Zinc (Zn) is a trace element essential for life but can be toxic if present in excess. While cells have import systems to guarantee a vital Zn intracellular concentration, they also rely on export systems to avoid lethal Zn overload. In particular, the opportunistic pathogen possesses four Zn export systems: CadA, CzcCBA, CzcD, and YiiP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Cell Infect Microbiol
February 2019
is a severe opportunistic pathogen and is one of the major causes of hard to treat burn wound infections. Herein we have used an RNA-seq transcriptomic approach to study the behavior of PAO1 growing directly on human burn wound exudate. A chemical analysis of compounds used by this bacterium, coupled with kinetics expression of central genes has allowed us to obtain a global view of physiological and metabolic changes occurring while growing on human burn wound exudate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochim Biophys Acta Gene Regul Mech
July 2019
Zinc is an essential trace element for almost all living organisms. In the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, zinc has been shown to play an important role in virulence, in colonization of the host organism and has also been shown to be involved in antibiotic resistance. P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe metal-specific CzcRS two-component system in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is involved in the repression of the OprD porin, causing in turn carbapenem antibiotic resistance in the presence of high zinc concentration. It has also been shown that CzcR is able to directly regulate the expression of multiple genes including virulence factors. CzcR is therefore an important regulator connecting (i) metal response, (ii) pathogenicity and (iii) antibiotic resistance in P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBurn wound sepsis is currently the main cause of morbidity and mortality after burn trauma. Infections by notorious pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Acinetobacter baumannii impair patient recovery and can even lead to fatality. In this study, we investigated the effect of burn wound exudates (BWEs) on the virulence of those pathogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCisplatin is a very effective chemotherapeutic agent used against a wide range of solid tumors. A major adverse effect of cisplatin therapy is acute kidney injury (AKI). Neutrophils are reported to infiltrate and exacerbate injury in a wide range of sterile inflammatory models of tissue injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPseudomonas entomophila is an entomopathogenic bacterium that infects and kills Drosophila. P. entomophila pathogenicity is linked to its ability to cause irreversible damages to the Drosophila gut, preventing epithelium renewal and repair.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPore-forming toxins (PFTs) are secreted proteins that contribute to the virulence of a great variety of bacterial pathogens. They inflict one of the more disastrous damages a target cell can be exposed to: disruption of plasma membrane integrity. Since this is an ancient form of attack, which bears similarities to mechanical membrane damage, cells have evolved response pathways to these perturbations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe plasma membrane defines the boundary of every living cell, and its integrity is essential for life. The plasma membrane may, however, be challenged by mechanical stress or pore-forming proteins produced by the organism itself or invading pathogens. We will here review recent findings about pore-forming proteins from different organisms, highlighting their structural and functional similarities, and describe the mechanisms that lead to membrane repair, since remarkably, cells can repair breaches in their plasma membrane of up to 10,000 microm(2).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPore-forming toxins (PFTs) constitute the single largest class of proteinaceous bacterial virulence factors and are made by many of the most important bacterial pathogens. Host responses to these toxins are complex and poorly understood. We find that the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response (UPR) is activated upon exposure to PFTs both in Caenorhabditis elegans and in mammalian cells.
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