Project description:Hybrid immunity (vaccination + natural infection) to SARS-CoV-2 provides superior protection to re-infection. We performed immune profiling studies during breakthrough infections in mRNA-vaccinated hamsters to evaluate hybrid immunity induction. Vaccine was dosed to induce binding antibody titers against ancestral spike, but not efficient virus neutralization of ancestral SARS-CoV-2 or variants of concern (VoCs). Vaccination reduced morbidity and controlled lung virus titers for ancestral virus and Alpha but allowed breakthrough infections in Beta, Delta and Mu-challenged hamsters. Vaccination primed for T cell responses that were boosted by infection. Infection back-boosted neutralizing antibody responses against ancestral virus and VoCs. Hybrid immunity resulted in more cross-reactive sera, reflected by smaller antigenic cartography distances. Transcriptomics post infection reflects both vaccination status and disease course, and suggests a role for interstitial macrophages in vaccine-mediated protection. Therefore, protection by vaccination, even in the absence of neutralizing antibodies, correlates with recall of broadly reactive B- and T-cell responses.
Project description:We recently found that Yersinia pseudotuberculosis can be used as a model of persistent bacterial infections. We performed in vivo RNA-seq of bacteria in small cecal tissue biopsies at early and persistent stages of infection to determine strategies associated with persistence. Comprehensive analysis of mixed RNA populations from infected tissues revealed that Y. pseudotuberculosis undergoes transcriptional reprogramming with drastic down-regulation of T3SS virulence genes during persistence when the pathogen resides within the cecum. At the persistent stage, the expression pattern in many respects resembles the pattern seen in vitro at 26oC, with for example up-regulation of flagellar genes and invA. These findings are expected to have impact on future rationales to identify suitable bacterial targets for new antibiotics. Other genes that are up-regulated during persistence are genes involved in anaerobiosis, chemotaxis, and protection against oxidative and acidic stress, which indicates the influence of different environmental cues. We found that the Crp/CsrA/RovA regulatory cascades influence the pattern of bacterial gene expression during persistence. Furthermore, arcA, fnr, frdA, and wrbA play critical roles in persistence. Our findings suggest a model for the life cycle of this enteropathogen with reprogramming from a virulent to an adapted phenotype capable of persisting and spreading by fecal shedding. Examination of Y. pseudotuberculosis expression in two mouse cecal tissue at early and at persistent infection. Also pure bacterial cultures two at 26C and two 37C. Additionally, the bacterial content of cecal tissue during infections and before infection were analyzed with read mapping on 16SMicrobial NCBI database with non-rRNA-depleted reads.
Project description:The formation of biofilms is closely associated with persistent and chronic infections, and physiological heterogeneity such as pH and oxygen gradients renders biofilms highly resistant to conventional antibiotics. To date, effectively treating biofilm infections remains a significant challenge. Herein, we report the fabrication of micellar nanoparticles adapted to heterogeneous biofilm microenvironments, enabling nitric oxide (NO) release through two distinct photoredox catalysis mechanisms. The key design feature involves the use of tertiary amine (TA) moieties, which function as sacrificial agents to avoid the quenching of photocatalysts under normoxic and neutral pH conditions and proton acceptors at acidic pH to allow deep biofilm penetration. This biofilm-adaptive NO-releasing platform shows excellent antibiofilm activity against ciprofloxacin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) biofilms both in vitro and in a mouse skin infection model, providing a strategy for combating biofilm heterogeneity and biofilm-related infections.
Project description:Global protein alteration in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37 RV ( Mtb-H37RV) of day 2 (control) and day 16 (persistent) samples (in duplicates) treated with antibiotics 8µg/ml of ciprofloxacin and 0.1 µg/ml of Isoniazid (to mimic persister stage) were accessed using 4 plex iTRAQ label.
Project description:Interventions: oral antibiotics
Primary outcome(s): The rate of surgical site infection at 30th days after surgery
Study Design: Single arm Non-randomized
Project description:Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae classified as multilocus sequence type 258 (ST258)are a problem in healthcare settings in many countries globally. ST258 isolates are resistant tomultiple classes of antibiotics and can cause life-threatening infections, such as pneumonia andsepsis, in susceptible individuals. Treatment strategies for such infections are limited. Hence,understanding the response of K. pneumoniae to host factors in the presence of antibiotics couldreveal mechanisms employed by the pathogen to evade killing in the susceptible host, as well asinform treatment of infections. Here, we investigated the ability of subinhibitory concentrationsof antibiotics to alter K. pneumoniae capsule polysaccharide (CPS) production and survival innormal human serum. Several antibiotics tested enhanced ST258 survival in normal humanserum. Unexpectedly, subinhibitory concentrations of mupirocin increased survival in 7 of 10clinical isolates tested, and caused up-regulated expression of CPS biosynthesis genes and CPSproduction in a selected ST258 clinical isolate (34446) compared with untreated controls.Additionally, mupirocin treatment caused a reduction in the deposition of the serum complementproteins C3b and C5b-9 on the surface of ST258. Transcriptome analyses with isolate 34446indicated that genes implicated in serum resistance, such as aroE, csrD, pyrB, pyrC and traT,were up-regulated following mupirocin treatment. In conclusion, mupirocin causes changes inthe K. pneumoniae transcriptome that likely contribute to the observed decrease in serumsusceptibility via a multifactorial process. Whether these responses are triggered by othercomponents of host defense or therapeutics that were not tested here merits further investigation.
Project description:To analyze the gain and lost of genes in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans during short-term persistent infection in the same host
Project description:Interventions: oral antibiotics
Primary outcome(s): The rate of surgical site infection at 30th days after surgery
Study Design: Single arm Non-randomized
Project description:Impact of antibiotics (T2) or antibiotics in combination with stress (T3) in early life on intestinal functioning in pigs on 8, 55, 176 days in jejunum and ileum (blood only day 8) and control pigs (T1) 4 pools consisting of 16 animals were generated per time-point (day 8, 55, 176 after birth) per treatment (T1;control, T2; antibiotics, T3; antibiotics+stress)