Project description:Bacterial persister cells are phenotypic variants that exhibit a transient non-growing state and antibiotic tolerance. Here we provide in vitro evidence of Staphylococcus aureus persisters within infected host cells. We show that the bacteria surviving antibiotic treatment within host cells are persisters, displaying biphasic killing and reaching a uniformly non-responsive, non-dividing state when followed at the single-cell level. This phenotype is stable but reversible upon antibiotic removal. Intracellular S. aureus persisters remain metabolically active, but display an altered transcriptomic profile consistent with activation of stress responses, including the stringent response as well as cell-wall stress, SOS and heat-shock responses. These changes are associated with multidrug tolerance after exposure to a single antibiotic. We hypothesize that intracellular S. aureus persisters may constitute a reservoir for relapsing infection, and could contribute to therapeutic failures.
Project description:Many bacterial infections are hard to treat and tend to relapse, possibly due to the presence of antibiotic-tolerant persisters that are considered dormant cells when bacteria are grown in laboratory medium. Non-growing persisters also form following uptake of Salmonella by macrophages but their nature is little understood. Here we show that Salmonella persisters arising during macrophage infection maintain an active state. Persisters reprogram macrophages by means of effectors secreted by the SPI-2 Type 3 Secretion System (T3SS), thereby dampening pro-inflammatory innate immune responses and inducing anti-inflammatory macrophage polarisation. Reprogramming allows non-growing Salmonella to survive for extended periods in their host. Persisters undermining the host immune defences might confer an advantage to the pathogen during relapse once the antibiotic pressure is relieved.
Project description:Staphylococcus aureus causes invasive infections and easily acquires antibiotic resistances. Even antibiotic susceptible S. aureus can survive antibiotic therapy and persist, requiring prolonged treatment and surgical interventions. These so-called persisters display an arrested-growth phenotype, tolerate high antibiotic concentrations and are associated with chronic and recurrent infections. To characterize these persisters, we assessed S. aureus recovered directly from a patient suffering from a persistent infection. We show that host-mediated stress, including acidic-pH, abscesses-environment, and antibiotic exposure promoted persister formation in-vitro and in-vivo. Multi-omics analysis identified molecular changes in S. aureus in response to acid-stress leading to an overall virulent population. However, further analysis of a persister-enriched population revealed major molecular reprogramming in persisters including downregulation of virulence and cell division, and upregulation of ribosomal proteins, nucleotide-, and amino acid- metabolic pathways, suggesting their requirement to fuel and maintain the persister phenotype and highlighting that persisters are not completely metabolically inactive. Additionally, decreased aconitase activity and ATP-levels and accumulation of insoluble proteins involved in transcription, translation and energy-production correlated with persistence in S. aureus, underpinning the molecular mechanisms that drive the persister phenotype. Upon regrowth, these persisters regained their virulence potential and metabolically active phenotype including reduction of insoluble proteins, exhibiting a reversible state, crucial for recurrent infections. We further show that a targeted anti-persister combination therapy using retinoid derivatives and antibiotics significantly reduced lag-phase heterogeneity and persisters in a murine infection model. Our results provide molecular insights into persisters and help explain why persistent S. aureus infections are so difficult-to-treat.
Project description:The maternal microbiota plays an important role in shaping and priming infant immunity, although the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying these effects remain obscure. Here we report that prenatal antibiotic exposure caused significant elevation of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in neonatal lungs, in both cell numbers and functionality. Downregulation of type 1 interferon signaling in ILC2s caused by diminished production of microbiota-derived metabolite butyrate represents the underlying mechanism. Mice lacking butyrate receptor GPR41 (GPR41-/-) or type 1 interferon receptor (Ifnar1-/-) recapitulated the phenotype of neonatal ILC2s upon maternal antibiotic exposure. Furthermore, prenatal antibiotic exposure induced persistent epigenetic changes in ILC2s and had a long-lasting deteriorative effect on allergic airway inflammation in adulthood. Prenatal supplementation with butyrate ameliorated airway inflammation in adult offspring born to antibiotic-exposed dams. These observations demonstrate an essential role for the maternal microbiota in the control of type 2 innate immunity at the neonatal stage, which provides a therapeutic window for treating asthma in early life.
Project description:Persisters, a dormant and multi-drug tolerant subpopulation that are able to resuscitate after antibiotic treatment, have recently received considerable attentions as the major risk of the relapse of various infectious diseases in clinics. However, due to their low abundance and inherent mutability, it is extremely difficult to study them by proteomics. Here, we developed a magnetic beads-based separation approach to enrich Escherichia coli persisters and then subject them to Filter-Aided Sample Perparation (FASP) followed by LC-MS/MS analysis. We applied spectral counting-based quantitative proteomics to study the proteomic changes of E. coli persisters under high concentration of ampicillin treatment.
Project description:Proteomics is the most suitable tool to study persisters with their complex underlying molecular mechanisms from a system-level perspective, but the number of persisters that present naturally is too few for proteomics analysis. Here, we utilized Evo3A, an evolved population with enriched persisters fraction from a recent adaptive laboratory evolution experiment, to study the mechanisms of persistence during ampicillin treatment and resuscitation. Interestingly, the enriched persisters on Evo3A exhibit filamentous morphology upon treatment with ampicillin, and the filaments are getting longer over time. Time-course proteomics study revealed that proteins involved in major carbohydrate metabolism are up-regulated, in particular those involved in the oxidative stress response and act as cellular response to DNA damage. As opposed to the proteome profile during antibiotic treatment, proteins involved in major metabolic processes and ATP generation are down-regulated, while translational proteins and porins are up-regulated in the filaments during resuscitation.
Project description:Space flight missions last for a long time so bacterial infection during missions is considered a potential risk for astronauts. Studies of bacterial antibiotic resistance under spaceflight and simulated microgravity (SMG) have shown contrary results. To better understand the antibiotic stress resistance of K. pneumoniae in the microgravity environment, the original strain of K. pneumoniae (CGMCC 1.839), designated the KPO strain, was cultured under SMG conditions combined with background antibiotic exposure (SMGA) as the experimental group, while the control group was cultured in a NG environment without antibiotic exposure. After 20 cycles of incubation, the growth rate, antibiotic susceptibility, genomic , transcriptomic, and proteomic tests were conducted on the experimental and control groups designated the SMGA and NG strains, respectively.