[Antimicrobial resistance and bacterial virulence]

Mathematical modelling of bacterial resistance to multiple antibiotics and immune system response

Resistance of developed bacteria to antibiotic treatment is a very important issue, because introduction of any new antibiotic is after a little while followed by the formation of resistant bacterial isolates in the clinic. The significant increase in clinical resistance to antibiotics is a troubling situation especially in nosocomial infections, where already defenseless patients can be unsuccessful to respond to treatment, causing even greater health issue. Nosocomial infections can be identified as those happening within 2 days of hospital acceptance, 3 days of discharge or 1 month of an operation. They influence 1 out of 10 patients admitted to hospital. Annually, this outcomes in 5000 deaths only in UK with a cost to the National Health Service of a billion pounds. Despite these problems, antibiotic therapy is still the most common method used to treat bacterial infections. On the other hand, it is often mentioned that immune system plays a major role in the progress of infections. In this context, we proposed a mathematical model defining population dynamics of both the specific immune cells produced according to the properties of bacteria by host and the bacteria exposed to multiple antibiotics synchronically, presuming that resistance is gained through mutations due to exposure to antibiotic. Qualitative analysis found out infection-free equilibrium point and other equilibrium points where resistant bacteria and immune system cells exist, only resistant bacteria exists and sensitive bacteria, resistant bacteria and immune system cells exist. As a result of this analysis, our model highlights the fact that when an individual’s immune system weakens, he/she suffers more from the bacterial infections which are believed to have been confined or terminated. Also, these results was supported by numerical simulations.

MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF BACTERIAL RESISTANCE TO ANTIBIOTICS BY MUTATIONS AND PLASMIDS

Diversity of drugs against bacterial infections, and development of resistance to such drugs are increasing. We formulate and analyze a deterministic model for the population dynamics of sensitive and resistant bacteria to multiple bactericidal and bacteriostatic antibiotics, assuming that drug resistance is acquired through mutations and plasmid transmission. Model equilibria are determined from qualitative analysis, and numerical simulations are used to assess temporal dynamics of sensitive and drug-resistant bacteria. The model presents three possibilities: elimination of bacteria, persistence of only resistant bacteria, or coexistence of sensitive and resistant bacteria. Evolution to one of these scenarios depends on thresholds numbers involving sensitive and resistant bacteria.

New insights into virulence mechanisms of rice pathogen Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae strain RS-1 following exposure to ß-lactam antibiotics

Recent research has shown that pathogen virulence can be altered by exposure to antibiotics, even when the growth rate is unaffected. Investigating this phenomenon provides new insights into understanding the virulence mechanisms of bacterial pathogens. This study investigates the phenotypic and transcriptomic responses of the rice pathogenic bacterium Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae (Aaa) strain RS-1 to ß-lactam antibiotics especially Ampicillin (Amp). Our results indicate that exposure to Amp does not influence bacterial growth and biofilm formation, but alters the virulence, colonization capacity, composition of extracellular polymeric substances and secretion of Type VI secretion system (T6SS) effector Hcp. This attenuation in virulence is linked to unique or differential expression of known virulence-associated genes based on genome-wide transcriptomic analysis. The reliability of expression data generated by RNA-Seq was verified with quantitative real-time PCR of 21 selected T6SS genes, where significant down-regulation in expression of hcp gene, corresponding to the reduction in secretion of Hcp, was observed under exposure to Amp. Hcp is highlighted as a potential target for Amp, with similar changes observed in virulence-associated phenotypes between exposure to Amp and mutation of hcp gene. In addition, Hcp secretion is reduced in knockout mutants of 4 differentially expressed T6SS genes.

Mathematical modeling on bacterial resistance to multiple antibiotics caused by spontaneous mutations

We formulate a mathematical model that describes the population dynamics of bacteria exposed to multiple antibiotics simultaneously, assuming that acquisition of resistance is through mutations due to antibiotic exposure. Qualitative analysis reveals the existence of a free-bacteria equilibrium, resistant-bacteria equilibrium and an endemic equilibrium where both bacteria coexist.

[Antimicrobial resistance and virulence: a beneficial relationship for the microbial world?]

While bacterial virulence has experienced a long host/pathogen-dependent evolutionary process, antimicrobial resistance has had a very different, shorting and changing evolution due to the biological pressure caused by the introduction of the antimicrobials in human medicine. This strong pressure has forced the microorganisms to adapt to these changing conditions, continuously acquiring or developing new resistance mechanisms, causing major changes in cellular functions and finally influencing the virulence and bacterial fitness. Multiple factors may mediate in the relationship between virulence and resistance. The genes often involved in both phenomena have the same transport and dispersion mediums. Islands, integrons, transposons and other genetic elements could also facilitate the combined selection of virulence and resistance genes. The increase in resistance can affect virulence in different ways, mainly depending on the bacterial species, the environment, and the mechanism of resistance. This review presents the different phenomena in which the genetic mechanism that provides an advantage over the antimicrobials directly affects the virulence and fitness, such as changes in the structure of the cellular wall, efflux pumps, porins or two-component regulatory systems. The co-selection of virulence and antimicrobial resistance factors and the relative ease of bacteria to develop compensatory mutations can favour, particularly in environments with high antibiotic pressure, the emergence of prevalent clones. These can be virulent and with few treatment options, and could be a major health problem in the near future.

After genomics, what proteomics tools could help us understand the antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli?

Proteomic approaches have been considerably improved during the past decade and have been used to investigate the differences in protein expression profiles of cells grown under a broad spectrum of growth conditions and with different stress factors including antibiotics. In Europe, the most significant disease threat remains the presence of microorganisms that have become resistant to antimicrobials and so it is important that different scientific tools are combined to achieve the largest amount of knowledge in this area of expertise. The emergence and spread of the antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative pathogens, such as Escherichia coli, can lead to serious problem public health in humans. E. coli, a very well described prokaryote, has served as a model organism for several biological and biotechnological studies increasingly so since the completion of the E. coli genome-sequencing project. The purpose of this review is to present an overview of the different proteomic approaches to antimicrobial-resistant E. coli that will be helpful to obtain a better knowledge of the antibiotic-resistant mechanism(s). This can also aid to understand the molecular determinants involved with pathogenesis, which is essential for the development of effective strategies to combat infection and to reveal new therapeutic targets. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Proteomics: The clinical link.

[Ecological niche altering: bacterial resistance to antibiotics]

The antimicrobial resistances to antibiotics are a worldwide public health issue. Today's successful treatments of infections are threatened. If the antimicrobial resistances to antibiotics are not controlled, morbidity, mortality and health care costs would increase. The main reason for the increasing number of these resistances is the wrong use of antibiotics by: health professional prescriptors (physicians, dentists, veterinary surgeons), dispensers (pharmacists), patients (self-prescription, non-fulfillment of treatments) and health care authorities (lack of policy and ineffective management of the rational use of antibiotics). There are multiple ways to solve this problem, but none is definitive by itself. It is required to assume the coexistence with microorganisms instead of trying to exterminate them.