Facile accelerated specific therapeutic (FAST) platform develops antisense therapies to counter multidrug-resistant bacteria

Commun Biol. 2021 Mar 12;4(1):331. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01856-1.

Abstract

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria pose a grave concern to global health, which is perpetuated by a lack of new treatments and countermeasure platforms to combat outbreaks or antibiotic resistance. To address this, we have developed a Facile Accelerated Specific Therapeutic (FAST) platform that can develop effective peptide nucleic acid (PNA) therapies against MDR bacteria within a week. Our FAST platform uses a bioinformatics toolbox to design sequence-specific PNAs targeting non-traditional pathways/genes of bacteria, then performs in-situ synthesis, validation, and efficacy testing of selected PNAs. As a proof of concept, these PNAs were tested against five MDR clinical isolates: carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase Klebsiella pneumoniae, New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1 carrying Klebsiella pneumoniae, and MDR Salmonella enterica. PNAs showed significant growth inhibition for 82% of treatments, with nearly 18% of treatments leading to greater than 97% decrease. Further, these PNAs are capable of potentiating antibiotic activity in the clinical isolates despite presence of cognate resistance genes. Finally, the FAST platform offers a novel delivery approach to overcome limited transport of PNAs into mammalian cells by repurposing the bacterial Type III secretion system in conjunction with a kill switch that is effective at eliminating 99.6% of an intracellular Salmonella infection in human epithelial cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • 3T3 Cells
  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Computational Biology*
  • Drug Design*
  • Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial* / genetics
  • Enterobacteriaceae / drug effects*
  • Enterobacteriaceae / genetics
  • Enterobacteriaceae / growth & development
  • Enterobacteriaceae Infections / drug therapy*
  • Enterobacteriaceae Infections / microbiology
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Microbial Viability / drug effects
  • Oligonucleotides, Antisense / pharmacology*
  • Peptide Nucleic Acids / pharmacology*
  • Proof of Concept Study
  • RAW 264.7 Cells

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Oligonucleotides, Antisense
  • Peptide Nucleic Acids