Citation Details

Journal Article

Animals, Anti-Bacterial Agents/ pharmacology, Bacterial Infections/drug therapy/microbiology, Biofilms/ drug effects/growth & development, Bioware; Catheterization/adverse effects, Chemiluminescent Measurements, Ciprofloxacin/pharmacology, Colony Count, Microbial, Disease Models, Animal, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Drug Monitoring/methods, Mice, Rifampin/pharmacology, Staphylococcus aureus/drug effects/genetics/growth & development, Tobramycin/pharmacology IVIS, Xenogen; Xen29

We have developed a rapid, continuous method for monitoring the effectiveness of several antibacterial agents in real time, noninvasively, by using a recently described mouse model of chronic biofilm infection (J. L. Kadurugamuwa et al., Infect. Immun. 71:882-890, 2003), which relies on biophotonic imaging of bioluminescent bacteria. To facilitate real-time monitoring of infection, we used a Staphylococcus aureus isolate that was made bioluminescent by inserting a modified lux operon into the bacterial chromosome. This bioluminescent reporter bacterium was used to study the antimicrobial effects of several antibiotics belonging to different molecular families. Treatment with rifampin, tobramycin, and ciprofloxacin was started 7 days after subcutaneous implantation of catheters precolonized with 10(4) CFU of S. aureus. Three different doses of antibiotics were administered twice a day for 4 consecutive days. The number of metabolically active bacteria in untreated mice and the tobramycin- and ciprofloxacin-treated groups remained relatively unchanged over the 4-week observation period, indicating poor efficacies for tobramycin and ciprofloxacin. A rapid dose-dependent decline in metabolic activity in rifampin-treated groups was observed, with almost a 90% reduction after two doses and nearly undetectable levels after three doses. The disappearance of light emission correlated with colony counts. After the final treatment, cell numbers rebounded as a function of concentration in a time-dependent manner. The staphylococci isolated from the catheters of mice treated with rifampin were uniformly resistant to rifampin but retained their in vitro susceptibilities to tobramycin and ciprofloxacin. Since the metabolic activities of viable cells and a postantibiotic effect could be detected directly on the support matrix nondestructively and noninvasively, the methodology is specifically appealing for investigating the effects of antibiotics on biofilms in vivo. Moreover, our study points to the possible use of biophotonic imaging for the detection of the development of resistance to therapeutic agents during treatment of chronic infections in vivo.

Journal Article

Administration, Intranasal; Animals; Bioware; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Intracellular Fluid; Lymphoid Tissue; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Nasal Mucosa; Nasopharynx; Palatine Tonsil; pXen-5; Streptococcal Infections; Streptococcus pyogenes

Human tonsils are suspected to be an antibiotic-impervious human reservoir for group A streptococcus. An intranasal infection model in mice and a bioluminescent-tagged strain were used to investigate this possibility. Viable streptococci were predominantly found both intra- and extracellularly in nasal-associated lymphoid tissue (NALT), a human tonsil homologue. Ulex europaeus-1, a membranous (M) cell-specific lectin, identified cells harboring streptococci at the epithelial surface of NALT and blocked bacterial colonization of this tissue. These results suggest that M cells in NALT transport this Gram-positive pathogen across the epithelial layers in a manner similar to those in Peyer's patches, which permit enteric pathogens to invade deeper tissues from the gastrointestinal tract.

Journal Article

Animals, Bioware, Xen29, Xen5, Biofilms/ growth & development, Catheterization, Central Venous/adverse effects, Chemiluminescent Measurements, Colony Count, Microbial, Disease Models, Animal, Female, Humans, Luciferases/genetics/metabolism, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Pseudomonas Infections/ microbiology, Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics/ growth & development, Staphylococcal Infections/ microbiology, Staphylococcus aureus/genetics/ growth & development IVIS, Xenogen

