Biology subjects

Chakravortty, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Chakravortty, D..

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Spatiotemporal evaporating droplet dynamics on fomites enhances long term bacterial pathogenesis

Naturally drying bacterial droplets on inanimate surfaces representing fomites are the most consequential mode for transmitting infection through oro-fecal route. We provide a multiscale holistic approach to understand flow dynamics induced bacterial pattern formation on fomites leading to pathogenesis. The most virulent gut pathogen, Salmonella Typhimurium (STM), typically found in contaminated food and water, is used as model system in the current study. Evaporation-induced flow in sessile droplets facilitates the transport of STM, forming spatio-temporally varying bacterial deposition patterns based on droplet mediums nutrient scale. Mechanical and low moisture stress in the drying process, reduced bacterial viability but interestingly induced hyper-proliferation of STM in macrophages, augmenting virulence in fomites. In vivo studies of fomites in mice confirm that STM maintains virulence. This work demonstrates that stressed bacterial deposit morphologies formed over small timescale (minutes) on organic and inorganic surfaces, plays significant role in enhancing fomites pathogenesis over hours and days.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2021

Salmonella Typhimurium outer membrane protein A (OmpA) renders protection against nitrosative stress by promoting SCV stability in murine macrophage

Porins are highly conserved bacterial outer membrane proteins involved in the selective transport of charged molecules across the membrane. Despite their significant contributions to the pathogenesis of Gram-negative bacteria, their precise role in salmonellosis remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the role of porins (OmpA, OmpC, OmpD, and OmpF) in Salmonella Typhimurium (STM) pathogenesis. OmpA played a multifaceted role in STM pathogenesis, and a strain deleted for ompA (STM{Delta} ompA) showed enhanced proneness to phagocytosis and compromised proliferation in macrophages. However, in the epithelial cells, despite being invasion deficient, it was hyper-proliferative. The poor colocalization of STM{Delta} ompA with LAMP-1 confirmed impaired stability of SCV membrane around the intracellular bacteria, resulting in its (STM{Delta} ompA) release into the cytosol of macrophages where it is assaulted with reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI). The cytosolic localization of STM{Delta} ompA was responsible for the downregulation of SPI-2 encoded virulence factor SpiC, which is required to suppress the activity of iNOS. The reduced recruitment of nitrotyrosine on STM in the macrophage cytosol upon ectopically expressing Listeriolysin O (LLO) explicitly supported the pro-bacterial role of OmpA against the host nitrosative stress. Further, we show that the generation of time-dependent redox burst could be responsible for the enhanced sensitivity of STM{Delta} ompA towards nitrosative stress. The absence of OmpA in STM{Delta} ompA resulted in the loss of integrity and enhanced porosity of the bacterial outer membrane, which was attributed to the upregulated expression of ompC, ompD, and ompF. We showed the involvement of OmpF in the entry of excess nitrite in STM{Delta} ompA, thus increasing the susceptibility of the bacteria towards in vitro and in vivo nitrosative stress. In conclusion, we illustrated a mechanism of strategic utilization of OmpA compared to other porins by wildtype Salmonella for combating the nitrosative stress in macrophages.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2020

Global transcriptional regulation by cell-free supernatant of Salmonella Typhimurium peptide transporter mutant leads to inhibition of intra-species biofilm initiation

Salmonella is a genus of widely spread Gram negative, facultative anaerobic bacteria, which is known to cause [1/4]th of diarrheal morbidity and mortality globally. It causes typhoid fever and gastroenteritis by gaining access to the host gut through contaminated food and water. Salmonella utilizes its biofilm lifestyle to strongly resist antibiotics and persist in the host. Although biofilm removal or dispersal has been studied widely, the inhibition of the initiation of Salmonella biofilm remains elusive. This study was conducted to determine the anti-biofilm property of the cell-free supernatant obtained from a carbon-starvation inducible proline peptide transporter mutant ({Delta}yjiY) strain. Our study shows that Salmonella {Delta}yjiY culture supernatant primarily inhibits biofilm initiation by regulating biofilm-associated transcriptional network. This work demonstrates that highly abundant proteases such as HslV and GrpE cleave the protein aggregates, whereas global transcription regulators H-NS, FlgM regulate expression of SPIs and flagellar genes. Relatively low abundances of flavoredoxin, glutaredoxin, thiol peroxidase etc. leads to accumulation of ROS within the biofilm, and subsequent toxicity. This work further suggests that targeting these oxidative stress relieving proteins might be a good druggable choice to reduce Salmonella biofilm. ImportanceThe enteric pathogen Salmonella forms biofilm in the internal organs of asymptomatic carriers, and on abiotic surfaces that leads to contamination of food and water. Biofilms are highly drug-resistant life forms that also helps in host immune evasion. Therefore, recent insurgence of drug tolerant strains necessitates development of biofilm inhibitory strategies, and finding novel druggable targets. In this study we investigated the bioactive molecules present in the cell-free supernatant of a biofilm deficient strain of Salmonella Typhimurium that inhibit biofilm initiation by the wildtype strain. Further we showed that the supernatant treatment leads to virulence defect in vivo. Collectively, our results suggest a comprehensive view of virulence regulation in Salmonella by the cell-free supernatant of the biofilm deficient strain.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

A simple method to determine the elimination half-life of drugs displaying noncumulative toxicity

The pharmacokinetic characterization of a drug, especially the determination of its biological half-life, is an essential step during the early phases of drug development. An adequate half-life is amongst the many properties needed for selecting a drug candidate for clinical trials. Conversely, drug candidates possessing inadequate half-lives may be modified or eliminated from the drug discovery pipeline altogether. Several methods exist for determining the half-lives of drugs, namely HPLC, fluorescence assays, radioassays, radioimmunoassays, and elemental mass spectrometric assays. However, all these techniques are resource and labor-intensive, and cannot be used for the high-throughput half-life determination of hundreds of drug candidates. Here, we describe TOXHL: a simple technique to determine the half-lives of compounds displaying noncumulative toxicity. To calculate the half life, TOXHL only relies on the survival outcomes of three experiments performed on an animal model: an acute toxicity experiment, a cumulative toxicity experiment, and a multi-dose experiment at different dosing intervals. As a proof of concept, we use TOXHL to determine the peritoneal half-life of {Omega}76, an antimicrobial peptide. The half-life of {Omega}76 determined by TOXHL is in good agreement with results from a standard mass spectrometric method, validating this approach.

pharmacology and toxicology↗