Sepsis, a life-threatening clinical condition affecting more than 1.5 million Americans per year, is defined as an over-exuberant immune response to infection. Currently, sepsis is the leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals, and the incidence of sepsis caused by Gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), has been steadily increasing since the late 1990’s. While the detailed mechanism of sepsis is not fully understood, several bacterial components are thought to contribute to the hyper-inflammatory response in humans, including lipopolysaccharide endotoxin and several lipoproteins. Past studies suggest that one of those E. coli lipoproteins, Peptidoglycan-Associated Lipoprotein (Pal), might play a significant role in the pathogenesis of sepsis. A patient diagnosed with sepsis will typically be treated with antibiotics. However, the effects of antibiotics on Pal’s release from E. coli are currently unknown. This work describes our efforts to elucidate the role of antibiotics in Pal release from E. coli using protein detection methods and in vivo mouse experiments. Results from our preliminary experiments suggest that β-lactam antibiotics have a significantly higher impact on Pal release compared to other classes of antibiotics.

Determining the role of Pal in Escherichia coli sepsis

256th National Meeting (2018)

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