a Servicio de Microbiología, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica (INIBIC), Complejo Hospitalario Universidade (CHUAC), Universidad da Coruña (UDC) , A Coruña , Spain.
Virulence. 2018 Jan 1;9(1):496-509. doi: 10.1080/21505594.2017.1420451.
Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged in the last decade as an important nosocomial pathogen. To identify genes involved in the course of a pneumonia infection, gene expression profiles were obtained from A. baumannii ATCC 17978 grown in mouse infected lungs and in culture medium. Gene expression analysis allowed us to determine a gene, the A1S_0242 gene (feoA), over-expressed during the pneumonia infection. In the present work, we evaluate the role of this gene, involved in iron uptake. The inactivation of the A1S_0242 gene resulted in an increase susceptibility to oxidative stress and a decrease in biofilm formation, in adherence to A549 cells and in fitness. In addition, infection of G. mellonella and pneumonia in mice showed that the virulence of the Δ0242 mutant was significantly attenuated. Data presented in this work indicated that the A1S_0242 gene from A. baumannii ATCC 17978 strain plays a role in fitness, adhesion, biofilm formation, growth, and, definitively, in virulence. Taken together, these observations show the implication of the feoA gene plays in the pathogenesis of A. baumannii and highlight its value as a potential therapeutic target.
鲍曼不动杆菌在过去十年中作为一种重要的医院获得性病原体出现。为了鉴定与肺炎感染过程相关的基因，我们从感染了老鼠肺部和培养基中的鲍曼不动杆菌 ATCC 17978 中获得了基因表达谱。基因表达分析使我们能够确定一个基因，A1S_0242 基因（feoA），在肺炎感染过程中过度表达。在本工作中，我们评估了这个参与铁摄取的基因的作用。A1S_0242 基因的失活导致对氧化应激的敏感性增加，生物膜形成减少，对 A549 细胞的黏附性和适应性降低。此外，感染 G. mellonella 和小鼠肺炎表明，Δ0242 突变体的毒力显著减弱。本工作中提供的数据表明，鲍曼不动杆菌 ATCC 17978 株的 A1S_0242 基因在适应性、黏附、生物膜形成、生长以及最终的毒力方面发挥作用。综上所述，这些观察结果表明 feoA 基因在鲍曼不动杆菌发病机制中的重要性，并强调了其作为潜在治疗靶点的价值。
