scholarly journals Glycolytic Dependency of High-Level Nitric Oxide Resistance and Virulence in Staphylococcus aureus

mBio ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas P. Vitko ◽  
Nicole A. Spahich ◽  
Anthony R. Richardson

ABSTRACTStaphylococcus aureusis a prolific human pathogen capable of causing severe invasive disease with a myriad of presentations. The ability ofS. aureusto cause infection is strongly linked with its capacity to overcome the effects of innate immunity, whether by directly killing immune cells or expressing factors that diminish the impact of immune effectors. One such scenario is the induction of lactic acid fermentation byS. aureusin response to host nitric oxide (NO·). This fermentative activity allowsS. aureusto balance redox during NO·-induced respiration inhibition. However, little is known about the metabolic substrates and pathways that support this activity. Here, we identify glycolytic hexose catabolism as being essential forS. aureusgrowth in the presence of high levels of NO·. We determine that glycolysis supportsS. aureusNO· resistance by allowing for ATP and precursor metabolite production in a redox-balanced and respiration-independent manner. We further demonstrate that glycolysis is required for NO· resistance during phagocytosis and that increased levels of extracellular glucose limit the effectiveness of phagocytic killing by enhancing NO· resistance. Finally, we demonstrate thatS. aureusglycolysis is essential for virulence in both sepsis and skin/soft tissue models of infection in a time frame consistent with the induction of innate immunity and host NO· production.IMPORTANCEStaphylococcus aureusis a leading human bacterial pathogen capable of causing a wide variety of diseases that, as a result of antibiotic resistance, are very difficult to treat. The frequency ofS. aureustissue invasion suggests that this bacterium has evolved to resist innate immunity and grow using the nutrients present in otherwise sterile host tissue. We have identified glycolysis as an essential component ofS. aureusvirulence and attribute its importance to promoting nitric oxide resistance and growth under low oxygen conditions. Our data suggest that diabetics, a patient population characterized by excess serum glucose, may be more susceptible toS. aureusas a result of increased glucose availability. Furthermore, the essential nature ofS. aureusglycolysis indicates that a newly developed glycolysis inhibitor may be a highly effective treatment forS. aureusinfections.

2019 ◽  
Vol 202 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney E. Price ◽  
Dustin G. Brown ◽  
Dominique H. Limoli ◽  
Vanessa V. Phelan ◽  
George A. O’Toole

ABSTRACT Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients chronically infected with both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus have worse health outcomes than patients who are monoinfected with either P. aeruginosa or S. aureus. We showed previously that mucoid strains of P. aeruginosa can coexist with S. aureus in vitro due to the transcriptional downregulation of several toxic exoproducts typically produced by P. aeruginosa, including siderophores, rhamnolipids, and HQNO (2-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline N-oxide). Here, we demonstrate that exogenous alginate protects S. aureus from P. aeruginosa in both planktonic and biofilm coculture models under a variety of nutritional conditions. S. aureus protection in the presence of exogenous alginate is due to the transcriptional downregulation of pvdA, a gene required for the production of the iron-scavenging siderophore pyoverdine as well as the downregulation of the PQS (Pseudomonas quinolone signal) (2-heptyl-3,4-dihydroxyquinoline) quorum sensing system. The impact of exogenous alginate is independent of endogenous alginate production. We further demonstrate that coculture of mucoid P. aeruginosa with nonmucoid P. aeruginosa strains can mitigate the killing of S. aureus by the nonmucoid strain of P. aeruginosa, indicating that the mechanism that we describe here may function in vivo in the context of mixed infections. Finally, we investigated a panel of mucoid clinical isolates that retain the ability to kill S. aureus at late time points and show that each strain has a unique expression profile, indicating that mucoid isolates can overcome the S. aureus-protective effects of mucoidy in a strain-specific manner. IMPORTANCE CF patients are chronically infected by polymicrobial communities. The two dominant bacterial pathogens that infect the lungs of CF patients are P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, with ∼30% of patients coinfected by both species. Such coinfected individuals have worse outcomes than monoinfected patients, and both species persist within the same physical space. A variety of host and environmental factors have been demonstrated to promote P. aeruginosa-S. aureus coexistence, despite evidence that P. aeruginosa kills S. aureus when these organisms are cocultured in vitro. Thus, a better understanding of P. aeruginosa-S. aureus interactions, particularly mechanisms by which these microorganisms are able to coexist in proximal physical space, will lead to better-informed treatments for chronic polymicrobial infections.


