Investigation of the effect of β-lactam antibiotics and serum on growth and gene expression in Escherichia coli strain JJ1886

Background/aim: β-Lactamase-producing Escherichia coli strain JJ1886 is an epidemic clone with high virulence properties. Becausethis strain can survive in the bloodstream, we aimed here to understand how β-lactam antibiotics and human serum affect the growthand gene expression of this bacterium.Materials and methods: We report the time-dependent growth effect of normal human serum and heat-inactivated serum, togetherwith β-lactam antibiotics (including cefotaxime, ceftazidime, and carbenicillin), for E. coli strain JJ1886. Relative gene expression ofβ-lactamase-related genes (encoding the β-lactamase regulator, CTX-M-15, and peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase) and serum survivalassociated genes (encoding lipoprotein NlpI, murein lipoprotein, lipopolysaccharide core heptose (I) kinase, lipopolysaccharidebiosynthesis protein, capsule synthesis protein, and phosphate transport system) were investigated by RT-qPCR.Results: Cells proliferated during the exponential growth phase when the bacterium was treated with human serum. However,cefotaxime and ceftazidime together with serum had a bactericidal effect at each of the tested time points. Downregulation was observedin gene-encoding lipoprotein NlpI as a result of treatment with carbenicillin.Conclusion: Serum plus cefotaxime or ceftazidime had bactericidal activities. When the bacterium was treated with human serum andβ-lactam antibiotics, there were no significant changes in relative gene expression, except for the nlpI gene.

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