Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centergrid.266902.9, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.
J Bacteriol. 2022 Feb 15;204(2):e0041121. doi: 10.1128/JB.00411-21. Epub 2021 Nov 22.
The Gram-positive bacterium Clostridioides difficile is a primary cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea, threatening both immunocompromised and healthy individuals. An important aspect of defining mechanisms that drive C. difficile persistence and virulence relies on developing a more complete understanding of sporulation. C. difficile sporulation is the single determinant of transmission and complicates treatment and prevention due to the chemical and physical resilience of spores. By extension, the identification of druggable targets that significantly attenuate sporulation would have a significant impact on thwarting C. difficile infection. By use of a new CRISPR-Cas9 nickase genome editing methodology, stop codons were inserted early in the coding sequence for and to generate C. difficile mutants that no longer produced the corresponding isoforms of caseinolytic protease P (ClpP). The data show that genetic ablation of ClpP isoforms leads to altered sporulation phenotypes with the double mutant exhibiting asporogenic behavior. A small screen of known ClpP inhibitors in a fluorescence-based biochemical assay identified bortezomib as an inhibitor of C. difficile ClpP that produces dose-dependent inhibition of purified ClpP. Incubation of C. difficile cultures in the presence of bortezomib reveals antisporulation effects approaching that observed in the double mutant. This work identifies ClpP as a key contributor to C. difficile sporulation and provides compelling support for the pursuit of small-molecule ClpP inhibitors as C. difficile antisporulating agents. Due to diverse roles of ClpP and the reliance of pathogens upon this system for infection, it has emerged as a target for antimicrobial development. Biology regulated by ClpP is organism dependent and has not been defined in Clostridioides difficile. This work identifies ClpP as a key contributor to C. difficile sporulation and provides compelling support for the pursuit of small-molecule ClpP inhibitors as antisporulating agents. The identification of new approaches and/or drug targets that reduce C. difficile sporulation would be transformative and are expected to find high utility in prophylaxis, transmission attenuation, and relapse prevention. Discovery of the ClpP system as a major driver to sporulation also provides a new avenue of inquiry for advancing the understanding of sporulation.
革兰氏阳性细菌艰难梭菌是医院获得性腹泻的主要原因,威胁到免疫功能低下和健康人群。确定导致艰难梭菌持续存在和毒力的机制的一个重要方面依赖于对孢子形成有更全面的理解。艰难梭菌孢子形成是传播的唯一决定因素,由于孢子的化学和物理弹性,使治疗和预防变得复杂。由此延伸,鉴定出显著减弱孢子形成的可用药靶,将对阻止艰难梭菌感染产生重大影响。通过使用新的 CRISPR-Cas9 切口酶基因组编辑方法,在编码序列的早期插入 和 的终止密码子,以产生不再产生相应同工型的蛋白酶 P (ClpP)的艰难梭菌突变体。数据表明,ClpP 同工型的遗传缺失导致孢子形成表型改变, 双突变体表现出无孢子形成行为。在荧光基础生化测定中的已知 ClpP 抑制剂的小屏幕筛选中,鉴定硼替佐米为抑制艰难梭菌 ClpP 的抑制剂,对纯化的 ClpP 产生剂量依赖性抑制。在存在硼替佐米的情况下孵育艰难梭菌培养物,显示出接近在 双突变体中观察到的抗孢子形成作用。这项工作确定 ClpP 是艰难梭菌孢子形成的关键贡献者,并为追求小分子 ClpP 抑制剂作为艰难梭菌抗孢子形成剂提供了令人信服的支持。由于 ClpP 的多种作用以及病原体对该系统感染的依赖,它已成为抗菌药物开发的目标。由 ClpP 调节的生物学取决于生物体,并且在艰难梭菌中尚未定义。这项工作确定 ClpP 是艰难梭菌孢子形成的关键贡献者,并为追求小分子 ClpP 抑制剂作为抗孢子形成剂提供了令人信服的支持。发现减少艰难梭菌孢子形成的新方法和/或药物靶标将具有变革性,并有望在预防、传播衰减和复发预防方面具有很高的实用性。发现 ClpP 系统作为孢子形成的主要驱动因素也为深入了解孢子形成提供了一个新的研究途径。