Project description:Bacterial sepsis is a major killer in hospitalized patients. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) with the leading species Staphylococcus epidermidis are the most frequent causes of nosocomial sepsis, with most infectious isolates being methicillin resistant. However, which bacterial factors underlie the pathogenesis of CNS sepsis is unknown. While it has been commonly believed that invariant structures on the surface of CNS trigger sepsis by causing an over-reaction of the immune system, we show here that sepsis caused my methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis is to a large extent mediated by the methicillin resistance island-encoded peptide toxin, PSM-mec. PSM-mec contributed to bacterial survival in whole human blood and resistance to neutrophil-mediated killing, and caused significantly increased mortality and cytokine expression in a mouse sepsis model. Furthermore, we show that the PSM-mec peptide itself, rather than the regulatory RNA in which its gene is embedded, is responsible for the observed virulence phenotype. While toxins have never been clearly indicated in CNS infections, our study shows that an important type of infection caused by the predominant CNS species, S. epidermidis, is mediated to a large extent by a toxin. Of note, these findings suggest that CNS infections may be amenable to virulence-targeted drug development approaches. We used microarrays to detail the global gene expression between S. epidermidis strain Rp62A and S. epidermidis strain Rp62A isogenic Δpsm-mec deletion mutants
Project description:Staphylococci are major pathogens in humans and animals and emerging antibiotic-resistant strains have further increased the importance of this health issue. The existence of a genetic basis of host response to bacterial infections has been widely documented but the underlying mechanisms and genes are still largely unknown. Previously, two divergent lines of sheep selected on their milk somatic cell count called high and low SCS lines, have been showed to be respectively more and less susceptible to intra mammary infections (IMI). Transcriptional profiling of milk somatic cells (MSC) of high and low SCS sheep infected successively by S. epidermidis and S. aureus was performed to provide enhanced knowledge about the genetic basis of differential host response to IMI with Staphylococci. Gene expression in MSC of high and low SCS sheep collected 12h post-challenge was performed on a 15K gene ovine oligoarray (Agilent). MSC were mainly neutrophils. The high number of differentially expressed genes between the two bacterial strains indicated, among others, increased number of T-cells in MSC after S. aureus, compared to S. epidermidis challenge. Differential regulation of 366 genes between resistant and susceptible animals was largely associated with immune and inflammatory response (including pathogen recognition TLR2 pathway and cell migration), signal transduction, cell proliferation and apoptosis. Close biological connection between most of differentially expressed genes into Ingenuity Pathway Analysis networks further indicated consistency between the genes that were differentially-expressed between resistant and susceptible animals. Gene profiling in high and low SCS sheep provided strong candidates for biological pathway and gene underlying genetically determined resistance and susceptibility towards Staphylococci infections opening new fields for further investigation. Keywords: Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, milk somatic cells, mammalian, transcriptome, immunity, mastitis 22 samples in a two-colour dye-swap experimental design
Project description:Staphylococci are major pathogens in humans and animals and emerging antibiotic-resistant strains have further increased the importance of this health issue. The existence of a genetic basis of host response to bacterial infections has been widely documented but the underlying mechanisms and genes are still largely unknown. Previously, two divergent lines of sheep selected on their milk somatic cell count called high and low SCS lines, have been showed to be respectively more and less susceptible to intra mammary infections (IMI). Transcriptional profiling of milk somatic cells (MSC) of high and low SCS sheep infected successively by S. epidermidis and S. aureus was performed to provide enhanced knowledge about the genetic basis of differential host response to IMI with Staphylococci. Gene expression in MSC of high and low SCS sheep collected 12h post-challenge was performed on a 15K gene ovine oligoarray (Agilent). MSC were mainly neutrophils. The high number of differentially expressed genes between the two bacterial strains indicated, among others, increased number of T-cells in MSC after S. aureus, compared to S. epidermidis challenge. Differential regulation of 366 genes between resistant and susceptible animals was largely associated with immune and inflammatory response (including pathogen recognition TLR2 pathway and cell migration), signal transduction, cell proliferation and apoptosis. Close biological connection between most of differentially expressed genes into Ingenuity Pathway Analysis networks further indicated consistency between the genes that were differentially-expressed between resistant and susceptible animals. Gene profiling in high and low SCS sheep provided strong candidates for biological pathway and gene underlying genetically determined resistance and susceptibility towards Staphylococci infections opening new fields for further investigation. Keywords: Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, milk somatic cells, mammalian, transcriptome, immunity, mastitis
Project description:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major causative agents associated to infections with a high morbidity and mortality in hospitals worldwide. In previous studies, we reported that lignan 3'-demethoxy-6-O-demethylisoguaiacin isolated and characterized from Larrea tridentata showed the best activity towards methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Understanding of mechanism of action of drugs allows design drugs in a better way. Therefore, we employed microarray to obtain gene expression profile of methicillin-resistant S. aureus after exposure to 3'-demethoxy-6-O-demethylisoguaiacin. The results showed that lignan had an effect on cell membrane affecting proteins of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transport system causing bacteria death.
Project description:The study aims to characterize a new isolate that lacks mecA but is nevertheless resistant to methicillin in order to find a novel mechanism of methicillin resistance.