2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (2) ◽  
pp. 554-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren M. Mashburn ◽  
Amy M. Jett ◽  
Darrin R. Akins ◽  
Marvin Whiteley

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative opportunistic human pathogen often infecting the lungs of individuals with the heritable disease cystic fibrosis and the peritoneum of individuals undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Often these infections are not caused by colonization with P. aeruginosa alone but instead by a consortium of pathogenic bacteria. Little is known about growth and persistence of P. aeruginosa in vivo, and less is known about the impact of coinfecting bacteria on P. aeruginosa pathogenesis and physiology. In this study, a rat dialysis membrane peritoneal model was used to evaluate the in vivo transcriptome of P. aeruginosa in monoculture and in coculture with Staphylococcus aureus. Monoculture results indicate that approximately 5% of all P. aeruginosa genes are differentially regulated during growth in vivo compared to in vitro controls. Included in this analysis are genes important for iron acquisition and growth in low-oxygen environments. The presence of S. aureus caused decreased transcription of P. aeruginosa iron-regulated genes during in vivo coculture, indicating that the presence of S. aureus increases usable iron for P. aeruginosa in this environment. We propose a model where P. aeruginosa lyses S. aureus and uses released iron for growth in low-iron environments.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuj K Yadav ◽  
Michael C. Lee ◽  
Melissa Lucero ◽  
Christopher J. Reinhardt ◽  
ShengZhang Su ◽  
...  

<p>Nitric oxide (NO) plays a critical role in acute and chronic inflammation. NO’s contributions to cancer are of particular interest due to its context-dependent bioactivities. For example, immune cells initially produce cytotoxic quantities of NO in response to the nascent tumor. However, it is believed that this fades over time and reaches a concentration that supports the tumor microenvironment (TME). These complex dynamics are further complicated by other factors, such as diet and oxygenation, making it challenging to establish a complete picture of NO’s impact on tumor progression. Although many activity-based sensing (ABS) probes for NO have been developed, only a small fraction have been employed <i>in vivo </i>and fewer yet are practical in cancer models where the NO concentration is < 200 nM. To overcome this outstanding challenge, we have developed BL<sub>660</sub>-NO, the first ABS probe for NIR bioluminescence imaging of NO in cancer. Owing to the low intrinsic background, high sensitivity, and deep tissue imaging capabilities of our design, BL<sub>660</sub>-NO was successfully employed to visualize endogenous NO in cellular systems, a human liver metastasis model, and a murine breast cancer model. Importantly, its exceptional performance facilitated the design of a dietary study to examine the impact of NO on the TME by varying the intake of fat. BL<sub>660</sub>-NO provides the first direct molecular evidence that intratumoral NO becomes elevated in mice fed a high-fat diet who became obese with larger tumors compared to control animals on a low-fat diet. These results indicate that an inflammatory diet can increase NO production via recruitment of macrophages and overexpression of iNOS which in turn can drive tumor progression.<br></p>


2006 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 2200-2205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter S. Choi ◽  
Zeki Naal ◽  
Charles Moore ◽  
Emerilis Casado-Rivera ◽  
Hector D. Abruña ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A series of experiments was undertaken to learn more about the impact on other bacteria of nitric oxide (NO) produced during denitrification. The denitrifier Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.3 was chosen as a denitrifier for these experiments. To learn more about NO production by this bacterium, NO levels during denitrification were measured by using differential mass spectrometry. This revealed that NO levels produced during nitrate respiration by this bacterium were in the low μM range. This concentration of NO is higher than that previously measured in denitrifiers, including Achromobacter cycloclastes and Paracoccus denitrificans. Therefore, both 2.4.3 and A. cycloclastes were used in this work to compare the effects of various NO levels on nondenitrifying bacteria. By use of bacterial overlays, it was found that the NO generated by A. cycloclastes and 2.4.3 cells during denitrification inhibited the growth of both Bacillus subtilis and R. sphaeroides 2.4.1 but that R. sphaeroides 2.4.3 caused larger zones of inhibition in the overlays than A. cycloclastes. Both R. sphaeroides 2.4.3 and A. cycloclastes induced the expression of the NO stress response gene hmp in B. subtilis. Taken together, these results indicate that there is variability in the NO concentrations produced by denitrifiers, but, irrespective of the NO levels produced, microbes in the surrounding environment were responsive to the NO produced during denitrification.


