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We retrospectively analyzed a rare Salmonella enterica serovar Manhattan outbreak that occurred in Italy in 2009 to evaluate the potential of new genomic tools based on differential single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis in comparison with the gold standard genotyping method, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. A total of 39 isolates were analyzed from patients ( n = 15) and food, feed, animal, and environmental sources ( n = 24), resulting in five different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiles. Isolates epidemiologically related to the outbreak clustered within the same pulsotype, SXB_BS.0003, without any further differentiation. Thirty-three isolates were considered for genomic analysis based on different sets of SNPs, core, synonymous, nonsynonymous, as well as SNPs in different codon positions, by Bayesian and maximum likelihood algorithms. Trees generated from core and nonsynonymous SNPs, as well as SNPs at the second and first plus second codon positions detailed four distinct groups of isolates within the outbreak pulsotype, discriminating outbreak-related isolates of human and food origins. Conversely, the trees derived from synonymous and third-codon-position SNPs clustered food and human isolates together, indicating that all outbreak-related isolates constituted a single clone, which was in line with the epidemiological evidence. Further experiments are in place to extend this approach within our regional enteropathogen surveillance system.

Hybrid antimicrobials containing an antibacterial linked to a multidrug resistance (MDR) pump inhibitor make up a promising new class of agents for countering efflux-mediated bacterial drug resistance. This study explores the effects of varying the relative orientation of the antibacterial and efflux pump inhibitor components in three isomeric hybrids (SS14, SS14-M, and SS14-P) which link the antibacterial alkaloid and known substrate for the NorA MDR pump berberine to different positions on INF55 (5-nitro-2-phenylindole), an inhibitor of NorA. The MICs for all three hybrids against wild-type, NorA-knockout, and NorA-overexpressing Staphylococcus aureus cells were found to be similar (9.4 to 40.2 μM), indicating that these compounds are not effectively effluxed by NorA. The three hybrids were also found to have similar curing effects in a Caenorhabditis elegans live infection model. Each hybrid was shown to accumulate in S. aureus cells to a greater extent than either berberine or berberine in the presence of INF55, and the uptake kinetics of SS14 were found to differ from those of SS14-M and SS14-P. The effects on the uptake and efflux of the NorA substrate ethidium bromide into S. aureus cells in the presence or absence of the hybrids were used to confirm MDR inhibition by the hybrids. MDR-inhibitory activity was confirmed for SS14-M and SS14-P but not for SS14. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that SS14 prefers to adopt a conformation that is not prevalent in either SS14-M or SS14-P, which may explain why some properties of SS14 diverge from those of its two isomers. In summary, subtle repositioning of the pump-blocking INF55 moiety in berberine-INF55 hybrids was found to have a minimal effect on their antibacterial activities but to significantly alter their effects on MDR pumps.

The rise of resistant pathogens and chronic infections tolerant to antibiotics presents an unmet need for novel antimicrobial compounds. Identifying broad-spectrum leads is challenging due to the effective penetration barrier of Gram-negative bacteria, formed by an outer membrane restricting amphipathic compounds, and multidrug resistance (MDR) pumps. In chronic infections, pathogens are shielded from the immune system by biofilms or host cells, and dormant persisters tolerant to antibiotics are responsible for recalcitrance to chemotherapy with conventional antibiotics. We reasoned that the dual need for broad-spectrum and sterilizing compounds could be met by developing prodrugs that are activated by bacterium-specific enzymes and that these generally reactive compounds could kill persisters and accumulate over time due to irreversible binding to targets. We report the development of a screen for prodrugs, based on identifying compounds that nonspecifically inhibit reduction of the viability dye alamarBlue, and then eliminate generally toxic compounds by testing for cytotoxicity. A large pilot of 55,000 compounds against Escherichia coli produced 20 hits, 3 of which were further examined. One compound, ADC111, is an analog of a known nitrofuran prodrug nitrofurantoin, and its activity depends on the presence of activating enzymes nitroreductases. ADC112 is an analog of another known antimicrobial tilbroquinol with unknown mechanism of action, and ADC113 does not belong to an approved class. All three compounds had a good spectrum and showed good to excellent activity against persister cells in biofilm and stationary cultures. These results suggest that screening for overlooked prodrugs may present a viable platform for antimicrobial discovery.

We announce the draft genome sequence of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Manhattan strain 111113, isolated from a patient during an outbreak in northern Italy. The genome, which was obtained with Illumina MiSeq technology, is composed of 21 contigs for a total of 4,684,342 bp, with a G+C content of 52.17%.