細菌Pyomelanin産生を阻害し、酸化ストレスに対する感受性の増加に対応を決定するための方法

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram negative bacterium that produces a variety of pigments including pyomelanin, a red-brown pigment that helps provide protection from oxidative stress^1-4 and binds a variety of compounds, including aminoglycoside antibiotics^5-7. Pyomelanin production is caused by a defect in the tyrosine catabolism pathway^4,8, either through deletions or mutations of the gene encoding homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (HmgA)^1,9 or through imbalances in the various enzymes in the pathway¹⁰. Homogentisate accumulates due to inactivation of HmgA, and is secreted and oxidized to form pyomelanin¹¹. Production of pyomelanin can be abolished or reduced in a dose dependent manner through treatment with the herbicide 2-[2-nitro-4-(trifluoromethyl)benzoyl]-1,3-cyclohexanedione (NTBC)¹², which inhibits 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (Hpd) in the tyrosine catabolism pathway¹³. Hpd is required for the formation of homogentisate, and therefore pyomelanin¹¹.

We describe in detail three techniques that were important in our studies of NTBC treatment of pyomelanin producing strains of P. aeruginosa. These techniques include titration of NTBC to determine the concentrations that will abolish or reduce pyomelanin production in laboratory and clinical pyomelanin producing strains, determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antibiotics when bacteria are treated with NTBC, and the resulting sensitivity to oxidative stress with NTBC treatment.

The titration assay we developed serves two purposes. First, the assay will allow the user to determine if NTBC can abolish or reduce pyomelanin production in the bacterium being studied and at which concentrations. This will allow the user to determine sensitivity to NTBC, since different strains of bacteria may have different sensitivities to this compound, as observed in P. aeruginosa¹². Second, the NTBC titration assay will allow the user to determine the appropriate concentration of NTBC to use in subsequent assays, such as antibiotic MIC and oxidative stress response assays, if the goal is to abolish or reduce pyomelanin production and determine the effects of pigment reduction.

The titration assay works because a visible difference in pyomelanin production can be seen in strains treated with NTBC and the differences in pyomelanin production are dose dependent¹². Additionally, this technique can be applied to the study of other compounds that may eliminate or enhance pigment production in bacteria.

Antibiotic MICs are used to determine the sensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics. There are several methods to determine MICs, including agar dilution plates and broth dilutions¹⁴. Broth dilutions can be performed in small test tubes or in a 96-well microtiter plate. The microtiter plate method of MIC determination described herein will allow the user to test a wide range of antibiotics using a minimum of resources. The assay provides reproducibility as well as flexibility in the number of antibiotics and strains tested by this method. Additionally, with the incorporation of NTBC in the assay, the user can determine if elimination or reduction of pyomelanin production alters antibiotic sensitivity in bacteria that produce pyomelanin.

Bacterial response to oxidative stress can be tested in several ways. The most common methods described are either viable counts of bacteria subjected to oxidative stress for a period of time¹, or oxidative stress disc diffusion assays¹⁵. These methods tend to use high concentrations of oxidative stressors to examine the effects of oxidative stress in bacteria and results can be quite variable between biological replicates. The viable count assay also tends to use more agar plates than the other methods. The spot plate assay we describe uses low concentrations of H₂O₂ and allows the user to test the oxidative stress response of multiple strains using a minimum of plates. The assay is also consistently reproducible between technical and biological replicates. As pyomelanin is involved in resistance to oxidative stress, the incorporation of NTBC in the assay allows the user to determine the effects of elimination of pyomelanin production on oxidative stress resistance.