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Updated: Aug 22, 2025

Development and Assessment of Intracellular Infection Models for Staphylococcus aureus
08:32

Development and Assessment of Intracellular Infection Models for Staphylococcus aureus

Published on: January 17, 2025

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Hyperglycemia in Diabetic Skin Infections Promotes Staphylococcus aureus Virulence Factor Aureolysin: Visualization

Rao Wei1, Xiang Wang1, Qinghua Wang1

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substance and Function of Natural Medicines, Beijing Key Laboratory of Active Substance Discovery and Drug Ability Evaluation, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100050, China.

ACS Sensors
|November 9, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Diabetic patients face higher risks of Staphylococcus aureus skin infections. This study developed probes to show hyperglycemia significantly increases S. aureus virulence factor aureolysin, worsening infections.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Biochemistry
  • Medical Science

Background:

  • Bacterial skin infections, particularly Staphylococcus aureus, are prevalent in diabetic patients.
  • Hyperglycemia is a key factor increasing the risk and severity of S. aureus infections.
  • Aureolysin (Aur) is a critical virulence factor of S. aureus.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop novel ratiometric fluorescent molecular probes for detecting aureolysin (Aur) activity.
  • To investigate the impact of hyperglycemia on S. aureus Aur expression and virulence.
  • To visualize and quantify Aur activity in vivo using molecular imaging.

Main Methods:

  • Construction and application of ratiometric fluorescent molecular probes for S. aureus aureolysin.
  • Culturing S. aureus under varying glucose concentrations to assess Aur expression.
  • Utilizing molecular imaging in a diabetic mouse model to evaluate Aur virulence in vivo.

Main Results:

  • Developed a specific fluorescent probe (probe 1) for quantifying Aur activity in cells and tissues.
  • Observed a two-fold increase in Aur expression in S. aureus cultures with elevated glucose levels.
  • Demonstrated a three-fold increase in S. aureus Aur virulence in diabetic mice compared to non-diabetic controls, correlating with infection severity.

Conclusions:

  • The developed fluorescent probes enable specific detection of S. aureus aureolysin activity.
  • Hyperglycemia significantly enhances S. aureus virulence by upregulating aureolysin expression.
  • Molecular imaging reveals that hyperglycemia exacerbates S. aureus infections in diabetic models through increased virulence.
Keywords:
aureolysinbacterial pathogensdiabetic skin infectionsmolecular imagingvirulence factor

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