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Antibiotic Resistance

The problem of antibiotic resistance is an active area of research within the department. Some scientists are investigating the details and mechanisms of how bacteria acquire resistance to different groups of antibiotics. Others are looking for new ways to combat infections that resist the available antibiotic drugs. One of these groups is employing bacteriophages, while another group is working towards developing a probiotic cocktail that could be used to treat drug-resistant diseases.

Resistance to fluoroquinolone antibiotics

Dr. Lynn Zechiedrich has been studying the problem of antibiotic resistance for over 25 years. One research focus in her laboratory has been toward understanding the mechanism of action of and the mechanisms of resistance to the antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones, some of the most potent, widely prescribed, and broad-spectrum antibiotics in use world-wide. The fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics includes ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin, among others.

The fluoroquinolones act by targeting two essential bacterial enzymes known as topoisomerases - gyrase and topoisomerase IV - which help control the winding and unwinding of DNA strands during important cellular processes such as DNA replication, recombination, transcription, and chromosome segregation. During these cellular processes, DNA strands are temporarily broken by topoisomerases. The broken DNA intermediate form is normally short-lived, but in the presence of the fluoroquinolone antibiotics, the intermediate form is stabilized, resulting in bacterial cell death. The Zechiedrich laboratory uses biochemical, biophysical, and genetic approaches to determine how topoisomerases carry out their cellular roles and how drugs block their function.

In another line of research, Dr. Zechiedrich and colleagues are investigating whether the drug ciclopirox, an off-patent anti-fungal agent, could be repurposed as a candidate for antibiotic use, particularly against multidrug resistant gram-negative bacteria. The ability to use a drug designed to combat one type of microorganism for use against another could circumvent the time and money associated with developing a new drug.

The Zechiedrich group reported that ciclopirox inhibited the growth of even multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. They further investigated the mechanism of action and found that the drug affected sugar metabolism in the bacteria, altering the composition of molecules in the outer membrane of the bacterial cell. In their current research in this area, they are pursuing the drug target as a potentially new target for new antibiotic development.

Resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics

Beta-lactam antibiotics are the most widely used class of drugs for the treatment of bacterial infections. They include penicillin and its derivatives, such as methicillin and amoxicillin, as well as other groups of antibiotics known as the cephalosporins, carbapenems, and monobactams. The beta-lactam ring portion of the antibiotic targets the penicillin-binding proteins (PBP), found in the bacterial cell membrane, which function in the synthesis of the cell wall. Binding of the antibiotic to the PBPs prevents the PBPs from performing their essential role and results in the death of the bacterial cell.

Dr. Timothy Palzkill, professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology and Molecular Virology and Microbiology, and his research team have been studying mechanisms of resistance to the beta-lactam antibiotics. In gram-negative bacteria, the most common mechanism of resistance is the hydrolysis, or breaking apart, of the antibiotics by enzymes referred to as the beta-lactamases. There are two broad classes of beta-lactamases, the serine-β-lactamases and the metallo-β-lactamases. Dr. Palzkill and his group use a variety of advanced genetic, biochemical, and physical techniques to understand details about the structure and function of both groups of the beta-lactamases and their interactions with drug-resistant forms of antibiotics that are subject to drug resistance.

Instead of drug resistance through the action of beta-lactamases, gram-positive bacteria acquire resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics through the production of a protein called PBP2a, which is able to avoid the inhibitory effects of the antibiotics. This is the mechanism by which methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is able to persist despite treatment with multiple beta-lactam antibiotics. Dr. Palzkill and coworkers conducted a study in which they found that the protein BLIP-II was able to weakly bind and inhibit PBP2a, making it susceptible to beta-lactam antibiotics. They are continuing this line of research by searching for mutations that increase the affinity of BLIP-II to PBP2a.

Resistance to colistin

The reduction in treatment options due to the increased prevalence beta-lactamases that break down beta-lactam antibiotics has led to the increased use of polymyxin antibiotics such as colistin. Polymyxins are polypeptides that act by binding to and subsequently disrupting the bacterial membrane. The recent emergence and spread of a plasmid-encoded, transferable colistin resistance gene, mcr-1, is a cause for concern. The mcr-1 gene encodes an enzyme, MCR-1, that modifies a component of the membrane and blocks colistin binding.

Dr. Palzkill and his group have determined the X-ray structure of one important functional region of the MCR-1 protein. In order to more fully understand the mechanism of MCR-1, they are working to determine the structure of the full-length MCR-1 enzyme. In addition, the laboratory is working to discover inhibitors of the MCR-1 enzyme that would circumvent resistance and broaden treatment options for colistin.

