Limited contribution of the outer-membrane penetration barrier towards intrinsic antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

1982 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Allan Scudamore ◽  
Morris Goldner

The role of the outer membrane (OM) was investigated in relation to the high level of intrinsic antibiotic resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027. OM penetration barriers were measured by comparing turbidimetric growth curves of EDTA-treated and normal cells exposed to carbenicillin, moxalactam (LY 127935), gentamicin, tobramycin, rifampin, novobiocin, and vancomycin. OM barriers were also measured for carbenicillin and moxalactam in P. aeruginosa strain K 799/61, a hypersusceptible mutant presumed to have lost its penetration barrier in the cell envelope. Most antibiotics penetrated the OM efficiently and there was little difference between the two strains. The evidence therefore suggests that intrinsic resistance of P. aeruginosa, especially to the beta-lactam antibiotics, is not mainly due to the OM. A penetration barrier situated deeper within the cell envelope is hypothesized, the size of which in relation to any antibiotic may be estimated by comparing the IC50 values of EDTA-treated cells of the two strains.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamshul Ansari ◽  
Rabindra Dhital ◽  
Sony Shrestha ◽  
Sangita Thapa ◽  
Ram Puri ◽  
...  

Introduction. Pseudomonas aeruginosais the most frequently isolated organism as it acts as the opportunistic pathogen and can cause infections in immunosuppressed patients. The production of different types of beta-lactamases renders this organism resistant to many commonly used antimicrobials. Therefore, the aim of this study was to document the antibiotic resistance rate inPseudomonas aeruginosaisolated from different clinical specimens.Methods. Pseudomonas aeruginosarecovered was identified by standard microbiological methods. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method following Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines and all the suspected isolates were tested for the production of ESBLs, MBLs, and AmpC.Results.Out of total (178) isolates, 83.1% were recovered from the inpatient department (IPD). Majority of the isolates mediated resistance towards the beta-lactam antibiotics, while nearly half of the isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin. Most of the aminoglycosides used showed resistance rate up to 75% but amikacin proved to be better option. No resistance to polymyxin was observed. ESBLs, MBLs, and AmpC mediated resistance was seen in 33.1%, 30.9%, and 15.7% isolates, respectively.Conclusions. Antibiotic resistance rate and beta-lactamase mediated resistance were high. Thus, regular surveillance of drug resistance is of utmost importance.


1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 2488-2493 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Mugnier ◽  
P Dubrous ◽  
I Casin ◽  
G Arlet ◽  
E Collatz

A clinical strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, PAe1100, was found to be resistant to all antipseudomonal beta-lactam antibiotics and to aminoglycosides, including gentamicin, amikacin, and isepamicin. PAe1100 produced two beta-lactamases, TEM-2 (pI 5.6) and a novel, TEM-derived extended-spectrum beta-lactamase called TEM-42 (pI 5.8), susceptible to inhibition by clavulanate, sulbactam, and tazobactam. Both enzymes, as well as the aminoglycoside resistance which resulted from AAC(3)-IIa and AAC(6')-I production, were encoded by an 18-kb nonconjugative plasmid, pLRM1, that could be transferred to Escherichia coli by transformation. The gene coding for TEM-42 had four mutations that led to as many amino acid substitutions with respect to TEM-2: Val for Ala at position 42 (Ala42), Ser for Gly238, Lys for Glu240, and Met for Thr265 (Ambler numbering). The double mutation Ser for Gly238 and Lys for Glu240, which has so far only been described in SHV-type but not TEM-type enzymes, conferred concomitant high-level resistance to cefotaxime and ceftazidime. The novel, TEM-derived extended-spectrum beta-lactamase appears to be the first of its class to be described in P. aeruginosa.


