scholarly journals Efflux Unbalance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates from Cystic Fibrosis Patients

2009 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 1987-1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Vettoretti ◽  
Patrick Plésiat ◽  
Cédric Muller ◽  
Farid El Garch ◽  
Gilles Phan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Retrospective analysis of 189 nonredundant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa sequentially recovered from the sputum samples of 46 cystic fibrosis (CF) patients over a 10-year period (1998 to 2007) revealed that 53 out of 189 (28%) samples were hypersusceptible to the β-lactam antibiotic ticarcillin (MIC ≤ 4 μg/ml) (phenotype dubbed Tichs). As evidenced by trans-complementation and gene inactivation experiments, the mutational upregulation of the efflux system MexXY was responsible for various degrees of resistance to aminoglycosides in a selection of 11 genotypically distinct strains (gentamicin MICs from 2 to 64 μg/ml). By demonstrating for the first time that the MexXY pump may evolve in CF strains, we found that a mutation leading to an F1018L change in the resistance-nodulation-cell division (RND) transporter MexY was able to increase pump-promoted resistance to aminoglycosides, cefepime, and fluoroquinolones twofold. The inactivation of the mexB gene (which codes for the RND transporter MexB) in the 11 selected strains showed that the Tichs phenotype was due to a mutational or functional loss of function of MexAB-OprM, the multidrug efflux system known to contribute to the natural resistance of P. aeruginosa to β-lactams (e.g., ticarcillin and aztreonam), fluoroquinolones, tetracycline, and novobiocin. Two of the selected strains synthesized abnormally low amounts of the MexB protein, and 3 of 11 strains expressed truncated MexB (n = 2) or MexA (n = 1) polypeptide as a result of mutations in the corresponding genes, while 7 of 11 strains produced wild-type though nonfunctional MexAB-OprM pumps at levels similar to or even higher than that of reference strain PAO1. Overall, our data indicate that while MexXY is necessary for P. aeruginosa to adapt to the hostile environment of the CF lung, the MexAB-OprM pump is dispensable and tends to be lost or inactivated in subpopulations of P. aeruginosa.

2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1347-1351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Didier Hocquet ◽  
Patrice Nordmann ◽  
Farid El Garch ◽  
Ludovic Cabanne ◽  
Patrick Plésiat

ABSTRACT Cefepime (FEP) and ceftazidime (CAZ) are potent β-lactam antibiotics with similar MICs (1 to 2 μg/ml) for wild-type strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, recent epidemiological studies have highlighted the occurrence of isolates more resistant to FEP than to CAZ (FEPr/CAZs profile). We thus investigated the mechanisms conferring such a phenotype in 38 clonally unrelated strains collected in two French teaching hospitals. Most of the bacteria (n = 32; 84%) appeared to stably overexpress the mexY gene, which codes for the RND transporter of the multidrug efflux system MexXY-OprM. MexXY up-regulation was the sole FEP resistance mechanism identified (n = 12) or was associated with increased levels of pump MexAB-OprM (n = 5) or MexJK (n = 2), synthesis of secondary β-lactamase PSE-1 (n = 10), derepression of cephalosporinase AmpC (n = 1), coexpression of both OXA-35 and MexJK (n = 1), or production of both PSE-1 and MexAB-OprM (n = 1). Down-regulation of the mexXY operon in seven selected strains by the plasmid-borne repressor gene mexZ decreased FEP resistance from two- to eightfold, thereby demonstrating the significant contribution of MexXY-OprM to the FEPr/CAZs phenotype. The six isolates of this series that exhibited wild-type levels of the mexY gene were found to produce β-lactamase PSE-1 (n = 1), OXA-35 (n = 4), or both PSE-1 and OXA-35 (n = 1). Altogether, these data provide evidence that MexXY-OprM plays a major role in the development of FEP resistance among clinical strains of P. aeruginosa.


