Skip Navigation


JAC Advance Access originally published online on March 11, 2009
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2009 63(5):946-948; doi:10.1093/jac/dkp067
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
63/5/946    most recent
dkp067v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jeon, B.
Right arrow Articles by Zhang, Q.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Jeon, B.
Right arrow Articles by Zhang, Q.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Original research

Sensitization of Campylobacter jejuni to fluoroquinolone and macrolide antibiotics by antisense inhibition of the CmeABC multidrug efflux transporter

Byeonghwa Jeon and Qijing Zhang*

Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Received 9 December 2008; returned 22 January 2009; revised 8 February 2009; accepted 9 February 2009

* Corresponding author. Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, 1116 Veterinary Medicine Complex, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA. Tel: +1-515-294-2038; Fax: +1-515-294-8500; E-mail: zhang123{at}iastate.edu

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of antisense-mediated gene silencing by peptide nucleic acid (PNA) for specific inactivation of the CmeABC multidrug efflux transporter in Campylobacter jejuni.

Methods: PNA was designed to bind to the cmeA transcript and to inhibit the translation of CmeA, the periplasmic component of the RND-type CmeABC efflux transporter of C. jejuni. Inhibition of CmeA production was determined by western blotting. MICs of clinically important antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin and erythromycin, were measured in the presence of the CmeA-specific PNA (CmeA-PNA).

Results: CmeA-PNA greatly reduced the expression level of CmeA. Consistent with the reduced CmeA production, CmeA-PNA rendered C. jejuni strains more susceptible to ciprofloxacin and erythromycin. At a concentration of 2 µM, CmeA-PNA resulted in 8- and 4-fold reductions in the MICs of ciprofloxacin and erythromycin, respectively, in C. jejuni NCTC 11168. CmeA-PNA also increased the susceptibility to the antibiotics in C. jejuni strains that were resistant to ciprofloxacin or erythromycin.

Conclusions: Antisense technology is a feasible method to suppress the function of the CmeABC multidrug efflux transporter, which may be further exploited to control antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter.

Keywords: gene silencing , antibiotic resistance , peptide nucleic acid


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.