Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates from the Same Cystic Fibrosis Respiratory Sample Coexist in Coculture

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Eryn E Bernardy, Elon University; Vishnu Raghuram, Emory University; Joanna Goldberg, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-07-18
• Publisher: AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2022 Bernardy et al.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.00976-22
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: e0097622
• End Page: e0097622
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (GOLDBE19P0) and the NIH (R21-AI48847) to J.B.G.
• Keywords: IN-VITRO; Staphylococcus aureus; lung disease; coinfection; Microbiology; cystic fibrosis; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; COINFECTION; CLINICAL-OUTCOMES; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Science & Technology
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

Respiratory infections with bacterial pathogens remain the major cause of morbidity in individuals with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF). Some studies have shown that CF patients that harbor both Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in their lungs are at even greater risk for more severe and complicated respiratory infections and earlier death. However, the drivers for this worse clinical condition are not well understood. To investigate the interactions between these two microbes that might be responsible for their increased pathogenic potential, we obtained 28 pairs of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa from the same respiratory samples from 18 individuals with CF. We compared the survival of each S. aureus CF isolate cocultured with its corresponding coinfecting CF P. aeruginosa to when it was cocultured with non-CF laboratory strains of P. aeruginosa. We found that the S. aureus survival was significantly higher in the presence of the coinfecting P. aeruginosa compared to laboratory P. aeruginosa strains, regardless of whether the coinfecting isolate was mucoid or nonmucoid. We also tested how a non-CF S. aureus strain, JE2, behaved with each P. aeruginosa CF isolate and found that its interaction was similar to how the CF S. aureus isolate interacted with its coinfecting P. aeruginosa. Altogether, our work suggests that interactions between S. aureus and P. aeruginosa that promote coexistence in the CF lung are isolate-dependent and that this interaction appears to be driven mainly by P. aeruginosa.