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Author Spotlight: Advancing Antibiotic Resistance Research Using an Efflux-Deficient Bacterial Strain and a Single-Copy Gene Expression System
Published on: January 5, 2024
Imipenem Treatment Induces Expression of Important Genes and Phenotypes in a Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
Ghulam Nasser Dhabaan1, Sazaly AbuBakar2, Gustavo Maia Cerqueira3
1Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Center, Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Dammam, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia a.baumannii@yahoo.com hamimah@ummc.edu.my.
Abstract:
Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as a notorious multidrug-resistant pathogen, and development of novel control measures is of the utmost importance. Understanding the factors that play a role in drug resistance may contribute to the identification of novel therapeutic targets. Pili are essential for A. baumannii adherence to and biofilm formation on abiotic surfaces as well as virulence. In the present study, we found that biofilm formation was significantly induced in an imipenem-resistant (Imp(r)) strain treated with a subinhibitory concentration of antibiotic compared to that in an untreated control and an imipenem-susceptible (Imp(s)) isolate. Using microarray and quantitative PCR analyses, we observed that several genes responsible for the synthesis of type IV pili were significantly upregulated in the Imp(r) but not in the Imp(s) isolate. Notably, this finding is corroborated by an increase in the motility of the Imp(r) strain. Our results suggest that the ability to overproduce colonization factors in response to imipenem treatment confers biological advantage to A. baumannii and may contribute to clinical success.
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