Project description:Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasing challenge for therapy and management of bacterial infections. Currently, antimicrobial resistance detection relies on phenotypic assays, which are performed independently of species identification. On the contrary, phenotypic prediction from molecular data using genomics is gaining interest in clinical microbiology and might become a serious alternative in the future. Although, in general protein analysis should be superior to genomics for phenotypic prediction, no untargeted proteomics workflow specifically related to AMR detection has been proposed so far. In this study, we present a universal proteomics workflow to detect the bacterial species and antimicrobial resistance related proteins in the absence of secondary antibiotic cultivation in less than 4 h from a primary culture. The method was validated using a sample cohort of 7 bacterial species and 11 AMR determinants represented by 13 protein isoforms which resulted in a sensitivity of 92 % (100 % with vancomycin inference) and a specificity of 100 % with respect to AMR determinants. This proof-of concept study demonstrates the high potential of untargeted proteomics for clinical microbiology.
Project description:Glycoproteomics is likely to identify Mtb virulence factors because glycoproteins on the bacterial cell envelope are used by mycobacteria to enter the primary human host cell, the macrophage. It has been proposed that Mtb interacts with mannose receptors on host cells via mannosylated proteins to enter the macrophages. Despite the vital importance of these proteins in Mtb pathogenesis, our current knowledge of Mtb glycoproteins is still limited, and only a few secreted and cell wall-associated glycoproteins have to date been described. Previous studies have used laboratory strains as model systems to study glycosylation in Mtb. However, only a few sub-groups within the genetically conserved MTBC appear to cause extensive outbreaks with different clinical presentation and AMR. In this study, we employed qualitative and quantitative mass spectrometry and bioinformatics to explore the glycoproteomic patterns of clinical isolates from four lineages of the MTBC, lineages 3, 4, 5 and 7, to investigate the role of protein glycosylation in Mtb adaptation, survival and AMR.
Project description:HEK293T cells were transfected with the Rbp1-amr or slow (R729H-amr) α-amanitin resistant subunit of RNA Pol II and selected with α-amanitin 24 hours after transfection for additional 24 hours. Total RNA was extracted and global changes in gene expression were determined using microarray chips. MiRNAs are transcribed by RNA pol II but the transcriptional features influencing their synthesis are poorly defined. Here we report that a TATA-box in miRNA and a subset of protein-coding genes is associated with increased sensitivity to a slow rate of transcription elongation. We also show that promoters driven by TATA-box or NF-κB elicit high transcription re-initiation rate, but paradoxically lower levels of miRNA. Interestingly, miRNA synthesis was converted to a more productive mode by decreasing initiation rate, but less productive when the re-initiation rate increased. This phenomenon was found to be associated with a delay in miR-146a induction by NF-κB. We also demonstrate that miRNAs are remarkably strong pause sites. Our findings suggest that lower efficiency of miRNA synthesis directed by the TATA-box or NF-κB is a consequence of frequent transcription initiation that lead to Pol II crowding at pause sites, thereby increasing the chance of collision and premature termination. These findings highlight the importance of the transcription initiation mechanism for miRNA synthesis, and have implications for TATA-box promoters in general. HEK293T cells were transfected with plasmids directing the expression of α-amanitin-resistant variants of Pol II (Rpb1-amr and R749H-amr). α-amanitin was added and RNA was prepared 24 and 48 h later, respectively. The data provided is from 3 Rpb1-amr vs 3 R749H-amr (6 samples).
Project description:Effect of two different antimicrobial materials, functionalized graphene oxide (GOX), and AGXX® coated on cellulose fibers, on the growth and transcriptome of the clinical MRSA strain S. aureus 04-02981. In addition, we investigated the effect of a third material as a combination of GOX and AGXX® fibers on S. aureus 04-02981
Project description:Herein, we used C. acnes as a model to elucidate the antimicrobial machinery of the TH17 subset. We generated C. acnes-specific antimicrobial TH17 clones (AMTH17) with varying antimicrobial activity against C. acnes, to enable us to study mechanisms by which TH17 cells kill bacteria. We show that C. acnes-induced AMTH17 clones represent a subset of CD4+ TEM and TEMRA cells. RNA-seq analysis of AMTH17 indicate transcripts encoding antimicrobial molecules such as GNLY, GZMB, PRF1 and histone H2B, whose expression correlates with killing activity. Additionally, we validated that AMTH17-mediated killing is a general mechanism that can target C. acnes and other bacterial species. Scanning electron microscopy reveal that AMTH17s can release T cell extracellular traps composed of lysine and arginine-rich histones such as H2B and H4 that entangle C. acnes. This study identifies a functionally distinct subpopulation of TH17 cells with an ability to secrete antimicrobial proteins and form extracellular T cell traps to capture and kill bacteria.
Project description:<p>The study of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in infectious diarrhea has generally been limited to cultivation, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and targeted PCR assays. When individual strains of significance are identified, whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing of important clones and clades is performed. Genes that encode resistance to antibiotics have been detected in environmental, insect, human and animal metagenomes and are known as "resistomes". While metagenomic datasets have been mined to characterize the healthy human gut resistome in the Human Microbiome Project and MetaHIT and in a Yanomani Amerindian cohort, directed metagenomic sequencing has not been used to examine the epidemiology of AMR. Especially in developing countries where sanitation is poor, diarrhea and enteric pathogens likely serve to disseminate antibiotic resistance elements of clinical significance. Unregulated use of antibiotics further exacerbates the problem by selection for acquisition of resistance. This is exemplified by recent reports of multiple antibiotic resistance in Shigella strains in India, in Escherichia coli in India and Pakistan, and in nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) in South-East Asia. We propose to use deep metagenomic sequencing and genome level assembly to study the epidemiology of AMR in stools of children suffering from diarrhea. Here the epidemiology component will be surveillance and analysis of the microbial composition (to the bacterial species/strain level where possible) and its constituent antimicrobial resistance genetic elements (such as plasmids, integrons, transposons and other mobile genetic elements, or MGEs) in samples from a cohort where diarrhea is prevalent and antibiotic exposure is endemic. The goal will be to assess whether consortia of specific mobile antimicrobial resistance elements associate with species/strains and whether their presence is enhanced or amplified in diarrheal microbiomes and in the presence of antibiotic exposure. This work could potentially identify clonal complexes of organisms and MGEs with enhanced resistance and the potential to transfer this resistance to other enteric pathogens.</p> <p>We have performed WGS, metagenomic assembly and gene/protein mapping to examine and characterize the types of AMR genes and transfer elements (transposons, integrons, bacteriophage, plasmids) and their distribution in bacterial species and strains assembled from DNA isolated from diarrheal and non-diarrheal stools. The samples were acquired from a cohort of pediatric patients and controls from Colombia, South America where antibiotic use is prevalent. As a control, the distribution and abundance of AMR genes can be compared to published studies where resistome gene lists from healthy cohort sequences were compiled. Our approach is more epidemiologic in nature, as we plan to identify and catalogue antimicrobial elements on MGEs capable of spread through a local population and further we will, where possible, link mobile antimicrobial resistance elements with specific strains within the population.</p>