Bernard Célia, Liu Yi, Larrouy-Maumus Gérald, Guilhot Christophe, Cam Kaymeuang, Chalut Christian
Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale (IPBS), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France.
Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Bacterial Resistance Biology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2024 Jun 5;68(6):e0145623. doi: 10.1128/aac.01456-23. Epub 2024 Apr 23.
is an emerging opportunistic pathogen responsible for chronic lung diseases, especially in patients with cystic fibrosis. Treatment failure of infections is primarily associated with intrinsic or acquired antibiotic resistance. However, there is growing evidence that antibiotic tolerance, i.e., the ability of bacteria to transiently survive exposure to bactericidal antibiotics through physiological adaptations, contributes to the relapse of chronic infections and the emergence of acquired drug resistance. Yet, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie antibiotic tolerance in remains limited. In the present work, a mutant with increased cross-tolerance to the first- and second-line antibiotics cefoxitin and moxifloxacin, respectively, has been isolated by experimental evolution. This mutant harbors a mutation in , a gene involved in L-serine biosynthesis. Metabolic changes caused by this mutation alter the intracellular redox balance to a more reduced state that induces overexpression of the transcriptional regulator WhiB7 during the stationary phase, promoting tolerance through activation of a WhiB7-dependant adaptive stress response. These findings suggest that alteration of amino acid metabolism and, more generally, conditions that trigger overexpression, makes more tolerant to antibiotic treatment.
是一种新兴的机会致病菌,可导致慢性肺部疾病,尤其是在囊性纤维化患者中。感染的治疗失败主要与内在或获得性抗生素耐药性有关。然而,越来越多的证据表明,抗生素耐受性,即细菌通过生理适应在接触杀菌性抗生素后短暂存活的能力,会导致慢性感染的复发和获得性耐药性的出现。然而,我们对其抗生素耐受性背后分子机制的理解仍然有限。在本研究中,通过实验进化分离出了一种对一线抗生素头孢西丁和二线抗生素莫西沙星具有交叉耐受性增加的突变体。该突变体在参与L-丝氨酸生物合成的基因中发生了突变。这种突变引起的代谢变化将细胞内氧化还原平衡改变为更还原的状态,从而在稳定期诱导转录调节因子WhiB7的过表达,通过激活依赖WhiB7的适应性应激反应来促进耐受性。这些发现表明,氨基酸代谢的改变,更普遍地说,触发WhiB7过表达的条件,使该菌对抗生素治疗更具耐受性。