Gram-positive methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) is an emerging cause of hospital-associated urinary tract infections (UTI), especially in catheterized individuals. Despite being rare, MRSA UTI are prone to potentially life-threatening exacerbations such as bacteremia that can be refractory to routine antibiotic therapy. To delineate the molecular mechanisms governing MRSA urinary pathogenesis, we exposed three
S. aureus
clinical isolates, including two MRSA strains to human urine for 2h and analyzed virulence characteristics and changes in gene expression. The
in vitro
virulence assays showed that human urine rapidly alters adherence to human bladder epithelial cells and fibronectin, hemolysis of sheep RBCs, and surface hydrophobicity in a staphylococcal strain-specific manner. In addition, RNA-Seq analysis of uropathogenic strain MRSA-1369 revealed that 2h-long exposure to human urine alters MRSA transcriptome, by modifying expression of genes encoding enzymes catalyzing metabolic pathways, virulence factors, and transcriptional regulators. In summary, our results provide important insights into how human urine specifically and rapidly alters MRSA physiology and facilitates MRSA survival in the nutrient-limiting and hostile urinary microenvironment.
Importance:
Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) is an uncommon cause of urinary tract infections (UTI) in the general population. However, it is important to understand MRSA pathophysiology in the urinary tract because isolation of MRSA in urine samples often precedes potentially life-threatening MRSA bacteremia. In this report, we describe how exposure to human urine alters MRSA global gene expression and virulence. We hypothesize that these alterations may aid MRSA in acclimating to the nutrient-limiting, immunologically hostile conditions within the urinary tract leading to MRSA-UTI.