Enterococcus faecalis Promotes Innate Immune Suppression and Polymicrobial Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection.

, a member of the human gastrointestinal microbiota, is an opportunistic pathogen associated with hospital-acquired wound, bloodstream, and urinary tract infections. can subvert or evade immune-mediated clearance, although the mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, we examined -mediated subversion of macrophage activation. We observed that actively prevents NF-κB signaling in mouse RAW264.7 macrophages in the presence of Toll-like receptor agonists and during polymicrobial infection with and coinfection in a mouse model of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) resulted in a suppressed macrophage transcriptional response in the bladder compared to that with infection alone. Finally, we demonstrated that coinoculation of with a commensal strain of into catheterized bladders significantly augmented CAUTI. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that suppression of NF-κB-driven responses in macrophages promotes polymicrobial CAUTI pathogenesis, especially during coinfection with less virulent or commensal strains.