2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atul K. Verma ◽  
Christopher Bauer ◽  
Vijaya Kumar Yajjala ◽  
Shruti Bansal ◽  
Keer Sun

ABSTRACT Postinfluenza methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection can quickly develop into severe, necrotizing pneumonia, causing over 50% mortality despite antibiotic treatments. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of antibiotic therapies and the impact of S. aureus alpha-toxin in a model of lethal influenza virus and MRSA coinfection. We demonstrate that antibiotics primarily attenuate alpha-toxin-induced acute lethality, even though both alpha-toxin-dependent and -independent mechanisms significantly contribute to animal mortality after coinfection. Furthermore, we found that the protein synthesis-suppressing antibiotic linezolid has an advantageous therapeutic effect on alpha-toxin-induced lung damage, as measured by protein leak and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity. Importantly, using a Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL)-negative MRSA isolate from patient sputum, we show that linezolid therapy significantly improves animal survival from postinfluenza MRSA pneumonia compared with vancomycin treatment. Rather than improved viral or bacterial control, this advantageous therapeutic effect is associated with a significantly attenuated proinflammatory cytokine response and acute lung damage in linezolid-treated mice. Together, our findings not only establish a critical role of alpha-toxin in the extreme mortality of secondary MRSA pneumonia after influenza but also provide support for the possibility that linezolid could be a more effective treatment than vancomycin to improve disease outcomes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 201 (15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameya A. Mashruwala ◽  
Brian J. Eilers ◽  
Amanda L. Fuchs ◽  
Javiera Norambuena ◽  
Carly A. Earle ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThestaphylococcalrespiratoryregulator (SrrAB) modulates energy metabolism inStaphylococcus aureus. Studies have suggested that regulated protein catabolism facilitates energy homeostasis. Regulated proteolysis inS. aureusis achieved through protein complexes composed of a peptidase (ClpQ or ClpP) in association with an AAA+family ATPase (typically, ClpC or ClpX). In the present report, we tested the hypothesis that SrrAB regulates a Clp complex to facilitate energy homeostasis inS. aureus. Strains deficient in one or more Clp complexes were attenuated for growth in the presence of puromycin, which causes enrichment of misfolded proteins. A ΔsrrABstrain had increased sensitivity to puromycin. Epistasis experiments suggested that the puromycin sensitivity phenotype of the ΔsrrABstrain was a result of decreased ClpC activity. Consistent with this, transcriptional activity ofclpCwas decreased in the ΔsrrABmutant, and overexpression ofclpCsuppressed the puromycin sensitivity of the ΔsrrABstrain. We also found that ClpC positively influenced respiration and that it did so upon association with ClpP. In contrast, ClpC limited fermentative growth, while ClpP was required for optimal fermentative growth. Metabolomics studies demonstrated that intracellular metabolic profiles of the ΔclpCand ΔsrrABmutants were distinct from those of the wild-type strain, supporting the notion that both ClpC and SrrAB affect central metabolism. We propose a model wherein SrrAB regulates energy homeostasis, in part, via modulation of regulated proteolysis.IMPORTANCEOxygen is used as a substrate to derive energy by the bacterial pathogenStaphylococcus aureusduring infection; however,S. aureuscan also grow fermentatively in the absence of oxygen. To successfully cause infection,S. aureusmust tailor its metabolism to take advantage of respiratory activity. Different proteins are required for growth in the presence or absence of oxygen; therefore, when cells transition between these conditions, several proteins would be expected to become unnecessary. In this report, we show that regulated proteolysis is used to modulate energy metabolism inS. aureus. We report that the ClpCP protein complex is involved in specifically modulating aerobic respiratory growth but is dispensable for fermentative growth.


mSphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia A. Todd ◽  
Mairi C. Noverr ◽  
Brian M. Peters

