Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous pathogen that is the leading cause of chronic infections. Bacterial biofilm formation facilitates CF development and restricts the anti-bacterial potential of many current antibiotics. The capacity of P. aeruginosa to form biofilms and resist antibiotics is closely correlated with quorum sensing (QS). Disrupting QS by QS inhibitors is a promising strategy for treating chronic infections. Here, we evaluated the effect of hordenine, a recently characterized QS inhibitor, on the susceptibility of aminoglycoside antibiotics against P. aeruginosa biofilms. Hordenine significantly enhanced the susceptibility of aminoglycoside antibiotics tobramycin, gentamycin, and amikacin against P. aeruginosa PAO1 biofilm formation. Combinations of hordenine and aminoglycoside antibiotics showed potent efficiency in disrupting the preformed biofilms of P. aeruginosa. Microscopic observations showed flat, scattered, and unstructured biofilm architecture after treatment with hordenine. Mechanistic study further revealed that hordenine treatment led to the downregulation of genes involved in QS and biofilm formation. Thus, our results suggest that hordenine has the potential to function as an antibiotic accelerant in treating P. aeruginosa infections.
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Funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0201401); National Natural Science Foundation of China (41766006); Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK20170859); Science and Technology Development Program of Modern Agriculture, Nanjing (201608052); Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province; and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (30916011307).
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Zhou, JW., Hou, B., Liu, GY. et al. Attenuation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm by hordenine: a combinatorial study with aminoglycoside antibiotics. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 102, 9745–9758 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-9315-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-9315-8