Breaking antimicrobial resistance by disrupting extracytoplasmic protein folding
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.
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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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Bacterial regional demonstration after global dissemination is an essential pathway for selecting distinct finesses. However, the evolution of the resistome during the transition to endemicity remains unaddressed. Using the most comprehensive whole-genome sequencing dataset of Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum (S. Gallinarum) collected from 15 countries, including 45 newly recovered samples from two related local regions, we established the relationship among avian-specific pathogen genetic profiles and localization patterns. Initially, we revealed the international transmission and evolutionary history of S. Gallinarum to recent endemicity through phylogenetic analysis conducted using a spatiotemporal Bayesian framework. Our findings indicate that the independent acquisition of the resistome via the mobilome, primarily through plasmids and transposons, shapes a unique antimicrobial resistance profile among different lineages. Notably, the mobilome-resistome combination among distinct lineages exhibits a geographical-specific manner, further supporting a localized endemic mobilome-driven process. Collectively, this study elucidates resistome adaptation in the endemic transition of an avian-specific pathogen, likely driven by the localized farming style, and provides valuable insights for targeted interventions.