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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Microbiology
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1471107
This article is part of the Research Topic Developing Therapeutics for Antimicrobial Resistant Pathogens: Volume II View all 6 articles

Cell-free supernatant of Lactobacillus gasseri 1A-TV shows a promising activity to eradicate carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae colonization

Provisionally accepted
Gaia Vertillo Aluisio Gaia Vertillo Aluisio Maria Lina Mezzatesta Maria Lina Mezzatesta Viviana Cafiso Viviana Cafiso Renata Scuderi Renata Scuderi Stefania Stefani Stefania Stefani Maria Santagati Maria Santagati *
  • University of Catania, Catania, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The use of beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus spp. is a potential innovative approach to fight antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the most concerning multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens and its ability to colonize the human gut is considered to be the main reason for recurrent infections in critically ill patients. In this study, Lactobacillus gasseri 1A-TV, already described for its probiotic activity, was characterized at genomic level. Moreover, its cell-free supernatant (CFS) was tested for antimicrobial activity against ESBL-and carbapenemase (KPC)producing K. pneumoniae clinical isolates. Whole-genome sequencing showed that the L. gasseri 1A-TV genome was of 2,018,898 bp in size with 34.9% GC content, containing 1,937 putative protein coding sequences, 55 tRNA and 4 rRNA detected by RAST and classified in 20 functional groups by COG. BAGEL4 and antiSMASH 7.0 pipeline identified two bacteriocin biosynthetic gene clusters (BBGCs), namely BBGC1 that comprises two class IIc bacteriocins including gassericin A-like bacteriocin, and BBGC2 carrying the class III bacteriocin helveticin J. Strikingly, 1A-TV CFS inhibited the growth of all K. pneumoniae isolates only after 8 hours of incubation, showing a bactericidal effect at 24 hours and interfering, even at lower concentrations, with the biofilm production of biofilm-producer strains independently of a bactericidal effect. NMR analysis of CFS identified and quantified several metabolites involved in the carbohydrate metabolism and amino acids metabolism, and organic acids like ethanol, lactate, acetate, succinate. Finally, in vitro assays of 1A-TV showed significant co-aggregation effects against carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae, namely strains 1, 2, 3 and 7. Our findings highlight the antimicrobial activity of 1A-TV as a probiotic candidate or its CFS as natural bioproduct active against MDR K. pneumoniae strains, underlining the importance of novel therapeutic strategies for prevention and control of ESBL-and carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae colonization.

    Keywords: Lactobacillus gasseri, ESBL, Cell-free supernatant, Carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae, Antimicrobial activity

    Received: 26 Jul 2024; Accepted: 27 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Vertillo Aluisio, Mezzatesta, Cafiso, Scuderi, Stefani and Santagati. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Maria Santagati, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

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