Title: Characterize the outer membrane vesicles of Elizabethkingia anophelis under the stress of antibiotics

Biography:

Ming-Hsien Chiang has his expertise in evaluation and passion in improving the nanoparticle and vaccinology. Our research focused on the identification of vaccine candidates against antimicrobial-resistant bacteria via bioinformatic tools and study the host-pathogen interaction in animal models.

Abstract

Antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacterial infections, including those caused by Elizabethkingia anophelis (EA), have emerged as a clinical crisis worldwide. With the increased reports of outbreak and its extensive-antibiotic resistant isolates, the treatment of diseases is challenging. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are purposely secreted by Gram-negative bacteria and contain materials derived from their parent bacterium. OMVs specialize and tailor their functions by carrying different components to challenging environments and communicate with other microorganisms or hosts.

In this study, we sought to understand the characteristics of EA OMVs under different antibiotics stress. The two clinical isolated strains against seven commonly used antibiotics (Amikacin, Ampicillin, Polymyxin B, Colistin, Chloramphenicol, Minocycline, Meropenem and Imipenem) were analyzed. The growth culture medium was centrifuged and filtered. OMVs were recovered by ultracentrifugation and quantified the protein concentration, particle size, and concentration per CFU of OMVs. Disk diffusion assay was evaluated whether OMVs packaged anti-antibiotic substances.

The results indicated that Imipenem and Chloramphenicol would lead to more OMVs production with about 110-145 nm particle size. Its OMVs seem not contain the anti-antibiotic substance compared to bacteria lysate. This study offers important insights for understanding the characteristics of EA OMVs and worth to further investigation