Project description:<p>Traveler's diarrhea (TD) is caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), other pathogenic gram-negative pathogens, norovirus and some parasites. Nevertheless, standard diagnostic methods fail to identify pathogens in more than 30% of TD patients, so it is predicted that new pathogens or groups of pathogens may be causative agents of disease. A comprehensive metagenomic study of the fecal microbiomes from 23 TD patients and seven healthy travelers was performed, all of which tested negative for the known etiologic agents of TD in standard tests. Metagenomic reads were assembled and the resulting contigs were subjected to semi-manual binning to assemble independent genomes from metagenomic pools. Taxonomic and functional annotations were conducted to assist identification of putative pathogens. We extracted 560 draft genomes, 320 of which were complete enough to be enough characterized as cellular genomes and 160 of which were bacteriophage genomes. We made predictions of the etiology of disease in individual subjects based on the properties and features of the recovered cellular genomes. Three subtypes of samples were observed. First were four patients with low diversity metagenomes that were predominated by one or more pathogenic E. coli strains. Annotation allowed prediction of pathogenic type in most cases. Second, five patients were co-infected with E. coli and other members of the Enterobacteriaceae, including antibiotic resistant Enterobacter, Klebsiella, and Citrobacter. Finally, several samples contained genomes that represented dark matter. In one of these samples we identified a TM7 genome that phylogenetically clustered with a strain isolated from wastewater and carries genes encoding potential virulence factors. We also observed a very high proportion of bacteriophage reads in some samples. The relative abundance of phage was significantly higher in healthy travelers when compared to TD patients. Our results highlight that assembly-based analysis revealed that diarrhea is often polymicrobial and includes members of the Enterobacteriaceae not normally associated with TD and have implicated a new member of the TM7 phylum as a potential player in diarrheal disease. </p>
Project description:Understanding how M. tuberculosis survives during antibiotic treatment is necessary to rationally devise more effective tuberculosis chemotherapy regimens. Using genome-wide mutant fitness profiling and the mouse model of TB, we identified genes that alter antibiotic efficacy specifically in the infection environment.
Project description:Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis that is predicted to worsen. While improper antibiotic usage is an established driver, less is known on the impacts of metal supplements. Here, we probe the impact of zinc (Zn) on AMR. In conflict settings where diarrhea disease cases are high, Zn, which is associated with weapons of war, is given as a supplement for diarrhea treatment prior to antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin. In this study, we find that E. coli’s exposure order to zinc impacts resistance development, with increasing pre-exposure leading to accelerated ciprofloxacin resistance, while combined exposure of zinc with ciprofloxacin delays ciprofloxacin resistance. We did not find evidence that zinc pre-exposure leads to genetic changes or changes in antibiotic tolerance, though the lag phase and doubling time of E. coli was increased, suggesting gene expression may be changed. While the zinc phenotype was no longer observed if ciprofloxacin exposure did not occur right after zinc pre-exposure, the resulting elevated MIC was more stable. These results are important as they highlight the need to reexamine the clinical role of zinc in treating diarrheal diseases and assess if changes in resistance development observed in vitro are also observed in vivo.
Project description:The influence of cranberry proanthocyanidins on the transcriptomic responses of Streptococcus mutans during biofilm formation was investigated. Treatment regimens simulating topical exposures experienced clinically (twice-daily, 60 s each) were used over saliva-coated hydroxyapatite biofilm model. Cranberry proanthocyanidins (1.5 mg/ml) in 15% ethanol was used to treat the biofilms. Four biological replicates each for the treatment and vehicle control were used for RNA extraction and microarray.
Project description:Kaiser2014 - Salmonella persistence after ciprofloxacin treatment
The model describes the bacterial tolerance to antibiotics. Using a mouse model for Salmonella diarrhea, the authors have found that bacterial persistence occurs in the presence of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin because Salmonella can exist in two different states. One, the fast-growing population that spreads in the host's tissues and the other, slow-growing "persister" population that hide out inside dendritic cells of the host's immune system and cannot be attacked by the antibiotics. However, this can be killed by adding agents that directly stimulate the host's immune defense.
This model is described in the article:
Cecum lymph node dendritic cells harbor slow-growing bacteria phenotypically tolerant to antibiotic treatment.
Kaiser P, Regoes RR, Dolowschiak T, Wotzka SY, Lengefeld J, Slack E, Grant AJ, Ackermann M, Hardt WD.
PLoS Biol. 2014 Feb 18;12(2):e1001793.
Abstract:
In vivo, antibiotics are often much less efficient than ex vivo and relapses can occur. The reasons for poor in vivo activity are still not completely understood. We have studied the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin in an animal model for complicated Salmonellosis. High-dose ciprofloxacin treatment efficiently reduced pathogen loads in feces and most organs. However, the cecum draining lymph node (cLN), the gut tissue, and the spleen retained surviving bacteria. In cLN, approximately 10%-20% of the bacteria remained viable. These phenotypically tolerant bacteria lodged mostly within CD103⁺CX₃CR1⁻CD11c⁺ dendritic cells, remained genetically susceptible to ciprofloxacin, were sufficient to reinitiate infection after the end of the therapy, and displayed an extremely slow growth rate, as shown by mathematical analysis of infections with mixed inocula and segregative plasmid experiments. The slow growth was sufficient to explain recalcitrance to antibiotics treatment. Therefore, slow-growing antibiotic-tolerant bacteria lodged within dendritic cells can explain poor in vivo antibiotic activity and relapse. Administration of LPS or CpG, known elicitors of innate immune defense, reduced the loads of tolerant bacteria. Thus, manipulating innate immunity may augment the in vivo activity of antibiotics.
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