marcescens (~5

μM) To examine if this could be due to th

see more marcescens (~5

μM). To examine if this could be due to the fact that the two bacteria were treated with the same dose despite their very different MIC values, we determined their dose response curves. For both bacteria a minimum chimera dose of 500 μg/mL (i.e. 145-180 μM) was needed to obtain the maximum immediate response (data not shown) ruling out that the rapid release of ATP from S. aureus seen in Figure 3A is due to a higher concentration/MIC ratio than employed for S. marcescens. Figure 3 Chimera-induced ATP leakage in S. aureus (A) and S. marcescens (B) after treatment with 1000 μg/mL chimera. The assays were performed in two independent experiments. Mean (SEM) intracellular (IC, solid line) and extracellular (EC, punctuated line) ATP concentration HSP990 manufacturer for S. aureus cells (figure A, grey lines) and S. marcescens cells (figure B, grey lines) treated with chimera 1 compared to MilliQ-treated control (black lines). To investigate if selleckchem the degree of ATP leakage from the bacterial cell corresponded to the simultaneous decrease in the number of viable cells (i.e. if S. marcescens cells on the basis of their elevated MIC were in fact able to survive even after a moderate ATP leakage) we determined time-kill under exactly the same conditions as the ATP bioluminescence assay had been performed. Irrespective of which of the three chimeras that were used, both bacteria were reduced 2-3 log from an initial value of log ~9.5 per mL within the first 20

minutes before the ATP leakage tailored off and no further decrease in viable count was seen for up to 60 minutes (not shown). This indicates that the degree of ATP leakage from the two bacteria (i.e. the concentration of the extracellular ATP) does not reflect differences in viability. No reduction in the number of viable

Tenoxicam bacteria was seen for the control (not shown), and the intracellular concentration of ATP did not change (Figure 3A and 3B). Although there was no systematic difference in the MIC values between Gram-positive and -negative bacteria, we speculated that the Gram-negative outer membrane could act as a barrier to the penetration of AMPs, since polymyxin B resistance in S. marcescens has been linked to induced changes in the amount and composition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the outer membrane [33]. Moreover, similar resistance-conferring membrane alterations have also been seen for other bacteria in response to polymyxin B treatment [34–36]. Accordingly, we studied how a membrane-destabilizing pre-treatment of S. marcescens, E. coli and S. aureus with the divalent metal cation-chelating agent EDTA would affect the killing caused by chimera 1. In these experiments we used a non-lethal 0.5 mM concentration of EDTA together with the non-lethal 1.5 μM concentration of the tested AMP analogue. A slight reduction in the number of viable cells corresponding to 0.5 log was seen for S. aureus when treated with chimera 1 alone while E. coli and S. marcescens were reduced with 1.

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