Contribution of Coagulase and Its Regulator SaeRS to Lethality of CA-MRSA 923 Bacteremia

Abstract

Coagulase is a critical factor for distinguishing Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus. Our previous studies demonstrated that the null mutation of coagulase (coa) or its direct regulator, SaeRS, significantly enhanced the ability of S. aureus (CA-MRSA 923) to survive in human blood in vitro. This led us to further investigate the role of coagulase and its direct regulator, SaeRS, in the pathogenicity of CA-MRSA 923 in bacteremia during infection. In this study, we found that the null mutation of coa significantly decreased the mortality of CA-MRSA 923; moreover, the single null mutation of saeRS and the double deletion of coa/saeRS abolished the virulence of CA-MRSA 923. Moreover, the mice infected with either the saeRS knockout or the coa/saeRS double knockout mutant exhibited fewer histological lesions and less neutrophils infiltration in the infected kidneys compared to those infected with the coa knockout mutant or their parental control. Furthermore, we examined the impact of coa and saeRS on bacterial survival in vitro. The null mutation of coa had no impact on bacterial survival in mice blood, whereas the deletion mutation of saeRS or coa/saeRS significantly enhanced bacterial survival in mice blood. These data indicate that SaeRS plays a key role in the lethality of CA-MRSA 923 bacteremia, and that coagulase is one of the important virulence factors that is regulated by SaeRS and contributes to the pathogenicity of CA–MRSA 923.

Targeting multidrug resistant Staphylococcus infections with bacterial histidine kinase inhibitors

“…This is likely due to the differential expression of hemolysins between the HA-MRSA WCUH29 and USA300 CA-MRSA 923 strains. 42,43 Together, these results indicate that PMI-1, 2, 3, and 5 are the most promising lead compounds against 1 and S4 † are for 250 mM treatment) for 24 h at 37 °C in 5% CO 2 and the viability of cells was measured using the Cell-Glo kit. 44 staphylococcal virulence.…”

“…This is likely due to the differential expression of hemolysins between the HA-MRSA WCUH29 and USA300 CA-MRSA 923 strains. 42,43 Together, these results indicate that PMI-1 , 2 , 3 , and 5 are the most promising lead compounds against staphylococcal virulence. To further validate these potential lead compounds, we conducted cytotoxicity assays using the human lung epithelial A549 cells.…”

Staphylococcus aureusinduces a muted host response in human blood that blunts the recruitment of neutrophils

“…As S. aureus is a notorious clumper of human blood ( 26 ), we used streptokinase to release as many cells as possible. Of note, Δ sae does not produce coagulases ( 25 , 27 , 28 ) and thus, does not clump ( 29 , 30 ), while the WT and Δtoxins strains do. Differences in the percentages of events in the total cell gate are likely attributed to incomplete disruption of clumping ( SI Appendix , Fig.…”

Targeting the Holy Triangle of Quorum Sensing, Biofilm Formation, and Antibiotic Resistance in Pathogenic Bacteria

“…The activity of AgrA can be modulated by SarA and SarR [377]. SaeRS regulates the expression of various virulence factors including fibronectin-binding proteins, hemolysins, leukocidins, and coagulase that are important for the pathogenicity of Staphylococcus aureus [378,379].…”