ABSTRACT: Outer Membrane Porin Mutations Contributing to Resistance Against New Beta-Lactam/Beta-Lactamase Inhibitor Combinations in KPC-2-Producing Enterobacterales
Project description:Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab) causes serious infections that often require over 18 months of antibiotic combination therapy. With β lactam antibiotics being safe, double β-lactam and β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations are of interest for improving treatment of Mab infections and minimizing toxicity. However, a mechanistic approach for building these combinations is lacking since little is known about which penicillin-binding protein (PBP) target receptors are inactivated by different β-lactams in Mab. This project aimed to identify PBPs in Mab and study the binding affinities of each of these PBPs with β-lactam antibiotics. These first PBP occupancy patterns in Mab provide a mechanistic foundation for selecting and optimizing safe and effective combination therapies with β-lactams.
Project description:We performed RNA-seq experiments to compare the gene expression profiles of cells expressing TEM-1 beta-lactamase with single-codon substitutions in the absence of beta-lactam antibiotics. Mutations with deleterious fitness effects in the absense of antibiotics also caused significant changes in gene expression, primarily in the induction of specific outer envelope stress response pathways and, in some cases, the mild-induction of a few genes in the heat-shock response pathway.
2019-10-28 | GSE137362 | GEO
Project description:Novel beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Project description:The study investigated the impact of acquired AmpC β-lactamases on global gene expression and cellular physiology in Enterobacterales. Isogenic Escherichia coli MG1655 strains carrying empty vector (p0) or plasmids encoding CMY-2, CMY-42, or CMY-145 β-lactamase variants were grown to mid-log phase in minimal M9 medium with kanamycin. Total RNA was extracted in three biological replicates, ribosomal RNA was depleted, and strand-specific libraries were sequenced. Reads were mapped to the E. coli K-12 reference genome and differential expression analysis was performed. Comparative transcriptomics revealed large gene expression changes associated with AmpC variant production, including consistent deregulation of genes involved in flagellar biosynthesis, motility, and additional metabolic functions. These RNA-seq data provide a transcriptomic framework to understand how distinct AmpC variants differentially reshape bacterial regulatory networks beyond β-lactam resistance.
Project description:While ESBL and AmpC beta-lactamases barely degrade carbapenems, they are able to bind them and prevent them from interacting with penicillin binding proteins thereby preventing their effect. When these beta-lactamases are expressed at a high level and combined with a decreased influx of carbapenems due to a decrease in membrane permeability, Enterobacterales can become resistant to carbapenems. In this study we developed a LC-MS/MS assay for the detection of the E. coli porins OmpC and OmpF, it’s chromosomal AmpC beta-lactamase and the plasmid-mediated CMY-2 beta-lactamase. Subsequently, we cultured CMY-2 positive E. coli isolates in the presence of meropenem and analyzed mutants that showed increased resistance to meropenem using our developed assay and western blot. In all five selected strains, a decrease in OmpC and/or OmpF was the first event towards an increase in meropenem minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). Subsequently, in four of the five isolate series, MICs increased further after an increase in CMY-2-like production.
Project description:Broad Spectrum of β-lactamase Coverage and Potent Antimicrobial Activity of Xeruborbactam in Combination with Meropenem Against Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacterales, Including Strains Resistant to New β-Lactam/β- Lactamase Inhibitor Combinations
Project description:Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) is an urgent public health threat, according to the CDC. This pathogen has few treatment options and causes severe nosocomial infections with >50% fatality rate. Although previous studies have examined the proteome of CRAb, there have been no focused analyses of dynamic changes to β-lactamase expression that may occur due to drug exposure. Here, we present our initial proteomic study of variation in β-lactamase expression that occurs in CRAb with different β-lactam antibiotics. Briefly, drug resistance to Ab (ATCC 19606) was induced by the administration of various classes of β-lactam antibiotics, and the cell-free supernatant was isolated, concentrated, separated by SDS-PAGE, digested with trypsin, and identified by label-free LC-MS-based quantitative proteomics. Thirteen proteins were identified and evaluated using a 1789 sequence database of Ab β-lactamases from UniProt, the majority of which were Class C β-lactamases (≥80%). Importantly, different antibiotics, even those of the same class (e.g. penicillin and amoxicillin), induced non-equivalent responses comprising various isoforms of Class C and D serine-β-lactamases, resulting in unique resistomes. These results open the door to a new approach of analyzing and studying the problem of multi-drug resistance in bacteria that rely strongly on β-lactamase expression.
