Bacterial persister cells constitute a small portion of a culture which is tolerant to killing by lethal doses of bactericidal antibiotics. These phenotypic variants are formed in numerous bacterial species, including those with clinical relevance like the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Although persisters are believed to contribute to difficulties in the treatment of many infectious diseases, the underlying mechanisms affecting persister formation are not well understood. Here we show that even though P. aeruginosa cultures have a significantly smaller fraction of multidrug-tolerant persister cells than cultures of Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus, they can increase persister numbers in response to quorum-sensing-related signaling molecules. The phenazine pyocyanin (and the closely related molecule paraquat) and the acyl-homoserine lactone 3-OC12-HSL significantly increased the persister numbers in logarithmic P. aeruginosa PAO1 or PA14 cultures but not in E. coli or S. aureus cultures.Over the last 50 years, Pseudomonas aeruginosa has emerged as a major cause of nosocomial infections in immunocompromised patients, including those relying on mechanical ventilation and suffering from neutropenia or severe burns, and is perhaps most well known as the agent primarily responsible for the decline in lung function leading to death in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients (8,14,16,23,38). P. aeruginosa possesses a multiplicity of virulence factors that are elicited upon access to susceptible individuals, including various toxins, secretion systems, siderophores, surface appendages, endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]), alginate, and phenazines. These can generate acute toxicity/injury, leading P. aeruginosa to be labeled as the "hyena" of the bacterial world (15). Treatment of infections by P. aeruginosa is hindered by its high level of intrinsic resistance to antibiotics due primarily to a combination of the impermeable outer membrane and a number of broad-spectrum efflux pumps (50, 51). P. aeruginosa is also thought to enter into a biofilm mode of growth in CF lung infections (36,48,63), contributing both to pathogenicity/colonization and resistance to therapeutic intervention.In P. aeruginosa, global regulation, mediated by at least 3 quorum-sensing (QS) systems, controls population behaviors and synthesis of the majority of these pathogenicity factors (59, 66). This bacterium possesses two N-acyl-homoserine lactone (HSL)-mediated quorum-sensing systems, las and rhl (26,43,46,47), and a Pseudomonas quinolone signal (PQS) system mediated by 2-heptyl-3-hydroxy-4-quinolone (49). In the HSL-mediated systems, the HSL synthases LasI and RhlI are responsible for the synthesis of the autoinducers N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-L-HSL (3-OC12-HSL) and N-butyryl-L-HSL (C4-HSL), respectively. Expressions of the lasI and rhl genes are regulated by the transcriptional activators LasR and RhlR in response to their cognate HSL signal molecules. Among the numerous cellular and secreted virulence factors in P. aeruginosa whose...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains are less susceptible to tigecycline (previously GAR-936; MIC, 8 g/ml) than many other bacteria (P. J. Petersen, N. V. Jacobus, W. J. Weiss, P. E. Sum, and R. T. Testa, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 43:738-744, 1999). To elucidate the mechanism of resistance to tigecycline, P. aeruginosa PAO1 strains defective in the MexAB-OprM and/or MexXY (OprM) efflux pumps were tested for susceptibility to tigecycline. Increased susceptibility to tigecycline (MIC, 0.5 to 1 g/ml) was specifically associated with loss of MexXY. Transcription of mexX and mexY was also responsive to exposure of cells to tigecycline. To test for the emergence of compensatory efflux pumps in the absence of MexXY-OprM, mutants lacking MexXY-OprM were plated on medium containing tigecycline at 4 or 6 g/ml. Resistant mutants were readily recovered, and these also had decreased susceptibility to several other antibiotics, suggesting efflux pump recruitment. One representative carbenicillin-resistant strain overexpressed OprM, the outer membrane channel component of the MexAB-OprM efflux pump. The mexAB-oprM repressor gene, mexR, from this strain contained a 15-bp in-frame deletion. Two representative chloramphenicol-resistant strains showed expression of an outer membrane protein slightly larger than OprM. The mexCD-OprJ repressor gene, nfxB, from these mutants contained a 327-bp in-frame deletion and an IS element insertion, respectively. Together, these data indicated drug efflux mediated by MexCD-OprJ. The MICs of the narrower-spectrum semisynthetic tetracyclines doxycycline and minocycline increased more substantially than did those of tigecycline and other glycylcyclines against the MexAB-OprM-and MexCD-OprJ-overexpressing mutant strains. This suggests that glycylcyclines, although they are subject to efflux from P. aeruginosa, are generally inferior substrates for P. aeruginosa efflux pumps than are narrower-spectrum tetracyclines.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a clinically important gram-negative opportunistic pathogen causing serious acute and chronic infections (8, 11). The exceptional array of intrinsic and acquired drug resistance mechanisms employed by P. aeruginosa renders antibiotic treatment of these infections problematic. One important resistance mechanism is efflux mediated by the so-called resistance nodulation division (RND) family of efflux pumps. Four RND pumps have been described in P. aeruginosa: MexAB-OprM (16), MexCD-OprJ (31), , and 25,40). RND pumps consist of an inner membrane transporter (MexB, MexD, MexF, and MexY), an outer membrane channel-forming component (OprM, OprJ, and OprN), and a membrane fusion protein (MexA, MexC, MexE, and MexX) (27). RND pumps show broad specificity, and their tripartite architecture allows extrusion of compounds directly from the cytoplasm to the external environment. Efflux pump action in P. aeruginosa leads to particularly high levels of drug resistance as a result of apparent synergism with the atypically impermeable outer membrane, which limits influx of antimic...

