Genome-wide sRNA and mRNA transcriptomic profiling insights into carbapenem-resistant .

INTRODUCTION

(AB) is rising as a human pathogen of critical priority worldwide as it is the leading cause of opportunistic infections in healthcare settings and carbapenem-resistant AB is listed as a "super bacterium" or "priority pathogen for drug resistance" by the World Health Organization.

METHODS

Clinical isolates of were collected and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. Among them, carbapenem-resistant and carbapenem-sensitive were subjected to prokaryotic transcriptome sequencing. The change of sRNA and mRNA expression was analyzed by bioinformatics and validated by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR.

RESULTS

A total of 687 clinical isolates were collected, of which 336 strains of were resistant to carbapenem. Five hundred and six differentially expressed genes and nineteen differentially expressed sRNA candidates were discovered through transcriptomic profile analysis between carbapenem-resistant isolates and carbapenem-sensitive isolates. Possible binding sites were predicted through software for sRNA21 and , sRNA27 and , sRNA29 and , sRNA36 and , indicating a possible targeting relationship. A negative correlation was shown between sRNA21 and (r = -0.581, P = 0.007), sRNA27 and (r = -0.612, P = 0.004), sRNA29 and (r = -0.516, P = 0.020).

DISCUSSION

This study preliminarily screened differentially expressed mRNA and sRNA in carbapenem-resistant , and explored possible targeting relationships, which will help further reveal the resistance mechanism and provide a theoretical basis for the development of drugs targeting sRNA for the prevention and treatment of carbapenem-resistant infection.