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Effect of Serum Albumin, a Component of Human Pleural Fluid, on Transcriptional and Phenotypic Changes on Acinetobacter baumannii A118

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Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii is a multidrug-resistant pathogen that causes numerous infections associated with high mortality rates. Exposure to human body fluids, such as human pleural fluid (HPF) and human serum, modulates gene expression in A. baumannii, leading to changes in its pathogenic behavior. Diverse degrees of effects at the transcriptional level were observed in susceptible and carbapenem-resistant strains. The transcriptional analysis of AB5075, a hyper-virulent and extensively drug-resistant strain showed changes in genes associated with quorum sensing, quorum quenching, fatty acids metabolism, and high-efficient iron uptake systems. In addition, the distinctive role of human serum albumin (HSA) as a critical component of HPF was evidenced. In the present work, we used model strain to analyze more deeply into the contribution of HSA in triggering A. baumannii’s response. By qRT-PCR analysis, changes in the expression level of genes associated with quorum sensing, biofilm formation, and phenylacetic acid pathway were observed. Phenotypic approaches confirmed the transcriptional response. HSA, a predominant component of HPF, can modulate the expression and behavior of genes not only in a hyper-virulent and extensively drug-resistant A. baumannii model, but also in other strains with a different degree of susceptibility and pathogenicity.

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Funding

The authors’ work was supported by NIH SC3GM125556 to MSR, R01AI100560 to RAB, R01AI063517, R01AI072219 to RAB, and 2R15 AI047115 to MET. This study was supported in part by funds and/or facilities provided by the Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs, Award Number 1I01BX001974 to RAB and 1I01BX002872 to KMP-W from the Biomedical Laboratory Research & Development Service of the VA Office of Research and Development and the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center VISN 10 to RAB. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Veterans Affairs. MRT and TS are recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from CONICET.

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Author notes

  1. Casin Le and Camila Pimentel have contributed equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Science, Center for Applied Biotechnology Studies, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, USA

    Casin Le, Camila Pimentel, Marcelo E. Tolmasky & Maria Soledad Ramirez

  2. Área Biología Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Argentina

    Marisel R. Tuttobene

  3. Instituto de Procesos Biotecnológicos y Químicos de Rosario (IPROBYQ, CONICET-UNR), Rosario, Argentina

    Tomas Subils

  4. Research Service, Veterans Affairs Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Krisztina M. Papp-Wallace & Robert A. Bonomo

  5. Departments of Medicine, Biochemistry, Proteomics and Bioinformatics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Krisztina M. Papp-Wallace & Robert A. Bonomo

  6. CWRU-Cleveland VAMC Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Epidemiology (Case VA CARES), Cleveland, OH, USA

    Krisztina M. Papp-Wallace & Robert A. Bonomo

  7. GRECC, Veterans Affairs Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Robert A. Bonomo

  8. Departments of Pharmacology, Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Robert A. Bonomo

  9. Department of Microbiology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA

    Luis A. Actis

Authors
  1. Casin Le
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  2. Camila Pimentel
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  3. Marisel R. Tuttobene
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  4. Tomas Subils
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  5. Krisztina M. Papp-Wallace
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  6. Robert A. Bonomo
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  7. Luis A. Actis
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  8. Marcelo E. Tolmasky
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  9. Maria Soledad Ramirez
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Contributions

CL, CP, MRT, TS, KMP-W, RAB, LAA, MET and MSR conceived the study and designed the experiments. CL, CP, MRT, TS, and MSR performed the experiments and genomics and bioinformatics analyses. CL, CP, MRT, TS, KMP-W, RAB, LAA, RAB, MET and MSR analyzed the data and interpreted the results. RAB, MET and MSR contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. MRT, TS, RAB, LAA, MET and MSR wrote and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Soledad Ramirez.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Le, C., Pimentel, C., Tuttobene, M.R. et al. Effect of Serum Albumin, a Component of Human Pleural Fluid, on Transcriptional and Phenotypic Changes on Acinetobacter baumannii A118. Curr Microbiol 78, 3829–3834 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-021-02649-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-021-02649-9

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