Use of bacteriophages to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically kill bacteria. Drs. Anthony Maresso, Frank Ramig, and Barbara Trautner and their colleagues have been investigating the feasibility of using bacteriophages, or phages, to combat drug-resistant bacteria. This idea was originally proposed by Felix d'Herelle in 1926, but following the discovery and initial successes of antibiotics, this approach was largely dropped (although several Eastern European nations have used this approach to successfully treat some bacterial infections).

Given the current limitations in treating drug-resistant bacterial infections, the researchers have revisited this idea and set about to determine whether phages can be effective at killing a large group of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. Their bacterial target was a specific group of Escherichia coli, called ST131, that colonize the gastrointestinal tract, but can infect sites outside the intestines (this category of E. Coli is known as extraintestinal pathogenic E. Coli), and is considered the predominant cause of all antibiotic-resistant E. Coli infections in the United States. The bacteria are multi-drug resistant, in addition to producing deadly virulence factors; failure to control their growth can lead to sepsis, which can be fatal.

In their study, they sought to identify phages that would kill 12 strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that were isolated from patients. They did this by first isolating phages from the feces of birds and dogs, which are known to be reservoirs for the E. Coli ST131 bacteria, and then testing to see if the phages lysed, or killed, the bacteria in a laboratory test. Although no single phage could kill all 12 bacterial strains in lab cultures, they found combinations of two or three phages that were effective against all the bacteria they tested.

Next, they tested the phages to find out if they could also kill the antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a mouse model of sepsis. When delivered into the animals, the phages reduced the levels of bacteria and substantially improved the health of the mice. The results demonstrated that phages isolated from the environment, with little experimental manipulation, can be effective in combating even very serious infections by E. Coli superbugs.

There are several advantages to using phages instead of antibiotics to combat bacterial infections. Phages do not infect human cells. They are very specific for certain species or strains of bacteria, so that they can be used to target the "bad" bacteria, while not harming the "good" intestinal microbiota. However, they can be made to act broadly via cocktails, if desired. In addition, phages can evolve, so should resistance against a set of phages develop, new phages could be identified in the environment or evolved in the laboratory in a matter of days, unlike antibiotics which can take many years, at great cost, to develop. While the scientists are still somewhat cautious about this approach, as sometimes a host's immune system can neutralize the activities of phages and some phages may not work well in animals, they are continuing to explore this option.

In another study, these researchers found that certain metals enhance the killing of E. Coli ST131 bacteria by phages in blood. They observed that when they treated E. Coli ST131 with phage, the phage effectively killed the bacteria in culture medium but not in blood. The blood samples contained a chemical called EDTA which was used to prevent clotting and is known to bind to metals. They saw more efficient bacterial killing in blood treated with heparin, a natural anti-clotting factor, suggesting that the differing outcomes may be due to the level of metals in the blood.

When they added the metals calcium, magnesium, and iron, which are commonly found in blood, they found that the inhibition of ST131 killing by EDTA was overcome by the addition of the metals. Furthermore, metal-enhanced killing was observed for several other strains of extraintestinal pathogenic E. Coli, not only ST131. Metals also enhanced ST131 killing in a mouse model system. This work points to the essential role of metals for bacterial killing by phage in blood.

Antibiotic treatment alters the intestinal microbiota resulting in hard-to-treat Clostridium difficile infections

Clostridium difficile is a gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium that is considered to be one of the three highest risk drug-resistant infections in the United States, as classified by the CDC. It is an opportunistic infection that infects the colon of patients following antibiotic treatment. The microbiota that inhabit the gut normally prevent C. Difficile colonization and suppress C. Difficile-associated disease, but treatment with antibiotics results in changes to the composition of microbiota that allow C. Difficile to grow and cause disease.

C. Difficile produces toxins that damage intestinal cells and cause inflammation, producing diarrhea, and can be fatal. Of nearly 500,000 infections each year, approximately 29,000 result in death. It is the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections in developed countries. The infection is very difficult to treat, with many patients suffering from recurrent infections. The bacterium is naturally resistant to many common antibiotics, such as the fluoroquinolones, so investigators are searching for alternate ways to treat the disease.

Dr. Robert Britton and his research group are interested in understanding how the intestinal microbiota provides a barrier to incoming pathogens and how perturbation of the microbiota can result in infections, primarily C. Difficile infections. They have developed mini-bioreactors and mice colonized with a human intestinal microbiota to determine which members of the microbial community are responsible for inhibiting C. Difficile invasion. Their goal is to develop a probiotic cocktail, derived from the human intestinal microbiota, that will suppress C. Difficile invasion.