Psoriasis is a common immune-mediated disease in European populations; it is characterized by inflammation and altered epidermal differentiation leading to redness and scaling. T cells are thought to be the main driver, but there is also evidence for an epidermal contribution. In this article, we show that treatment of mouse skin overexpressing the IL-1 family member, IL-1F6, with phorbol ester leads to an inflammatory condition with macroscopic and histological similarities to human psoriasis. Inflammatory cytokines thought to be important in psoriasis, such as TNF-α, IL-17A, and IL-23, are upregulated in the mouse skin. These cytokines are induced by and can induce IL-1F6 and related IL-1 family cytokines. Inhibition of TNF or IL-23 inhibits the increased epidermal thickness, inflammation, and cytokine production. Blockade of IL-1F6 receptor also resolves the inflammatory changes in human psoriatic lesional skin transplanted onto immunodeficient mice. These data suggest a role for IL-1F family members in psoriasis.

Expression of the ferric enterobactin receptor in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is inducible by enterobactin and requires sequences upstream of the structural gene (pfeA). Nucleotide sequencing of a 2.5 kilobase pair (kb) region of DNA immediately upstream of pfeA revealed two open reading frames (ORFs), pfeR and pfeS, which appeared to comprise an operon. The predicted products of pfeR and pfeS (molecular weight 26,796 and 50,597, respectively) exhibited a high degree of homology to response-regulator and sensor components, respectively, of the superfamily of prokaryotic environmentally responsive protein pairs. Consistent with an apparent role in regulating expression of pfeA in response to enterobactin, introduction of pfeR/pfeS into P. aeruginosa on a high-copy-number vector enhanced enterobactin-dependent expression of pfeA. Furthermore, a pfeR mutant obtained by in vitro mutagenesis and gene replacement failed to express PfeA despite the presence of enterobactin in the culture medium. Analysis of the hydropathy profiles of PfeR and PfeS supported a cytoplasmic location for PfeR and a cytoplasmic membrane location for PfeS.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa K407, a mutant lacking a high-affinity 80,000-molecular-weight ferric enterobactin receptor protein (80K protein), exhibited poor growth (small colonies) on iron-deficient succinate minimal medium containing ethylenediamine-di(o-hydroxyphenylacetic acid) (EDDHA) and enterobactin. The gene encoding the ferric enterobactin receptor was cloned by complementation of this growth defect. The complementing DNA was subsequently localized to a 7.1-kilobase-pair (kb) SstI-HindIII fragment which was able to restore synthesis of the 80K protein in strain K407 and also to direct the synthesis of high levels of a protein of the same molecular weight in the outer membranes of Escherichia coli fepA strains MT912 and IR20. Moreover, the fragment complemented the fepA mutation in MT912, restoring both growth in EDDHA-containing medium and enterobactin-dependent uptake of 55Fe3+. Expression of the P. aeruginosa receptor in E. coli IR20 was shown to be regulated by both iron and enterobactin. The complementing DNA was further localized to a 5.3-kb SphI-SstI fragment which was then subjected to deletion analysis to obtain the smallest fragment capable of directing the synthesis of the 80K protein in the outer membrane of strain K407. A 3.2-kb DNA fragment that restored production of the receptor in strain K407 was subsequently isolated. The fragment also directed synthesis of the protein in E. coli MT912 but at levels much lower than those previously observed. Nucleotide sequencing of the fragment revealed an open reading frame (designated pfeA for Pseudomonas ferric enterobactin) of 2,241 bp capable of encoding a 746-amino-acid protein with a molecular weight of 80,967. The PfeA protein showed more than 60% homology to the E. coli FepA protein. Consistent with this, the two proteins showed significant immunological cross-reactivity.