Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, 60616, USA.
Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 21;8(1):4939. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23180-1.
Many chronic infections involve bacterial biofilms, which are difficult to eliminate using conventional antibiotic treatments. Biofilm formation is a result of dynamic intra- or inter-species interactions. However, the nature of molecular interactions between bacteria in multi-species biofilms are not well understood compared to those in single-species biofilms. This study investigated the ability of probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) to outcompete the biofilm formation of pathogens including enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and S. epidermidis. When dual-species biofilms were formed, EcN inhibited the EHEC biofilm population by 14-fold compared to EHEC single-species biofilms. This figure was 1,100-fold for S. aureus and 8,300-fold for S. epidermidis; however, EcN did not inhibit P. aeruginosa biofilms. In contrast, commensal E. coli did not exhibit any inhibitory effect toward other bacterial biofilms. We identified that EcN secretes DegP, a bifunctional (protease and chaperone) periplasmic protein, outside the cells and controls other biofilms. Although three E. coli strains tested in this study expressed degP, only the EcN strain secreted DegP outside the cells. The deletion of degP disabled the activity of EcN in inhibiting EHEC biofilms, and purified DegP directly repressed EHEC biofilm formation. Hence, probiotic E. coli outcompetes pathogenic biofilms via extracellular DegP activity during dual-species biofilm formation.
许多慢性感染涉及细菌生物膜,使用传统抗生素治疗很难消除。生物膜的形成是动态的种内或种间相互作用的结果。然而,与单物种生物膜相比,多物种生物膜中细菌之间的分子相互作用的性质还不太清楚。本研究调查了益生菌大肠杆菌 Nissle 1917(EcN)竞争包括肠出血性大肠杆菌(EHEC)、铜绿假单胞菌、金黄色葡萄球菌和表皮葡萄球菌在内的病原体生物膜形成的能力。当形成双物种生物膜时,与 EHEC 单物种生物膜相比,EcN 抑制 EHEC 生物膜种群的能力提高了 14 倍。对于金黄色葡萄球菌和表皮葡萄球菌,这一数字分别提高了 1100 倍和 8300 倍;然而,EcN 不会抑制铜绿假单胞菌生物膜。相比之下,共生大肠杆菌对其他细菌生物膜没有任何抑制作用。我们发现 EcN 分泌 DegP,一种双功能(蛋白酶和伴侣蛋白)周质蛋白,在细胞外并控制其他生物膜。虽然本研究中测试的三种大肠杆菌菌株都表达了 degP,但只有 EcN 菌株将 DegP 分泌到细胞外。degP 的缺失使 EcN 抑制 EHEC 生物膜的活性丧失,纯化的 DegP 直接抑制 EHEC 生物膜的形成。因此,益生菌大肠杆菌通过双物种生物膜形成过程中细胞外 DegP 活性来竞争致病生物膜。