Probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 inhibits bacterial persisters that survive fluoroquinolone treatment.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Bacterial persisters are rare phenotypic variants in clonal bacterial cultures that can endure antimicrobial therapy and potentially contribute to infection relapse. Here, we investigate the potential of leveraging microbial interactions to disrupt persisters as they resuscitate during the post-antibiotic treatment recovery period.

Methods and results

We treated stationary-phase E. coli MG1655 with a DNA-damaging fluoroquinolone and co-cultured the cells with probiotic E. coli Nissle following antibiotic removal. We found that E. coli Nissle reduced the survival of fluoroquinolone persisters and their progeny by over three orders of magnitude within 24 h. Using a bespoke H-diffusion cell apparatus that we developed, we showed that E. coli Nissle antagonized the fluoroqu

SUBMITTER: Hare PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9468890 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature