Strzelecki Patryk, Nowicki Dariusz
Department of Bacterial Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Front Mol Biosci. 2025 Jul 30;12:1628725. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2025.1628725. eCollection 2025.
Iron is a vital nutrient for both microbial pathogens and their eukaryotic hosts, playing essential roles in stress adaptation, symbiotic interactions, virulence expression, and chronic inflammatory diseases. This review discusses current laboratory methods for iron detection and quantification in microbial cultures, host-pathogen models, and environmental samples. Microbial pathogens have evolved sophisticated specialized transport systems, iron acquisition strategies to overcome its limitation, including siderophore production, uptake of heme and host iron-binding. These iron-scavenging systems are closely linked to the regulation of virulence traits such as adhesion, motility, toxin secretion, and biofilm formation. In ESKAPEE pathogens (, , , , , spp. and ), iron limitation enhances biofilm development, which protects bacteria from antibiotics and immune responses and promotes persistent infections. Even worse, pathogens can also manipulate host iron metabolism, exacerbating inflammation and disease progression. Although iron is indispensable for microbial growth, excessive intracellular iron promotes reactive oxygen species generation, causing oxidative damage and ferroptosis-like cell death. Understanding the dual role of iron as both a nutrient and a toxic agent highlights its importance in infection dynamics. We provide a critical overview of existing analytical techniques and emphasize the need for careful selection of methods to improve our understanding of microbial iron metabolism, host-pathogen interactions, and to support the development of new therapeutic and environmental monitoring strategies.
铁是微生物病原体及其真核宿主的重要营养素，在应激适应、共生相互作用、毒力表达和慢性炎症性疾病中发挥着重要作用。本综述讨论了目前在微生物培养物、宿主 - 病原体模型和环境样品中铁检测和定量的实验室方法。微生物病原体已经进化出复杂的特殊转运系统和铁获取策略以克服铁的限制，包括铁载体的产生、血红素的摄取和宿主铁结合蛋白的利用。这些铁清除系统与毒力特性的调节密切相关，如黏附、运动性、毒素分泌和生物膜形成。在ESKAPEE病原体（粪肠球菌、屎肠球菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、肺炎克雷伯菌、鲍曼不动杆菌、铜绿假单胞菌和肠杆菌属菌种）中，铁限制会增强生物膜的形成，这保护细菌免受抗生素和免疫反应的影响并促进持续性感染。更糟糕的是，病原体还可以操纵宿主铁代谢，加剧炎症和疾病进展。虽然铁对微生物生长不可或缺，但细胞内过量的铁会促进活性氧的产生，导致氧化损伤和铁死亡样细胞死亡。了解铁作为营养素和有毒物质的双重作用凸显了其在感染动态中的重要性。我们对现有分析技术进行了批判性概述，并强调需要谨慎选择方法，以增进我们对微生物铁代谢、宿主 - 病原体相互作用的理解，并支持新治疗方法和环境监测策略的开发。
