Staphylococcus aureuspersistence properties associated with bovine mastitis and alternative therapeutic modalities

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is an important agent of contagious bovine intramammary infections in dairy cattle. Its ability to persist inside the udder is based on the presence of important mechanisms such as its ability to form biofilms, polysaccharide capsules small colony variants, and their ability to invade professional and nonprofessional cells, which will protect S. aureus from the innate and adaptive immune response of the cow, and from antibiotics that are no longer considered to be sufficient against S. aureus bovine mastitis. In this review, we present the recent research outlining S. aureus persistence properties inside the mammary gland, including its regulation mechanisms, and we highlight alternative therapeutic strategies that were tested against S. aureus isolated from bovine mastitis such as the use of probiotic bacteria, bacteriocins and bacteriophages. Overall, the persistence of S. aureus inside the mammary gland remains a pressing veterinary problem. A thorough understanding of staphylococcal persistence mechanisms will elucidate novel ways that can help in the identification of novel treatments.

Update on molecular diversity and multipathogenicity of staphylococcal superantigen toxins

“…Bovine mastitis is a major disease of dairy cows, which has a great impact on the dairy industry and brings significant economic losses (Hata et al 2010;Li et al 2017;Wolf et al 2011;Zaatout et al 2020). S. aureus is the most frequently recovered pathogen from mastitis cases (Hata et al 2010;Ote et al 2011;Ren et al 2020), and responsible for subclinical and persistent intramammary infections.…”

The road to success of coagulase-negative staphylococci: clinical significance of small colony variants and their pathogenic role in persistent infections

“…This capacity enables bacteria to persist intracellularly, entering a stage of dormancy, and consequently promoting a chronic course of infection. Indeed, several in vitro and in vivo studies argue that coagulase negative staphylococci, such as S. epidermidis can invade and persist for varying lengths of time in many non-professional phagocytic cells, such as epithelial cells, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and osteoblasts and even within professional phagocytes such as human monocyte-derived macrophages [79][80][81]. The intracellular stage may be thus crucial for persistence, dissemination, and serve as a potential source for recurrent infection [82,83].…”

The Antibacterial Efficacy of Ethanol Extracts Obtained From Leaves of Some Thymus Species (Lamiaceae) Against Staphylococcus Aureus Subsp. Aureus Strain

“…As noted by Zaatout and co-authors (2020), S. aureus ability to persist inside the udder is based on the presence of important mechanisms, i.e. its ability to form biofilms, polysaccharide capsules small colony variants, and its ability to invade professional and nonprofessional cells, which will protect S. aureus from the innate and adaptive immune response of the cow, and from antibiotics that are no longer considered to be sufficient against S. aureus bovine mastitis [38]. S. aureus is also a lesser-known cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, which often presents as enterocolitis with large volumes of watery diarrhea [14].…”