Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Adaptive and Mutational Responses to Peptide Dendrimer Antimicrobials in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Published inAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, vol. 64, no. 4, e02040-19
Publication date2020-03-24
First online date2020-03-24
Abstract

Colistin (polymyxin E) is a last-resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa However, the nephro-toxicity of colistin limits its use, spurring the interest in novel antimicrobial peptides (AMP). Here, we show that the synthetic AMP-dendrimer G3KL (MW 4,531.38 Da, 15 positive charges, MIC = 8 mg/liter) showed faster killing than polymyxin B (Pmx-B) with no detectable resistance selection in P. aeruginosa strain PA14. Spontaneous mutants selected on Pmx-B, harboring loss of function mutations in the PhoQ sensor kinase gene, showed increased Pmx-B MICs and arnB operon expression (4-amino-l-arabinose addition to lipid A), but remained susceptible to dendrimers. Two mutants carrying a missense mutation in the periplasmic loop of the PmrB sensor kinase showed increased MICs for Pmx-B (8-fold) and G3KL (4-fold) but not for the dendrimer T7 (MW 4,885.64 Da, 16 positive charges, MIC = 8 mg/liter). The pmrB mutants showed increased expression of the arnB operon as well as of the speD2-speE2 -PA4775 operon, located upstream of pmrAB , and involved in polyamine biosynthesis. Exogenous supplementation with the polyamines spermine and norspermine increased G3KL and T7 MICs in a phoQ mutant background but not in the PA14 wild type. This suggests that both addition of 4-amino-l-arabinose and secretion of polyamines are required to reduce susceptibility to dendrimers, probably neutralizing the negative charges present on the lipid A and the 2-keto-3-deoxyoctulosonic acid (KDO) sugars of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS), respectively. We further show by transcriptome analysis that the dendrimers G3KL and T7 induce adaptive responses through the CprRS two-component system in PA14.

Keywords
  • AMP-dendrimers
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa
  • Antimicrobial peptides
  • Dendrimers
  • Two-component regulatory systems
  • Two-component systems
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / pharmacology
  • Arabinose / pharmacology
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Colistin / pharmacology
  • Dendrimers / pharmacology
  • Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial / genetics
  • Lipopolysaccharides / chemistry
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Polymyxin B / pharmacology
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / drug effects
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / genetics
  • Spermine / analogs & derivatives
  • Spermine / pharmacology
  • Transcription Factors / genetics
Citation (ISO format)
BEN JEDDOU, Fatma et al. Adaptive and Mutational Responses to Peptide Dendrimer Antimicrobials in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In: Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 2020, vol. 64, n° 4, p. e02040–19. doi: 10.1128/AAC.02040-19
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Journal ISSN0066-4804
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