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HOME > J. Microbiol > Volume 60(8); 2022 > Article
Journal Article
Eradication of drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii by cell-penetrating peptide fused endolysin
Jeonghyun Lim 1, Jaeyeon Jang 1, Heejoon Myung 1,2, Miryoung Song 1
Journal of Microbiology 2022;60(8):859-866.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-022-2107-y
Published online: May 25, 2022
1Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin 17035, Republic of Korea, 2LyseNTech Co., Ltd., Seongnam 13486, Republic of Korea1Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin 17035, Republic of Korea, 2LyseNTech Co., Ltd., Seongnam 13486, Republic of Korea
Corresponding author:  Miryoung Song ,
Received: 7 March 2022   • Revised: 3 May 2022   • Accepted: 4 May 2022
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Abstract

Antimicrobial agents targeting peptidoglycan have shown successful results in eliminating bacteria with high selective toxicity. Bacteriophage encoded endolysin as an alternative antibiotics is a peptidoglycan degrading enzyme with a low rate of resistance. Here, the engineered endolysin was developed to defeat multiple drug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii. First, putative endolysin PA90 was predicted by genome analysis of isolated Pseudomonas phage PBPA. The His-tagged PA90 was purified from BL21(DE3) pLysS and tested for the enzymatic activity using Gram-negative pathogens known for having a high antibiotic resistance rate including A. baumannii. Since the measured activity of PA90 was low, probably due to the outer membrane, cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) DS4.3 was introduced at the N-terminus of PA90 to aid access to its substrate. This engineered endolysin, DS-PA90, completely killed A. baumannii at 0.25 μM, at which concentration PA90 could only eliminate less than one log in CFU/ml. Additionally, DS-PA90 has tolerance to NaCl, where the ~50% of activity could be maintained in the presence of 150 mM NaCl, and stable activity was also observed with changes in pH or temperature. Even MDR A. baumannii strains were highly susceptible to DS-PA90 treatment: five out of nine strains were entirely killed and four strains were reduced by 3–4 log in CFU/ml. Consequently, DS-PA90 could protect waxworm from A. baumannii-induced death by ~70% for ATCC 17978 or ~44% for MDR strain 1656-2 infection. Collectively, our data suggest that CPP-fused endolysin can be an effective antibacterial agent against Gramnegative pathogens regardless of antibiotics resistance mechanisms.

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    Eradication of drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii by cell-penetrating peptide fused endolysin
    J. Microbiol. 2022;60(8):859-866.   Published online May 25, 2022
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-022-2107-y
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