ABSTRACT Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus are common causes of nosocomial infections with severe morbidity and mortality. Murine polymicrobial intra-abdominal infection (IAI) with C. albicans and S. aureus results in acute mortality dependent on the secreted cytolytic effector alpha-toxin. Here, we confirmed that alpha-toxin is elevated during polymicrobial growth compared to monomicrobial growth in vitro. Therefore, this study sought to unravel the mechanism by which C. albicans drives enhanced staphylococcal alpha-toxin production. Using a combination of functional and genetic approaches, we determined that an intact agr quorum sensing regulon is necessary for enhanced alpha-toxin production during coculture and that a secreted candidal factor likely is not implicated in elevating agr activation. As the agr system is pH sensitive, we observed that C. albicans raises the pH during polymicrobial growth and that this correlates with increased agr activity and alpha-toxin production. Modulation of the pH could predictably attenuate or activate agr activity during coculture. By using a C. albicans mutant deficient in alkalinization (stp2Δ/Δ), we confirmed that modulation of the extracellular pH by C. albicans can drive agr expression and toxin production. Additionally, the use of various Candida species (C. glabrata, C. dubliniensis, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, and C. krusei) demonstrated that those capable of raising the extracellular pH correlated with elevated agr activity and alpha-toxin production during coculture. Overall, we demonstrate that alkalinization of the extracellular pH by the Candida species leads to sustained activation of the staphylococcal agr system. IMPORTANCE Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus are commonly coisolated from central venous catheters and deep-seated infections, including intra-abdominal sepsis. Thus, they represent a significant cause of nosocomial morbidity and mortality. Yet how these organisms behave in the context of polymicrobial growth remains poorly understood. In this work, we set out to determine the mechanism by which activation of the staphylococcal agr quorum sensing system and production of its major virulence effector alpha-toxin is enhanced during coculture with C. albicans. Surprisingly, we likely ruled out that a secreted candidal factor drives this process. Instead, we demonstrated that alkalinization of the extracellular milieu by C. albicans and other Candida species correlated with elevated agr activity. Thus, we propose a mechanism where modulation of the extracellular pH by fungal opportunists can indirectly alter virulence of a bacterial pathogen. Uncovering molecular events that drive interkingdom pathogenicity mechanisms may enhance surveillance and treatment for devastating polymicrobial infections.


2000 ◽  
Vol 279 (6) ◽  
pp. F1092-F1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Schwöbel ◽  
Tina Fischer ◽  
Bettina Lanz ◽  
Markus Mohaupt

Angiotensin II (ANG II) and nitric oxide (NO) have contrasting vascular effects, yet both sustain inflammatory responses. We investigated the impact of ANG II on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/interferon-γ (IFN)-induced NO production in cultured rat mesangial cells (MCs). LPS/IFN-induced nitrite production, the inducible form of nitric oxide synthase (NOS-2) mRNA, and protein expression were dose dependently inhibited by ANG II on coincubation, which was abolished on ANG II type 2 (AT2) receptor blockade by PD-123319. Homology-based RT-PCR verified the presence of AT1A, AT1B, and AT2 receptors. To shift the AT receptor expression toward the type 1 receptor, two sets of experiments were performed: LPS/IFN preincubation for 24 h was followed by 8-h coincubation with ANG II; or during 24-h coincubation of LPS/IFN and ANG II, dexamethasone was added for the last 6-h period. Both led to an amplified overall expression of NOS-2 protein and NO production that was inhibitable by actinomycin D in the first setup. Induced NO production was enhanced via the AT1 receptor; however, it was diminished via the AT2 receptor. In conclusion, induced NO production is negatively controlled by the AT2, whereas AT1 receptor stimulation enhanced NO synthesis in MCs. The overall NO availability depended on the onset of the inflammatory stimuli with respect to ANG II exposure and the available AT receptors.


2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos A. Rodriguez ◽  
Maria Agudelo ◽  
Andres F. Zuluaga ◽  
Omar Vesga

ABSTRACTPrevious studies have shown that “bioequivalent” generic products of vancomycin are less effectivein vivoagainstStaphylococcus aureusthan the innovator compound. Considering that suboptimal bactericidal effect has been associated with emergence of resistance, we aimed to assessin vivothe impact of exposure to innovator and generic products of vancomycin onS. aureussusceptibility. A clinical methicillin-resistantS. aureus(MRSA) strain from a liver transplant patient with persistent bacteremia was used for which MIC, minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and autolytic properties were determined. Susceptibility was also assessed by determining a population analysis profile (PAP) with vancomycin concentrations from 0 to 5 mg/liter. ICR neutropenic mice were inoculated in each thigh with ∼7.0 log10CFU. Treatment with the different vancomycin products (innovator and three generics; 1,200 mg/kg of body weight/day every 3 h) started 2 h later while the control group received sterile saline. After 24 h, mice were euthanized, and the thigh homogenates were plated. Recovered colonies were reinoculated to new groups of animals, and the exposure-recovery process was repeated until 12 cycles were completed. The evolution of resistance was assessed by PAP after cycles 5, 10, 11, and 12. The initial isolate displayed reduced autolysis and higher resistance frequencies thanS. aureusATCC 29213 but without vancomycin-intermediateS. aureus(VISA) subpopulations. After 12 cycles, innovator vancomycin had significantly reduced resistant subpopulations at 1, 2, and 3 mg/liter, while the generic products had enriched them progressively by orders of magnitude. The great capacity of generic vancomycin to select for less susceptible organisms raises concerns about the role of therapeutic inequivalence of any antimicrobial on the epidemiology of resistance worldwide.


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