2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 4163-4170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Stephan ◽  
Claudia Mailaender ◽  
Gilles Etienne ◽  
Mamadou Daffé ◽  
Michael Niederweis

ABSTRACT Mycobacteria contain an outer membrane of unusually low permeability which contributes to their intrinsic resistance to many agents. It is assumed that small and hydrophilic antibiotics cross the outer membrane via porins, whereas hydrophobic antibiotics may diffuse through the membrane directly. A mutant of Mycobacterium smegmatis lacking the major porin MspA was used to examine the role of the porin pathway in antibiotic sensitivity. Deletion of the mspA gene caused high-level resistance of M. smegmatis to 256 μg of ampicillin/ml by increasing the MIC 16-fold. The permeation of cephaloridine in the mspA mutant was reduced ninefold, and the resistance increased eightfold. This established a clear relationship between the activity and the outer membrane permeation of cephaloridine. Surprisingly, the MICs of the large and/or hydrophobic antibiotics vancomycin, erythromycin, and rifampin for the mspA mutant were increased 2- to 10-fold. This is in contrast to those for Escherichia coli, whose sensitivity to these agents was not affected by deletion of porin genes. Uptake of the very hydrophobic steroid chenodeoxycholate by the mspA mutant was retarded threefold, which supports the hypothesis that loss of MspA indirectly reduces the permeability by the lipid pathway. The multidrug resistance of the mspA mutant highlights the prominent role of outer membrane permeability for the sensitivity of M. smegmatis to antibiotics. An understanding of the pathways across the outer membrane is essential to the successful design of chemotherapeutic agents with activities against mycobacteria.


Author(s):  
Yujie Liu ◽  
Yibing Ma ◽  
Zhongqiang Ma ◽  
Xiao Han ◽  
Hang Qi ◽  
...  

Bacteria have evolved distinct molecular mechanisms as a defense against oxidative stress. The foremost regulator of oxidative stress response has been found to be OxyR. However, the molecular details of regulation upstream of OxyR remain largely unknown and need further investigation. Here, we characterize a oxidant stress and antibiotic tolerance regulator, OsaR (PA0056), produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Mutation of osaR increased bacterial tolerance to aminoglycoside and beta-lactam antibiotics, as well as to hydrogen peroxide. Expression of the oxyR regulon genes oxyR, katAB, and ahpBCF was increased in the osaR mutant. However, the OsaR protein does not regulate the oxyR regulon genes through direct binding to their promoters. PA0055, osaR, PA0057 and dsbM are in the same gene cluster, and we provide evidence that expression of these genes involved in oxidant tolerance is controlled by binding of OsaR to intergenic region between osaR and PA0057, which contain two divergent promoters. The gene cluster is also regulated by PA0055 via an indirect effect. We further discovered that OsaR formed intramolecular disulfide bonds when exposed to oxidative stress, resulting in a change of its DNA binding affinity. Taken together, our results indicate that OsaR is inactivated by oxidative stress and plays a role in the tolerance of P. aeruginosa to aminoglycoside and beta-lactam antibiotics. IMPORTANCE As opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa can cause serious infections which are hard to eradicate because of antibiotic resistance in immunodeficient patients. We found that OsaR is involved in oxidative stress and antibiotics resistance by regulation of downstream genes via redox state change. Research on factors affecting the transcriptional level of oxyR is very limited, but important since it has implications on antibiotic resistance. In this study, it was found that OsaR can indirectly inhibit transcription of oxyR. In addition the gene cluster composed of PA0055, osaR, PA0057 and dsbM was identified, and the associated regulatory mechanisms and functions were elucidated. Our work not only provides a mechanistic understanding of antibiotic tolerance regulation in P. aeruginosa, but also has significant implications for redox regulation in human pathogens in general.


