title: Persister formation in Escherichia coli can be inhibited by treatment with nitric oxide.
abstract: Bacterial persisters are phenotypic variants that survive extraordinary concentrations of antibiotics, and are thought to underlie the propensity of biofilm infections to relapse. Unfortunately many aspects of persister physiology remain ill-defined, which prevents progress toward eradicating the phenotype. Recently, we identified respiration within non-growing Escherichia coli populations as a potential target for the elimination type I persisters, which are those that arise from passage through stationary phase. Here we discovered that nitric oxide (NO) treatment at the onset of stationary phase significantly reduced type I persister formation through its ability to inhibit respiration. NO decreased protein and RNA degradation in stationary phase cells, and produced populations that were more fit for protein synthesis and growth resumption upon introduction into fresh media than untreated controls. Overall, this data shows that NO, which is a therapeutically-relevant compound, has the potential to decrease the incidence of recurrent infections from persisters.
authors: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, 205 Hoyt Laboratory, 25 William Street, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors: Mehmet A
authors: MA
authors: Orman
authors: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, 205 Hoyt Laboratory, 25 William Street, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Electronic address: mbrynild@princeton.edu.
authors: Mark P
authors: MP
authors: Brynildsen
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D059748:Proteolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D020871:RNA Stability
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D009569:Nitric Oxide