Surviving the host: Microbial metabolic genes required for growth of in physiologically-relevant conditions.

like other pathogens, adapts to the limiting nutritional environment of the host by altering patterns of gene expression and utilizing alternative pathways required for survival. Understanding the genes essential for survival in the host gives insight into pathways that this organism requires during infection and has the potential to identify better ways to treat infections. Here, we used a saturated transposon insertion mutant pool of strain PAO1 and transposon insertion sequencing (Tn-Seq), to identify genes conditionally important for survival under conditions mimicking the environment of a nosocomial infection.

Hyaluronic acid-based nanogels improve in vivo compatibility of the anti-biofilm peptide DJK-5.

Anti-biofilm peptides are a subset of antimicrobial peptides and represent promising broad-spectrum agents for the treatment of bacterial biofilms, though some display host toxicity in vivo. Here we evaluated nanogels composed of modified hyaluronic acid for the encapsulation of the anti-biofilm peptide DJK-5 in vivo. Nanogels of 174 to 194 nm encapsulating 33-60% of peptide were created.

Aurein-Derived Antimicrobial Peptides Formulated with Pegylated Phospholipid Micelles to Target Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Skin Infections.

Antimicrobial peptides have been the focus of considerable research; however, issues associated with toxicity and aggregation have the potential to limit clinical applications. Here, a derivative of a truncated version of aurein 2.2 (aurein 2.

New Mouse Model for Chronic Infections by Gram-Negative Bacteria Enabling the Study of Anti-Infective Efficacy and Host-Microbe Interactions.

Only a few, relatively cumbersome animal models enable long-term Gram-negative bacterial infections that mimic human situations, where untreated infections can last for weeks. Here, we describe a simple murine cutaneous abscess model that enables chronic or progressive infections, depending on the subcutaneously injected bacterial strain. In this model, cystic fibrosis epidemic isolate LESB58 caused localized high-density skin and soft tissue infections and necrotic skin lesions for up to 10 days but did not disseminate in either CD-1 or C57BL/6 mice.