Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of infection in hospitalised patients, with a large genome which makes it highly versatile and resistant to most antimicrobial agents. Ceftazidime-avibactam (CZA) offers an alternative treatment, but resistance is quickly evolving. There is limited knowledge on the exact resistance mechanisms to this drug, or on cross-resistance to meropenem (MEM). This laboratory experiment aimed to decipher these mechanisms in order to provide guidance for the best treatment choice in meropenem pre-treated P. aeruginosa infections. Six clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa were subjected to multistep resistance selection in sub inhibitory concentrations of CZA and MEM. MICs were also determined in the presence of the efflux pump inhibitor phenyl-Arginine-β-Naphthylamide (PAβN). Molecular analyses were performed by whole genome sequencing, whole -gene- and -protein expression profiles. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing was performed using a two-plasmid method for selected mutations
Project description:Traditional vaccines are difficult to deploy against the diverse antibiotic-resistant, nosocomial pathogens that cause Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). We developed a unique, protein-free vaccine to present antibiotic-resistant HAIs. This vaccine protected mice from invasive infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Rhizopus delemar, and Candida albicans. Protection persisted even in neutropenic mice infected with A. baumannii or R. delemar. Protection was already apparent after 24 hours and lasted for up to 21 days after a single dose, with a second dose restoring efficacy. Protection persisted without lymphocytes but was abrogated with macrophages depletion. This vaccine induced trained immunity by altering the macrophage epigenetic landscape and the inflammatory response to infection.
Project description:The aim of this experiment was to determine if the development of resistance to antibiotics can be driven by the concentration and speciation of Cu. Experimental setup was designed to investigate two hypotheses for which two strains of Gram- bacteria have been selected: - Do TE enhance AR in resistant bacteria? Resistant strain: Bioluminescent Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 (Xen41, Tetracycline resistant) - Do TE induce AR in sensitive bacteria? Sensitive strain: Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 (Wild Type)
Project description:Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa often causes multidrug-resistant infections in immunocompromised patients and polymyxins are often used as the last-line therapy. Alarmingly, resistance to polymyxins has been increasingly reported worldwide recently. To rescue this last-resort class of antibiotics, it is necessary to systematically understand how P. aeruginosa alters its metabolism in response to polymyxin treatment, thereby facilitating the development of effective therapies. To this end, a genome-scale metabolic model (GSMM) was employed to analyse bacterial metabolic changes at the systems level. Findings: A high-quality GSMM iPAO1 was constructed for P. aeruginosa PAO1 for antimicrobial pharmacological research. Model iPAO1 encompasses an additional periplasmic compartment and contains 3,022 metabolites, 4,265 reactions and 1,458 genes in total. Growth prediction on 190 carbon and 95 nitrogen sources achieved an accuracy of 89.1%, outperforming all reported P. aeruginosa models. Notably, prediction of the essential genes for growth achieved a high accuracy of 87.9%. Metabolic simulation showed that lipid A modifications associated with polymyxin resistance exert a limited impact on bacterial growth and metabolism, but remarkably change the physiochemical properties of the outer membrane. Modelling with transcriptomics constraints revealed a broad range of metabolic responses to polymyxin treatment, including reduced biomass synthesis, upregulated amino acids catabolism, induced flux through the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and increased redox turnover. Conclusions: Overall, iPAO1 represents the most comprehensive GSMM constructed to date for Pseudomonas. It provides a powerful systems pharmacology platform for the elucidation of complex killing mechanisms of antibiotics.
Project description:ErfA is a transcription factor of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We here define the genome-wide binding sites of ErfA by DAP-seq in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and IHMA87, Pseudomonas chlororaphis PA23, Pseudomonas protegens CHA0 and Pseudomonas putida KT2440.