Copper ions mediate the lethality induced by hydrogen peroxide in low iron conditions in Escherichia coli

The central role of the SOS DNA repair system in antibiotics resistance: A new target for a new infectious treatment strategy

Bacteria have a considerable ability and potential to acquire resistance against antimicrobial agents by acting diverse mechanisms such as target modification or overexpression, multidrug transporter systems, and acquisition of drug hydrolyzing enzymes. Studying the mechanisms of bacterial cell physiology is mandatory for the development of novel strategies to control the antimicrobial resistance phenomenon, as well as for the control of infections in clinics. The SOS response is a cellular DNA repair mechanism that has an essential role in the bacterial biologic process involved in resistance to antibiotics. The activation of the SOS network increases the resistance and tolerance of bacteria to stress and, as a consequence, to antimicrobial agents. Therefore, SOS can be an applicable target for the discovery of new antimicrobial drugs. In the present review, we focus on the central role of SOS response in bacterial resistance mechanisms and its potential as a new target for control of resistant pathogens.

Iron Deficiency Generates Oxidative Stress and Activation of the SOS Response in Caulobacter crescentus

In C. crescentus, iron metabolism is mainly controlled by the transcription factor Fur (ferric uptake regulator). Iron-bound Fur represses genes related to iron uptake and can directly activate the expression of genes for iron-containing proteins. In this work, we used total RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of wild type C. crescentus growing in minimal medium under iron limitation and a fur mutant strain to expand the known Fur regulon, and to identify novel iron-regulated genes. The RNA-seq of cultures treated with the iron chelator 2-2-dypiridyl (DP) allowed identifying 256 upregulated genes and 236 downregulated genes, being 176 and 204 newly identified, respectively. Sixteen transcription factors and seven sRNAs were upregulated in iron limitation, suggesting that the response to low iron triggers a complex regulatory network. Notably, lexA along with most of its target genes were upregulated, suggesting that DP treatment caused DNA damage, and the SOS DNA repair response was activated in a RecA-dependent manner, as confirmed by RT-qPCR. Fluorescence microscopy assays using an oxidation-sensitive dye showed that wild type cells in iron limitation and the fur mutant were under endogenous oxidative stress, and a direct measurement of cellular H₂O₂ showed that cells in iron-limited media present a higher amount of endogenous H₂O₂. A mutagenesis assay using the rpoB gene as a reporter showed that iron limitation led to an increase in the mutagenesis rate. These results showed that iron deficiency causes C. crescentus cells to suffer oxidative stress and to activate the SOS response, indicating an increase in DNA damage.

Copper and Antibiotics: Discovery, Modes of Action, and Opportunities for Medicinal Applications

Copper is a ubiquitous element in the environment as well as living organisms, with its redox capabilities and complexation potential making it indispensable for many cellular functions. However, these same properties can be highly detrimental to prokaryotes and eukaryotes when not properly controlled, damaging many biomolecules including DNA, lipids, and proteins. To restrict free copper concentrations, all bacteria have developed mechanisms of resistance, sequestering and effluxing labile copper to minimize its deleterious effects. This weakness is actively exploited by phagocytes, which utilize a copper burst to destroy pathogens. Though administration of free copper is an unreasonable therapeutic antimicrobial itself, due to insufficient selectivity between host and pathogen, small-molecule ligands may provide an opportunity for therapeutic mimicry of the immune system. By modulating cellular entry, complex stability, resistance evasion, and target selectivity, ligand/metal coordination complexes can synergistically result in high levels of antibacterial activity. Several established therapeutic drugs, such as disulfiram and pyrithione, display remarkable copper-dependent inhibitory activity. These findings have led to development of new drug discovery techniques, using copper ions as the focal point. High-throughput screens for copper-dependent inhibitors against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus uncovered several new compounds, including a new class of inhibitors, the NNSNs. In this review, we highlight the microbial biology of copper, its antibacterial activities, and mechanisms to discover new inhibitors that synergize with copper.

Micromolar concentrations of hydrogen peroxide induce oxidative DNA lesions more efficiently than millimolar concentrations in mammalian cells

Reactive oxygen species produce oxidized bases, deoxyribose lesions and DNA strand breaks in mammalian cells. Previously, we demonstrated that aldehydic DNA lesions (ADLs) were induced in mammalian cells by 10 mM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Interestingly, a bimodal H2O2 dose-response relationship in cell toxicity has been reported for Escherichia coli deficient in DNA repair as well as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that H2O2 causes single-strand breaks in purified DNA in the presence of iron and induces mitochondrial DNA damage in CHO cells with a biphasic dose-response curve. Here we show that H2O2 produces ADLs at concentrations as low as 0.06 mM in HeLa cells and that lower concentrations of H2O2 were much more efficient at inducing ADLs than higher concentrations. This dose-response curve is strikingly similar to that for cell killing effects in E.coli deficient in DNA repair exposed to H2O2. Interestingly, serial treatment of submillimolar levels of H2O2 induced a massive accumulation of ADLs. The toxicity arising from H2O2 determined by intracellular NAD(P)H in cells correlated well with the formation of ADLs. The addition of dipyridyl, an iron (II)-specific chelator, significantly protected against DNA damage and cell toxicity from submillimolar, but not millimolar, amounts of H2O2. These results suggest that ADLs induced by submillimolar levels of H2O2 may be due to a Fenton-type reaction between H2O2 and intracellular iron ions in mammalian cells.

Effects of low iron conditions on the repair of DNA lesions induced by Cumene hydroperoxide in Escherichia coli cells

In the present study, we evaluated the sensitivity of different Escherichia coli strains to Cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) treatment under distinct conditions of Fe2+ availability. Our results showed that the pretreatment with an iron chelator (dipyridyl) protects all the tested strains against CHP toxic effects, but it was not sufficient to abolish the CHP induced mutagenesis. On the other hand, simultaneous pretreatment with both dipyridyl and neocuproine (copper chelator) leads to a complete protection against CHP mutagenic effects. Our data suggest the participation of copper ion in the CHP mutagenesis induced in E. coli.