2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 1676-1680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christelle Vogne ◽  
Julio Ramos Aires ◽  
Christiane Bailly ◽  
Didier Hocquet ◽  
Patrick Plésiat

ABSTRACT This study investigates the role of active efflux system MexXY in the emergence of aminoglycoside (AG) resistance among cystic fibrosis (CF) isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Three genotypically related susceptible and resistant (S/R) bacterial pairs and three other AG-resistant CF strains were compared to four non-CF strains moderately resistant to AGs. As demonstrated by immunoblot experiments, pump MexY was strongly overproduced in all of the resistant bacteria. This MexXY upregulation was associated with a 2- to 16-fold increase in the MICs of AGs in the S/R pairs and lower intracellular accumulation of dihydrostreptomycin. Alterations in mexZ, the repressor gene of operon mexXY, were found in all of the AG-resistant CF isolates and in one non-CF strain. Complementation of these bacteria with a plasmid-borne mexZ gene dramatically reduced the MICs of AGs, thus highlighting the role played by MexXY in the development of moderate resistance in CF patients. In contrast, complementation of the three non-CF strains showing wild-type mexZ genes left residual levels of resistance to AGs. These data indicate that a locus different from mexZ may be involved in overproduction of MexXY and that other nonenzymatic mechanisms contribute to AG resistance in P. aeruginosa.


1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 2540-2543 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Köhler ◽  
M Michea-Hamzehpour ◽  
P Plesiat ◽  
A L Kahr ◽  
J C Pechere

Resistance mechanisms selected after in vitro exposure to 12 quinolones were analyzed for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Efflux-type mutants were predominant. Quinolones differed in their ability to select a particular efflux system. While the newer fluoroquinolones favored the MexCD-OprJ system, the older quinolones selected exclusively the MexEF-OprN or MexAB-OprM systems. A protonable C-7 substituent in combination with a C-6 fluorine atom is a structural determinant of quinolones involved in efflux pump substrate specificity.


2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 658-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideaki Maseda ◽  
Hiroshi Yoneyama ◽  
Taiji Nakae

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa expresses a low level of the MexAB-OprM efflux pump and shows natural resistance to many structurally and functionally diverse antibiotics. The mutation that has been referred to previously as nfxC expresses an additional efflux pump, MexEF-OprN, exhibiting resistance to fluoroquinolones, imipenem, and chloramphenicol and hypersusceptibility to β-lactam antibiotics. To address the antibiotic specificity of the MexEF-OprN efflux pump, we introduced a plasmid carrying themexEF-oprN operon into P. aeruginosa lacking the mexAB-oprM operon. The transformants exhibited resistance to fluoroquinolones, trimethoprim, and chloramphenicol but, unlike most nfxC-type mutants, did not show β-lactam hypersusceptibility. The transformants exhibited additional resistance to tetracycline. In the next experiment, we analyzed the MexEF-OprN pump subunit(s) responsible for substrate selectivity by expressing MexE, MexF, OprN, and MexEF in strains lacking MexA, MexB, OprM, and MexAB, respectively. The MexEF-OprM/ΔMexAB transformants exhibited MexEF-OprN-type pump function that rendered the strains resistant to fluoroquinolones and chloramphenicol but did not change susceptibility to β-lactam antibiotics compared with the host strain. The MexAB-OprN/ΔOprM, MexAF-OprM/ΔMexB, and MexEB-OprM/ΔMexA mutants exhibited antibiotic susceptibility indistinguishable from that in the mutant lacking both types of efflux pumps. The results imply that the MexEF-OprM pump selects substrates by a MexEF functional unit. Interestingly, OprN did not link functionally with the MexAB complex, despite the fact that OprM interacted functionally with MexEF.


2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (24) ◽  
pp. 8649-8654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuji Morita ◽  
Lily Cao ◽  
Virginia C. Gould ◽  
Matthew B. Avison ◽  
Keith Poole

ABSTRACT The Pseudomonas aeruginosa nalD gene encodes a TetR family repressor with homology to the SmeT and TtgR repressors of the smeDEF and ttgABC multidrug efflux systems of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Pseudomonas putida, respectively. A sequence upstream of mexAB-oprM and overlapping a second promoter for this efflux system was very similar to the SmeT and TtgR operator sequences, and NalD binding to this region was, in fact, demonstrated. Moreover, increased expression from this promoter was seen in a nalD mutant, consistent with NalD directly controlling mexAB-oprM expression from a second promoter.


2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 1247-1255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Poole ◽  
Christie Gilmour ◽  
Maya A Farha ◽  
Michael D Parkins ◽  
Rachael Klinoski ◽  
...  

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 2288-2290 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Köhler ◽  
M Kok ◽  
M Michea-Hamzehpour ◽  
P Plesiat ◽  
N Gotoh ◽  
...  