2019 ◽  
Vol 201 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin D. Labbe ◽  
Cherisse L. Hall ◽  
Stephanie L. Kellogg ◽  
Yao Chen ◽  
Olivia Koehn ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTTransmembrane Ser/Thr kinases containing extracellular PASTA (penicillin-binding protein [PBP]andSer/Thr-associated) domains are ubiquitous amongActinobacteriaandFirmicutesspecies. Such PASTA kinases regulate critical bacterial processes, including antibiotic resistance, cell division, cell envelope homeostasis, and virulence, and are sometimes essential for viability. Previous studies of purified PASTA kinase fragments revealed they are capable of autophosphorylationin vitro, typically at multiple sites on the kinase domain. Autophosphorylation of a specific structural element of the kinase known as the activation loop is thought to enhance kinase activity in response to stimuli. However, the role of kinase phosphorylation at other sites is largely unknown. Moreover, the mechanisms by which PASTA kinases are deactivated once their stimulus has diminished are poorly understood.Enterococcus faecalisis a Gram-positive intestinal bacterium and a major antibiotic-resistant opportunistic pathogen. InE. faecalis, the PASTA kinase IreK drives intrinsic resistance to cell wall-active antimicrobials, and such antimicrobials trigger enhanced phosphorylation of IreKin vivo. Here we identify multiple sites of phosphorylation on IreK and evaluate their functionin vivoandin vitro. While phosphorylation of the IreK activation loop is required for kinase activity, we found that phosphorylation at a site distinct from the activation loop reciprocally modulates IreK activityin vivo, leading to diminished activity (and diminished antimicrobial resistance). Moreover, this site is important for deactivation of IreKin vivoupon removal of an activating stimulus. Our results are consistent with a model in which phosphorylation of IreK at distinct sites reciprocally regulates IreK activityin vivoto promote adaptation to cell wall stresses.IMPORTANCETransmembrane Ser/Thr kinases containing extracellular PASTA domains are ubiquitous amongActinobacteriaandFirmicutesspecies and regulate critical processes, including antibiotic resistance, cell division, and cell envelope homeostasis. Previous studies of PASTA kinase fragments revealed autophosphorylation at multiple sites. However, the functional role of autophosphorylation and the relative impacts of phosphorylation at distinct sites are poorly understood. The PASTA kinase ofEnterococcus faecalis, IreK, regulates intrinsic resistance to antimicrobials. Here we identify multiple sites of phosphorylation on IreK and show that modification of IreK at distinct sites reciprocally regulates IreK activity and antimicrobial resistancein vivo. Thus, these results provide new insights into the mechanisms by which PASTA kinases can regulate critical physiological processes in a wide variety of bacterial species.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Yero ◽  
Lionel Costenaro ◽  
Oscar Conchillo-Solé ◽  
Mireia Díaz-Lobo ◽  
Adrià Mayo ◽  
...  

AbstractIn Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Ttg2D is the soluble periplasmic phospholipid-binding component of an ABC transport system thought to be involved in maintaining the asymmetry of the outer membrane. The crystallographic structure of Ttg2D at 2.5Å resolution reveals that this protein can bind two diacyl phospholipids. Native and denaturing mass spectrometry experiments confirm that Ttg2D binds two phospholipid molecules, which may have different head groups. Analysis of the available structures of Ttg2D orthologs allowed us to classify this protein family as a novel substrate-binding protein fold and to venture the evolutionary events that differentiated the orthologs binding one or two phospholipids. In addition, gene knockout experiments in P. aeruginosa PAO1 and multidrug-resistant strains show that disruption of this system leads to outer membrane permeabilization. This demonstrates the role of this system in low-level intrinsic resistance against certain antibiotics that use a lipid-mediated pathway to permeate through membranes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Lomovskaya ◽  
Kirk Nelson ◽  
Debora Rubio-Aparicio ◽  
Ruslan Tsivkovski ◽  
Dongxu Sun ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT QPX7728 is an ultrabroad-spectrum boronic acid beta-lactamase inhibitor that demonstrates inhibition of key serine and metallo-beta-lactamases at a nanomolar concentration range in biochemical assays with purified enzymes. The broad-spectrum inhibitory activity of QPX7728 observed in biochemical experiments translates into enhancement of the potency of many beta-lactams against strains of target pathogens producing beta-lactamases. The impacts of bacterial efflux and permeability on inhibitory potency were determined using isogenic panels of KPC-3-producing isogenic strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and OXA-23-producing strains of Acinetobacter baumannii with various combinations of efflux and porin mutations. QPX7728 was minimally affected by multidrug resistance efflux pumps either in Enterobacteriaceae or in nonfermenters, such as P. aeruginosa or A. baumannii. Against P. aeruginosa, the potency of QPX7728 was further enhanced when the outer membrane was permeabilized. The potency of QPX7728 against P. aeruginosa was not affected by inactivation of the carbapenem porin OprD. While changes in OmpK36 (but not OmpK35) reduced the potency of QPX7728 (8- to 16-fold), QPX7728 (4 μg/ml) nevertheless completely reversed the KPC-mediated meropenem resistance in strains with porin mutations, consistent with the lesser effect of these mutations on the potency of QPX7728 compared to that of other agents. The ultrabroad-spectrum beta-lactamase inhibition profile, combined with enhancement of the activity of multiple beta-lactam antibiotics with various sensitivities to the intrinsic resistance mechanisms of efflux and permeability, indicates that QPX7728 is a useful inhibitor for use with multiple beta-lactam antibiotics.


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