UMMS Affiliation
Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology
Publication Date
2021-09-01
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Bacterial Infections and Mycoses | Immunology and Infectious Disease | Infectious Disease
Abstract
Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the etiological agent of gonorrhea, the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Reproductive sequelae of gonorrhea include infertility, ectopic pregnancy and chronic pelvic pain. Most antibiotics currently in clinical use have been rendered ineffective due to the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance among gonococci. The developmental pipeline of new antibiotics is sparse and novel therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. Previously, we utilized the ability of N. gonorrhoeae to bind the complement inhibitor C4b-binding protein (C4BP) to evade killing by human complement to design a chimeric protein that linked the two N-terminal gonococcal binding domains of C4BP with the Fc domain of IgM. The resulting molecule, C4BP-IgM, enhanced complement-mediated killing of gonococci. Here we show that C4BP-IgM induced membrane perturbation through complement deposition and membrane attack complex pore insertion facilitates the access of antibiotics to their intracellular targets. Consequently, bacteria become more susceptible to killing by antibiotics. Remarkably, C4BP-IgM restored susceptibility to azithromycin of two azithromycin-resistant clinical gonococcal strains because of overexpression of the MtrC-MtrD-MtrE efflux pump. Our data show that complement activation can potentiate activity of antibiotics and suggest a role for C4BP-IgM as an adjuvant for antibiotic treatment of drug-resistant gonorrhea.
Keywords
C4b binding protein, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, antibiotic resisitance, complement, membrane attack complex (MAC)
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2021 Bettoni, Maziarz, Stone, Blaskovich, Potempa, Bazzo, Unemo, Ram and Blom. 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) and the copyright owner(s) 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.
DOI of Published Version
10.3389/fimmu.2021.726801
Source
Bettoni S, Maziarz K, Stone MRL, Blaskovich MAT, Potempa J, Bazzo ML, Unemo M, Ram S, Blom AM. Serum Complement Activation by C4BP-IgM Fusion Protein Can Restore Susceptibility to Antibiotics in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Front Immunol. 2021 Sep 1;12:726801. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.726801. PMID: 34539665; PMCID: PMC8440848. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Frontiers in immunology
Related Resources
PubMed ID
34539665
Repository Citation
Bettoni S, Maziarz K, Stone MR, Blaskovich MA, Potempa J, Bazzo ML, Unemo M, Ram S, Blom AM. (2021). Serum Complement Activation by C4BP-IgM Fusion Protein Can Restore Susceptibility to Antibiotics in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.726801. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/4937
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Bacterial Infections and Mycoses Commons, Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons, Infectious Disease Commons