Multimodal imaging of bacterial-host interface in mice and piglets with Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis.

ABSTRACT: Acute bacterial endocarditis is a rapid, difficult to manage, and frequently lethal disease. Potent antibiotics often cannot efficiently kill Staphylococcus aureus that colonizes the heart's valves. S. aureus relies on virulence factors to evade therapeutics and the host's immune response, usurping the host's clotting system by activating circulating prothrombin with staphylocoagulase and von Willebrand factor-binding protein. An insoluble fibrin barrier then forms around the bacterial colony, shielding the pathogen from immune cell clearance. Targeting virulence factors may provide previously unidentified avenues to better diagnose and treat endocarditis. To tap into this unused therapeutic opportunity, we codeveloped therapeutics and multimodal molecular imaging to probe th

SUBMITTER: Panizzi P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7818516 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature