Breaking antimicrobial resistance by disrupting extracytoplasmic protein folding
- Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- The University of Texas at Austin, United States
- Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
- Brunel University London, United Kingdom
- University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Paris-Sud University, France
- University of Neuchatel, Switzerland
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance in Gram-negative bacteria is one of the greatest threats to global health. New antibacterial strategies are urgently needed, and the development of antibiotic adjuvants that either neutralize resistance proteins or compromise the integrity of the cell envelope is of ever-growing interest. Most available adjuvants are only effective against specific resistance proteins. Here we demonstrate that disruption of cell envelope protein homeostasis simultaneously compromises several classes of resistance determinants. In particular, we find that impairing DsbA-mediated disulfide bond formation incapacitates diverse β-lactamases and destabilizes mobile colistin resistance enzymes. Furthermore, we show that chemical inhibition of DsbA sensitizes multidrug-resistant clinical isolates to existing antibiotics and that the absence of DsbA, in combination with antibiotic treatment, substantially increases the survival of Galleria mellonella larvae infected with multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This work lays the foundation for the development of novel antibiotic adjuvants that function as broad-acting resistance breakers.
Data availability
All data generated during this study that support the findings are included in the manuscript or in the Supplementary Information.
Article and author information
Author details
Despoina AI Mavridou
Funding
Medical Research Council (MR/M009505/1)
- Despoina AI Mavridou
Swiss National Science Foundation (PZ00P3_180142)
- Diego Gonzalez
Academy of Medical Sciences (SBF006\1040)
- Ronan R McCarthy
National Institutes of Health (R01AI158753)
- Despoina AI Mavridou
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M02623X/1)
- Jessica MA Blair
Wellcome Trust (105603/Z/14/Z)
- Gerald J Larrouy-Maumus
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC-2018-0095)
- Ronan R McCarthy
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/V007823/1)
- Ronan R McCarthy
Swiss National Science Foundation (P300PA_167703)
- Diego Gonzalez
NC3Rs (NC/V001582/1)
- Ronan R McCarthy
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M011178/1)
- Nikol Kaderabkova
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M01116X/1)
- Hannah L Pugh
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2022, Furniss et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Further reading
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- Computational and Systems Biology
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
The Staphylococcus aureus clonal complex 8 (CC8) is made up of several subtypes with varying levels of clinical burden; from community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus USA300 strains to hospital-associated (HA-MRSA) USA500 strains and ancestral methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) strains. This phenotypic distribution within a single clonal complex makes CC8 an ideal clade to study the emergence of mutations important for antibiotic resistance and community spread. Gene-level analysis comparing USA300 against MSSA and HA-MRSA strains have revealed key horizontally acquired genes important for its rapid spread in the community. However, efforts to define the contributions of point mutations and indels have been confounded by strong linkage disequilibrium resulting from clonal propagation. To break down this confounding effect, we combined genetic association testing with a model of the transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) to find candidate mutations that may have led to changes in gene regulation. First, we used a De Bruijn graph genome-wide association study to enrich mutations unique to the USA300 lineages within CC8. Next, we reconstructed the TRN by using independent component analysis on 670 RNA-sequencing samples from USA300 and non-USA300 CC8 strains which predicted several genes with strain-specific altered expression patterns. Examination of the regulatory region of one of the genes enriched by both approaches, isdH, revealed a 38-bp deletion containing a Fur-binding site and a conserved single-nucleotide polymorphism which likely led to the altered expression levels in USA300 strains. Taken together, our results demonstrate the utility of reconstructed TRNs to address the limits of genetic approaches when studying emerging pathogenic strains.
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- Immunology and Inflammation
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is an opportunistic, frequently multidrug-resistant pathogen that can cause severe infections in hospitalized patients. Antibodies against the PA virulence factor, PcrV, protect from death and disease in a variety of animal models. However, clinical trials of PcrV-binding antibody-based products have thus far failed to demonstrate benefit. Prior candidates were derivations of antibodies identified using protein-immunized animal systems and required extensive engineering to optimize binding and/or reduce immunogenicity. Of note, PA infections are common in people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF), who are generally believed to mount normal adaptive immune responses. Here, we utilized a tetramer reagent to detect and isolate PcrV-specific B cells in pwCF and, via single-cell sorting and paired-chain sequencing, identified the B cell receptor (BCR) variable region sequences that confer PcrV-specificity. We derived multiple high affinity anti-PcrV monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from PcrV-specific B cells across three donors, including mAbs that exhibit potent anti-PA activity in a murine pneumonia model. This robust strategy for mAb discovery expands what is known about PA-specific B cells in pwCF and yields novel mAbs with potential for future clinical use.