Project description:Background: It remains unclear how high-risk Escherichia coli lineages, like sequence type (ST) 131, initially adapt to carbapenem exposure in its progression to becoming carbapenem resistant. Methods: Carbapenem mutation frequency was measured in multiple subclades of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) positive ST131 clinical isolates using a fluctuation assay followed by whole genome sequencing (WGS) characterization. Genomic, transcriptomic, and porin analyses of ST131 C2/H30Rx isolate, MB1860, under prolonged, increasing carbapenem exposure was performed using two distinct experimental evolutionary platforms to measure fast vs. slow adaptation. Results: All thirteen ESBL positive ST131 strains selected from a diverse (n=184) ST131 bacteremia cohort had detectable ertapenem (ETP) mutational frequencies with a statistically positive correlation between initial ESBL gene copy number and mutation frequency (r = 0.87, P<1e-5). WGS analysis of mutants showed initial response to ETP exposure resulted in significant increases in ESBL gene copy numbers or mutations in outer membrane porin (Omp) encoding genes in the absence of ESBL gene amplification with subclade specific adaptations. In both experimental evolutionary platforms, MB1860 responded to initial ETP exposure by increasing blaCTX-M-15 copy numbers via modular, insertion sequence 26 (IS26) mediated pseudocompound transposons (PCTns). Transposase activity driven by PCTn upregulation was a conserved expression signal in both experimental evolutionary platforms. Stable mutations in Omp encoding genes were detected only after prolonged increasing carbapenem exposure consistent with clinical observations. Conclusions: ESBL gene amplification is a conserved response to initial carbapenem exposure, especially within the high-risk ST131 C2 subclade. Targeting such amplification could assist with mitigating carbapenem resistance development.
Project description:Gram-negative bacteria possess stress responses to maintain the integrity of the cell envelope. Stress sensors monitor outer membrane permeability, envelope protein folding, and energization of the inner membrane. The systems used by Gram-negative bacteria to sense and combat stress resulting from disruption of the peptidoglycan layer are not well characterized. The peptidoglycan layer is a single molecule that completely surrounds the cell and ensures its structural integrity. During cell growth new peptidoglcyan subunits are incorporated into the peptidoglycan layer by a series of enzymes called the penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs). To explore how Gram-negative bacteria respond to peptidoglycan stress, global gene expression analysis was used to identify Escherichia coli stress responses activated following inhibition of specific PBPs by the β-lactam antibiotics mecillinam and cefsulodin. Inhibition of PBPs with different roles in peptidoglycan synthesis has different consequences for cell morphology and viability, suggesting that not all perturbations to the peptidoglycan layer generate equivalent stresses. We demonstrate that inhibition of different PBPs resulted in both shared and unique stress responses. The regulation of capsular synthesis (Rcs) phosphorelay was activated by inhibition of all of the PBPs tested. Furthermore, we show that activation of the Rcs phosphorelay increased survival in the presence of these antibiotics, independently of capsule synthesis. Both activation of the phosphorelay and survival required signal transduction via the outer membrane lipoprotein RcsF and the response regulator RcsB. We propose that the Rcs pathway responds to peptidoglycan damage and contributes to the intrinsic resistance of E. coli to β-lactam antibiotics. We used microarrays to identify changes in gene expression resulting from treatment of Escherichia coli with the β-lactam antibiotics cefsulodin, mecillinam, or the combination. Keywords: dose response, stress response