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Volume 170, Issue 4

Exploiting cooperative pathogen behaviour for enhanced antibiotic potency: A Trojan horse approach Open Access

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance poses an escalating global threat, rendering traditional drug development approaches increasingly ineffective. Thus, novel alternatives to antibiotic-based therapies are needed. Exploiting pathogen cooperation as a strategy for combating resistant infections has been proposed but lacks experimental validation. Empirical findings demonstrate the successful invasion of cooperating populations by non-cooperating cheats, effectively reducing virulence and . The idea of harnessing cooperative behaviours for therapeutic benefit involves exploitation of the invasive capabilities of cheats to drive medically beneficial traits into infecting populations of cells. In this study, we employed quorum sensing cheats to drive antibiotic sensitivity into both and resistant populations. We demonstrated the successful invasion of cheats, followed by increased antibiotic effectiveness against cheat-invaded populations, thereby establishing an experimental proof of principle for the potential application of the Trojan strategy in fighting resistant infections.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): antimicrobial resistance , cheat , cooperation , microbial social evolution , quorum sensing , trojan cheat and virulence
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • National Institutes of Health (Award R01AI153116)
    • Principle Award Recipient: StephenP. Diggle
  • European Research Council (Award 647586)
    • Principle Award Recipient: AshleighS. Griffin
© 2024 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2024-04-30
2024-05-17
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Exploiting cooperative pathogen behaviour for enhanced antibiotic potency: A Trojan horse approach
Microbiology 170, 001454 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001454
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001454
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001454
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