albumin concentrations, on the expression of iron-uptake related genes and MIC values of two carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii. Levels of resistance to CFDC were not modified by HU in strain AMA40 but were reduced in the case of strain AB5075. Testing other carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates showed that the CFDC MICs were unmodified or reduced in the presence of HU. The expression of piuA, pirA, bauA, and bfnH determined by qRT-PCR was enhanced in both strains when HU was present in the culture medium. All four tested genes are involved in recognizing ferric siderophore complexes or internalization into the cell’s cytosol. In contrast, the effect of HU on genes associated with resistance to β-lactams, antibiotics commonly used to treat urinary tract infections caused by A. baumannii, was variable; the transcriptional analysis of pbp1, pbp3, blaOXA-51-like, blaADC, and blaNDM-1 showed significant variation. In summary, HU, probably due to the albumin and free iron content, does not adversely impact or slightly improves the activity of CFDC when tested against A. baumannii in urine in contrast to other human bodily fluids.
Project description:Using Nanopore sequencing, our study has revealed a close correlation between genomic methylation levels and antibiotic resistance rates in Acinetobacter Baumannii. Specifically, the combined genome-wide DNA methylome and transcriptome analysis revealed the first epigenetic-based antibiotic-resistance mechanism in A. baumannii. Our findings suggest that the precise location of methylation sites along the chromosome could provide new diagnostic markers and drug targets to improve the management of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii infections.
Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study was to elucidate the collateral effects associated with OXA-23 overexpression on the Acinetobacter baumannii global transcriptome. Results: Besides the 99.73-fold increase in blaOXA-23 transcript upon IPTG induction, no other transcripts showed more than a 2-fold change compared to the wildtype control. This suggests that OXA-23 over expression to levels similarly observed in multi drug resistant A. baumannii clinical isolates does not effect the transcriptome.
Project description:Two Acinetobacter baumannii strains with low susceptibility to fosmidomycin and two reference with high susceptibility to fosmidomycin were DNA-sequenced to investigate the genomic determinants of fosmidomycin resistance.
Project description:Colistin is a crucial last-line drug used for the treatment of life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant strains of the Gram-negative bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii. However, colistin resistant A. baumannii isolates can be isolated following failed colistin therapy. Resistance is most often mediated by the addition of phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) to lipid A by PmrC, following missense mutations in the pmrCAB operon encoding PmrC and the two-component signal transduction system PmrA/PmrB. We recovered an isogenic pair of A. baumannii isolates from a single patient before (6009-1) and after (6009-2) failed colistin treatment that displayed low/intermediate and high levels of colistin resistance, respectively. To understand how increased colistin-resistance arose, we genome sequenced each isolate which revealed that 6009-2 had an extra copy of the insertion sequence element ISAba125 within a gene encoding an H-NS-family transcriptional regulator. Consequently, transcriptomic analysis of the clinical isolates identified was performed and more than 150 genes as differentially expressed in the colistin-resistant, hns mutant, 6009-2. Importantly, the expression of eptA, encoding a second lipid A-specific pEtN transferase, but not pmrC, was significantly increased in the hns mutant. This is the first time an H-NS-family transcriptional regulator has been associated with a pEtN transferase and colistin resistance.
Project description:Nosocomial outbreaks of infections caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii have emerged as a serious threat to human health. The phosphoproteomics of pathogenic bacteria have been investigated for their role in virulence regulation networks. In this study, we analyzed the phosphoproteomics of two clinical isolates of A. baumannii: imipenem-sensitive strain SK17-S and -resistant strain SK17-R.
Project description:Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that causes multiple infections, including pneumonia, bacteremia, and wound infections. Due to multiple intrinsic and acquired drug-resistance mechanisms, A. baumannii isolates are commonly multi-drug resistant and infections are notoriously difficult to treat. Therefore, it is important to identify mechanisms used by A. baumannii to survive stresses encountered during infection as a means of identifying new drug targets. In this study, we determined the transcriptional response of A. baumannii to hydrogen peroxide stress using RNASequencing. Upon exposure to hydrogen peroxide, A. baumannii differentially transcribes several hundred genes. In this study, we also determined the transcriptional profile of A. baumannii strains with the transcriptional regulators mumR or oxyR genetically inactivated and identified transcriptional differences between these strains and wild-type A. baumannii in response to hydrogen peroxide stress. In doing this, the function of A. baumannii OxyR in hydrogen peroxide stress resistance and regulation of genes required for hydrogen peroxide detoxification was defined. Moreover, the contribution of the uncharacterized regulator MumR to hydrogen peroxide stress resistance was also explored. This work reveals the transcriptome of an important human pathogen in the presence of hydrogen peroxide stress.
Project description:The emergence of polymyxin resistance in carbapenem-resistant and extended-spectrum -lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria is a critical threat to human health, and new treatment strategies are urgently required. Here, we investigated the ability of the safe-for-human use ionophore PBT2 to restore antibiotic sensitivity in polymyxin-resistant, ESBL-producing, carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative human pathogens. PBT2 was observed to resensitize Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to last-resort polymyxin class antibiotics, including the less-toxic next-generation polymyxin derivative, FADDI-287. We were unable to select for mutants resistant to PBT2 + FADDI-287 in polymyxin resistant E. coli containing a plasmid-borne mcr-1 gene or K. pneumoniae carrying a chromosomal mgrB mutation. Using a highly invasive K. pneumoniae strain engineered for polymyxin resistance through mgrB mutation, we successfully demonstrated the efficacy of PBT2 + FADDI-287 in vivo for the treatment of Gram-negative sepsis. These data present a new treatment modality to break antibiotic resistance in high priority polymyxin-resistant Gram-negative pathogens.