We have developed a rapid, continuous method for real-time monitoring of biofilms, both in vitro and in a mouse infection model, through noninvasive imaging of bioluminescent bacteria colonized on Teflon catheters. Two important biofilm-forming bacterial pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, were made bioluminescent by insertion of a complete lux operon. These bacteria produced significant bioluminescent signals for both in vitro studies and the development of an in vivo model, allowing effective real-time assessment of the physiological state of the biofilms. In vitro viable counts and light output were parallel and highly correlated (S. aureus r = 0.98; P. aeruginosa r = 0.99) and could be maintained for 10 days or longer, provided that growth medium was replenished every 12 h. In the murine model, subcutaneous implantation of the catheters (precolonized or postimplant infected) was well tolerated. An infecting dose of 10 (3) to 10 (5) CFU/catheter for S. aureus and P. aeruginosa resulted in a reproducible, localized infection surrounding the catheter that persisted until the termination of the experiment on day 20. Recovery of the bacteria from the catheters of infected animals showed that the bioluminescent signal corresponded to the CFU and that the lux constructs were highly stable even after many days in vivo. Since the metabolic activity of viable cells could be detected directly on the support matrix, nondestructively, and noninvasively, this method is especially appealing for the study of chronic biofilm infections and drug efficacy studies in vivo.

Journal Article

Animals, Ceftriaxone/therapeutic use, Cephalosporins/therapeutic use, Disease Models, Animal, Disease Susceptibility, Drosophila Proteins, Inflammation/genetics/immunology/microbiology/pathology, Listeria Infections/genetics/immunology, Listeria monocytogenes/genetics/immunology, Membrane Glycoproteins/ deficiency/genetics, Meningitis, Bacterial/ genetics/ immunology/microbiology/pathology, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Knockout, Pneumococcal Infections/genetics/immunology/microbiology/pathology, Receptors, Cell Surface/ deficiency/genetics, Streptococcus pneumoniae/ immunology, Time Factors, Toll-Like Receptor 2, Toll-Like Receptors IVIS, Xenogen, Xen10

Toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2) mediates host responses to gram-positive bacterial wall components. TLR2 function was investigated in a murine Streptococcus pneumoniae meningitis model in wild-type (wt) and TLR2-deficient (TLR2(-/-)) mice. TLR2(-/-) mice showed earlier time of death than wt mice (P<.02). Plasma interleukin-6 levels and bacterial numbers in blood and peripheral organs were similar for both strains. With ceftriaxone therapy, none of the wt but 27% of the TLR2(-/-) mice died (P<.04). Beyond 3 hours after infection, TLR2(-/-) mice had higher bacterial loads in brain than did wt mice, as assessed with luciferase-tagged S. pneumoniae by means of a Xenogen-CCD (charge-coupled device) camera. After 24 h, tumor necrosis factor activity was higher in cerebrospinal fluid of TLR2(-/-) than wt mice (P<.05) and was related to increased blood-brain barrier permeability (Evans blue staining, P<.02). In conclusion, the lack of TLR2 was associated with earlier death from meningitis, which was not due to sepsis but to reduced brain bacterial clearing, followed by increased intrathecal inflammation.

Journal Article

Apoptosis; Phosphatidylserine; Annexin A5; Molecular Imaging; Targeted Drug Delivery; in vivo imaging; FMT; fluorescence molecular tomography; Annexin-Vivo

Cells are able to execute apoptosis by activating series of specific biochemical reactions. One of the most prominent characteristics of cell death is the externalization of phosphatidylserine (PS), which in healthy cells resides predominantly in the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane. These features have made PS-externalization a well-explored phenomenon to image cell death for diagnostic purposes. In addition, it was demonstrated that under certain conditions viable cells express PS at their surface such as endothelial cells of tumor blood vessels, stressed tumor cells and hypoxic cardiomyocytes. Hence, PS has become a potential target for therapeutic strategies aiming at Targeted Drug Delivery. In this review we highlight the biomarker PS and various PS-binding compounds that have been employed to target PS for diagnostic purposes. We emphasize the 35 kD human protein annexin A5, that has been developed as a Molecular Imaging agent to measure cell death in vitro, and non-invasively in vivo in animal models and in patients with cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Recently focus has shifted from diagnostic towards therapeutic applications employing annexin A5 in strategies to deliver drugs to cells that express PS at their surface.