Pseudomonas aeruginosa possesses at least two multiple drug efflux systems which are defined by the outer membrane proteins OprM and OprJ. We have found that mutants overexpressing OprM were two- and eightfold more resistant than their wild-type parent to sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP), respectively. For OprJ-overproducing strains, MICs of TMP increased fourfold but those of SMX were unchanged. Strains overexpressing OprM, but not those overexpressing OprJ, became hypersusceptible to TMP and SMX when oprM was inactivated. The wild-type antibiotic profile could be restored in an oprM mutant by transcomplementation with the cloned oprM gene. These results demonstrate that the mexABoprM multidrug efflux system is mainly responsible for the intrinsic resistance of P. aeruginosa to TMP and SMX.


1999 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 2624-2628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio Ramos Aires ◽  
Thilo Köhler ◽  
Hiroshi Nikaido ◽  
Patrick Plésiat

ABSTRACT A mutant, named 11B, hypersusceptible to aminoglycosides, tetracycline, and erythromycin was isolated after Tn501insertion mutagenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. Cloning and sequencing experiments showed that 11B was deficient in an, at that time, unknown active efflux system that contains homologs of MexAB. This locus also contained a putative regulatory gene,mexZ, transcribed divergently from the efflux operon. Introduction of a recombinant plasmid that carries the genes of the efflux system restored the resistance of 11B to parental levels, whereas overexpression of these genes strongly increased the MICs of substrate antibiotics for the PAO1 host. Antibiotic accumulation studies confirmed that this new system is an energy-dependent active efflux system that pumps out aminoglycosides. Furthermore, this system appeared to function with an outer membrane protein, OprM. While the present paper was being written and reviewed, genes with a sequence identical to our pump genes, mexXY of P. aeruginosa, have been reported to increase resistance to erythromycin, fluoroquinolones, and organic cations inEscherichia coli hosts, although efflux of aminoglycosides was not examined (Mine et al., Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 43:415–417, 1999). Our study thus shows that the MexXY system plays an important role in the intrinsic resistance of P. aeruginosato aminoglycosides. Although overexpression of MexXY increased the level of resistance to fluoroquinolones, disruption of themexXY operon in P. aeruginosa had no detectable effect on susceptibility to these agents.


1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramakrishnan Srikumar ◽  
Tatiana Kon ◽  
Naomasa Gotoh ◽  
Keith Poole

ABSTRACT The mexCD-oprJ and mexAB-oprM operons encode components of two distinct multidrug efflux pumps inPseudomonas aeruginosa. To assess the contribution of individual components to antibiotic resistance and substrate specificity, these operons and their component genes were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Western immunoblotting confirmed expression of the P. aeruginosa efflux pump components in E. coli strains expressing and deficient in the endogenous multidrug efflux system (AcrAB), although only the ΔacrAB strain, KZM120, demonstrated increased resistance to antibiotics in the presence of the P. aeruginosa efflux genes. E. coli KZM120 expressing MexAB-OprM showed increased resistance to quinolones, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, azithromycin, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), crystal violet, novobiocin, and, significantly, several β-lactams, which is reminiscent of the operation of this pump in P. aeruginosa. This confirmed previous suggestions that MexAB-OprM provides a direct contribution to β-lactam resistance via the efflux of this group of antibiotics. An increase in antibiotic resistance, however, was not observed when MexAB or OprM alone was expressed in KZM120. Thus, despite the fact that β-lactams act within the periplasm, OprM alone is insufficient to provide resistance to these agents. E. coli KZM120 expressing MexCD-OprJ also showed increased resistance to quinolones, chloramphenicol, macrolides, SDS, and crystal violet, though not to most β-lactams or novobiocin, again somewhat reminiscent of the antibiotic resistance profile of MexCD-OprJ-expressing strains ofP. aeruginosa. Surprisingly, E. coli KZM120 expressing MexCD alone also showed an increase in resistance to these agents, while an OprJ-expressing KZM120 failed to demonstrate any increase in antibiotic resistance. MexCD-mediated resistance, however, was absent in a tolC mutant of KZM120, indicating that MexCD functions in KZM120 in conjunction with TolC, the previously identified outer membrane component of the AcrAB-TolC efflux system. These data confirm that a tripartite efflux pump is necessary for the efflux of all substrate antibiotics and that the P. aeruginosa multidrug efflux pumps are functional and retain their substrate specificity in E. coli.


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