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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Infectious Agents and Disease
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1512119
This article is part of the Research Topic Hot Topics 2023: Systematic approaches to Respiratory Diseases: Pathology and Therapeutics View all 6 articles

Predatory bacteria can intensify lung-injury in a multidrugresistant Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia model in rat

Provisionally accepted
Zeinab Mohsenipour Zeinab Mohsenipour 1Farzaneh Kianian Farzaneh Kianian 2Behnaz Jahanbin Behnaz Jahanbin 3Hamid Reza Abtahi Hamid Reza Abtahi 4Tooba Ghazanfari Tooba Ghazanfari 5Maryam Edalatifard Maryam Edalatifard 6Saeid Amanpour Saeid Amanpour 7Mikael Skurnik Mikael Skurnik 8Parya Arazi Parya Arazi 9Mohammad Mehdi Feizabadi Mohammad Mehdi Feizabadi 1*
  • 1 Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine,, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 2 Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 3 Department of Pathology, Cancer Institute, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 4 Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Thoracic Research Center, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex,, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 5 Immunoregulation Research Center,, Shahed University, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 6 Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Thoracic Research Center, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 7 Cancer biology research center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 8 Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • 9 Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

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

    Respiratory tract infection caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one of the most important causes of death worldwide. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the possibility of using predatory bacteria to improve the Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia model in rat. Multidrugresistant (MDR) A. baumannii clinical strain was used to induce pneumonia. In addition to the sham and predator control group, three treatment groups (n=5) were studied with colistin, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus HD100, and combination of predator and antibiotics. Also, the colistin MIC value for B. bacteriovorus HD100 (8 μg/ml) was determined for the first time to our knowledge. Removal of excess endotoxin from the predator suspension was performed with the help of organic solvents before inoculation of rats. The most successful treatment was observed in the group treated with colistin followed by combined treatment. In the predator treatment group, the systemic spread of A. baumannii was lower than other treatment groups. However, treatment with predatory bacteria not only failed to reduce the pathogen load in the lungs to the same extent as the antibiotic treatment group, but also induced acute pulmonary and systemic inflammatory responses. Therefore, the rats showed the highest septic score (21.4 at 48 hours) and did not survive more than 48 hours. This is the first report of systemic complications of using B. bacteriovorus HD100 for infection control. According to our results, the effects of predatory bacteria in the invivo environment are complex and many questions need to be answered before it can be introduced as a live antibiotic.

    Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii, antibiotic resistant, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, Predatory bacteria, respiratory tract infection

    Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Mohsenipour, Kianian, Jahanbin, Abtahi, Ghazanfari, Edalatifard, Amanpour, Skurnik, Arazi and Feizabadi. 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: Mohammad Mehdi Feizabadi, Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine,, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

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