Extensive in vivo resilience of persistent Salmonella.

Abstract

Chronic infections caused by persistent pathogens represent an important health problem. Here, we establish a simple practical mouse Salmonella infection model for identifying bacterial maintenance functions that are essential for persistency. In this model, a substantial fraction of Salmonella survived even several days of treatment with a potent fluoroquinolone antibiotic indicating stringency of the model. Evaluation of twelve metabolic defects revealed dramatically different requirements for Salmonella during persistency as compared to acute infections. Disrupted synthesis of unsaturated/cyclopropane fatty acids was the only defect that resulted in rapid Salmonella clearance suggesting that this pathway might contain suitable targets for antimicrobial chemotherapy of chronic infection.

• Authors: Somedutta Barat, Benjamin Steeb, Alain Mazé, Dirk Bumann
• Journal: PloS one (PLoS One) Vol. 7 Issue 7 Pg. e42007 ( 2012) ISSN: 1932-6203 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 22911873 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• 3-Oxoacyl-(Acyl-Carrier-Protein) Synthase

Topics

• 3-Oxoacyl-(Acyl-Carrier-Protein) Synthase (genetics)
• Animals
• Colony Count, Microbial
• Disease Models, Animal
• Female
• Genes, Bacterial (genetics)
• Kinetics
• Liver (microbiology, pathology)
• Mice
• Mice, Inbred BALB C
• Mutation (genetics)
• Phenotype
• Salmonella (enzymology, genetics, growth & development, physiology)
• Salmonella Infections, Animal (microbiology, pathology)
• Spleen (microbiology, pathology)