Researchers have found that two C. Difficile lineages, RT027 and RT078, have become more predominant and virulent in the last couple of decades, causing major outbreaks. To identify factors that have enhanced the virulence of these two lineages, Dr. Britton and his colleagues investigated what sources of food RT027 and RT078 preferred. Their study showed that the virulent lineages were highly efficient in their use of the dietary sugar trehalose (which is found in diet soda and is used to stabilize processed foods), giving these microbes a competitive advantage over other, less virulent bacteria.

Using their mouse model, they found that the mice receiving trehalose in their diet had more severe disease, with higher mortality rates, and they produced higher levels of toxins. These results suggest that the introduction of trehalose as a food additive into the human diet, shortly before the emergence of these two epidemic lineages, helped select for their emergence and contributed to virulence. This study further demonstrates that diet can influence the composition of the microbiota and response to infection.

New Type Of Treatment Discovered For Attacking Fungal Infections

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Research Science (CSRS) and the University of Toronto have discovered a new way to attack fungal infections.

The key is to block fungi from being able to make fatty acids, the major component of fats. Resistance to anti-fungal drugs is increasing and this new approach will be particularly useful because it works in a new way and affects a broad range of fungal species. The study was published in the journal Cell Chemical Biology.

Most of us are familiar with athlete's foot, a relatively harmless health issue that can be solved by a trip to the drug store. But other fungal infections are more serious, and the Candida, Cryptococcus, and Aspergillus types of fungus are responsible for millions of deaths every year. Like bacterial resistance to antibiotics, fungal resistance to medications is also growing worldwide, and the death toll will likely rise in the near future unless something is done now.

Currently there are only three major classes of anti-fungal medications, and all of them work by destroying the barrier that surrounds fungal cells. Paradoxically, even though they all attack the barrier, current treatments are actually very specific, meaning that what kills one species of fungus might not kill another.

The group of researchers wanted to find another way to combat harmful fungi, one that would be useful against numerous species. Their approach was to first screen the structurally-diverse RIKEN natural product depository (NPDepo) against four pathogenic yeasts—three Candida and one Cryptococcus species—which have been identified as critical human pathogens by the World Health Organization.

They were looking for something that would affect all four species, which would indicate that it might be effective against a broad range of fungi.

The screening identified several compounds that reduced fungal growth by at least 50% in each of the four species, and after eliminating ones which were already known, the researchers were left with three new possibilities.

Among these three, the one least toxic to human cells also reduced growth of Aspergillus fumigatus, an extremely common fungal mold that is deadly to immuno-compromised individuals. The name given to this compound in the RIKEN NPDepo is NPD6433. The next step was to find out what it does.

For almost 1,000 different genes, the researchers looked at how much NPD6433 suppressed growth in yeast when the yeast was missing one copy of the gene. They found that reduction in only one gene, fatty acid synthase, made yeast more susceptible to NPD6433. This result meant that NPD6433 likely works by inhibiting fatty acid synthase and thus prevents fatty acids from being made inside fungal cells. Further experiments showed that NPD6433 and cerulenin, another fatty acid synthase inhibitor, were able to kill numerous yeast species in culture.

The final experiment tested how well NPD6433 treatment worked in a live laboratory model organism—the worm Caenorhabditis elegans—which was infected with a pathogenic yeast that can cause systemic infection in humans after invading through the intestines. C. Elegans was chosen because it has an intestinal tract that works like ours. Tests showed that treating infected worms with NPD6433 reduced fatalities by about 50%. Importantly, this was true in worms infected with yeast that were resistant to a standard anti-fungal medication.

"Drug-resistant fungi are a growing problem, and leads for the development of new drugs offer hope against these evolving pathogens," says Yoko Yashiroda, lead RIKEN CSRS author of the study. "Our research indicates that targeting fatty acid synthesis is a promising alternative therapeutic strategy for fungal infections, and one which might not require tailor-made solutions for individual species."

More information: Kali R. Iyer et al, Identification of triazenyl indoles as inhibitors of fungal fatty acid biosynthesis with broad-spectrum activity, Cell Chemical Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.Chembiol.2023.06.005

Citation: New type of treatment discovered for attacking fungal infections (2023, August 1) retrieved 8 August 2023 from https://phys.Org/news/2023-08-treatment-fungal-infections.Html

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