Investigating Staphylococcus aureus tolerance to innate immunity

Abstract

S. aureus accounts for approximately 80,000 infections every year, resulting in 11,000 deaths. While antibiotic resistance has been researched heavily, antibiotic tolerance has not. Persister cells are dormant like cells that are tolerant to antibiotic treatment. Persister cells could be the cause of many chronic and relapsing infections. Recent experiments have shown central metabolism is a critical component of persister cell formation. Results suggest that interruptions in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle increase persister cell formation. While many studies have been performed concerning the mechanism of formation of persister cells, few have been done to analyze how persister cells react in in vivo models or against aspects of the innate immune system. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a key component of the innate immune system. Challenging wild type S. aureus with AMPs, LL-37 and hBD-3, showed several logs of killing. Interruption of the TCA cycle (fumC) resulted in 100-fold more surviving cells compared to wild type. Following infection in Drosophila melanogaster, the fumC knockout exhibited increased survival. Furthermore, D. melanogaster that were infected with fumC had reduced survival. Interruption of the TCA cycle also led to increased survival within a macrophage suggesting persister cells represent a multifaceted problem for the immune system. These data suggest that persisters not only present a challenge during antimicrobial therapy but also for the innate immune system.