Abstract

It is becoming increasingly apparent that commensal skin bacteria have an important role in wound healing and infection progression. However, the precise mechanisms underpinning many of these probiotic interactions remain to be fully uncovered. In this work, we demonstrate that the common skin commensal Cutibacterium acnes can limit the pathogenicity of the prevalent wound pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in vivo. We show that this impact on pathogenicity is independent of any effect on growth, but occurs through a significant downregulation of the Type Three Secretion System (T3SS), the primary toxin secretion system utilised by P. aeruginosa in eukaryotic infection. We also show a downregulation in glucose acquisition systems, a known regulator of the T3SS, suggesting that glucose availability in a wound can influence infection progression. C. acnes is well known as a glucose fermenting organism, and we demonstrate that topically supplementing a wound with glucose reverses the probiotic effects of C. acnes. This suggests that introducing carbon source competition within the wound microenvironment may be an effective way to prevent or limit wound infection.

Details

Title
Carbon source competition within the wound microenvironment can significantly influence infection progression
Author
Maslova, Evgenia 1 ; EisaianKhongi, Lara 1 ; Rigole, Petra 2 ; Coenye, Tom 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; McCarthy, Ronan R. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Brunel University London, Division of Biosciences, Department of Life Sciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Uxbridge, UK (GRID:grid.7728.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0724 6933) 
 Ghent University, Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Ghent, Belgium (GRID:grid.5342.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2069 7798) 
Pages
52
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20555008
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3072089700
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.