Antibacterial efficacy of gentamicin encapsulated in pH-sensitive liposomes against an in vivo Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium intracellular infection model.

Encapsulation of gentamicin in liposomes can be used to achieve intracellular delivery and broaden the clinical utility of this drug. We have previously described a novel, rationally designed, pH-sensitive liposomal carrier for gentamicin that has superior in vitro efficacy against intracellular infections compared to the efficacies of both free gentamicin and non-pH-sensitive liposomal controls. This liposomal carrier demonstrated pH-sensitive fusion that was dependent on the presence of unsaturated phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and the pH-sensitive lipid N-succinyldioleoyl-PE. The pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of the free and liposomal gentamicin were examined in mice bearing a systemic Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium infection. Encapsulation of gentamicin in pH-sensitive liposomes significantly increased the concentrations of the drug in plasma compared to those of free gentamicin. Furthermore, the levels of accumulation of drug in the infected liver and spleen were increased by 153- and 437-fold, respectively, as a result of liposomal encapsulation. The increased accumulation of gentamicin in the liver and spleen effected by liposomal delivery was associated with 10(4)-fold greater antibacterial activity than that associated with free gentamicin in a murine salmonellosis model. These pH-sensitive liposomal antibiotic carriers with enhanced in vitro activity could be used to improve both in vivo intracellular drug delivery and biological activity.

Intracellular delivery and antibacterial activity of gentamicin encapsulated in pH-sensitive liposomes.

Cell membranes are relatively impermeable to the antibiotic gentamicin, a factor that, along with the toxicity of gentamicin, precludes its use against many important intracellular bacterial infections. Liposomal encapsulation of this drug was used in order to achieve intracellular antibiotic delivery and therefore increase the drug's therapeutic activity against intracellular pathogens. Gentamicin encapsulation in several dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and pH-sensitive dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE)-based carrier systems was characterized. To systematically test the antibacterial efficacies of these formulations, a tissue culture assay system was developed wherein murine macrophage-like J774A.1 cells were infected with bacteria and were then treated with encapsulated drug. Of these formulations, DOPE-N-succinyl-DOPE and DOPE-N-glutaryl-DOPE (70:30;mol:mol) containing small amounts of polyethyleneglycol-ceramide showed appreciable antibacterial activities, killing greater than 75% of intracellular vacuole-resident wild-type Salmonella typhimurium compared to the level of killing of the control formulations. These formulations also efficiently eliminated intracellular infections caused by a recombinant hemolysin-expressing S. typhimurium strain and a Listeria monocytogenes strain, both of which escape the vacuole and reside in the cytoplasm. Control non-pH-sensitive liposomal formulations of gentamicin had poor antibacterial activities. A fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay indicated that the efficacious formulations undergo a pH-dependent lipid mixing and fusion event. Intracellular delivery of the fluorescent molecules encapsulated in these formulations was confirmed by confocal fluorescence microscopy and was shown to be dependent on endosomal acidification. This work shows that encapsulation of membrane-impermeative antibiotics in appropriately designed lipid-based delivery systems can enable their use in treating intracellular infections and details the development of a general assay for testing the intracellular delivery of encapsulated drug formulations.

Aqueous two-phase polymer systems as tools for the study of a recombinant surface-expressed Escherichia coli hemagglutinin.

The surface expression of an integral membrane hemagglutinin, HRA1, cloned from Escherichia coli O9: H10:K99 in heterologous E. coli strains was studied by utilizing a variety of polyethylene glycol-dextran and dextran-Ficoll aqueous two-phase polymer systems. Bacteria containing plasmids that encoded the hemagglutinin were found to partition differently from both the host bacteria lacking the plasmid and the original hemagglutinating strain in several of these systems. By using molecular biological techniques, the origin of the partition difference was unambiguously correlated to the expression of HRA1, providing evidence independent of the agglutination phenotype that the protein was accessible to the surrounding milieu. It was demonstrated by using bacterial partition in charge-sensitive systems that the agglutination event was not likely to be due to the presence of a nonspecific positively charged surface protein, as HRA1-expressing clones showed no less affinity for the relatively positive polyethylene glycol-rich upper phase than did control bacteria. This work demonstrates the utility of aqueous polymer two-phase systems for the study of surface-expressed recombinant proteins, due to the sensitivity of the systems and the presence of excellent controls (the host bacteria before plasmid introduction). In cloning and expression studies of surface-associated proteins, two-phase aqueous polymer systems could be used as an alternative to antibody production for the monitoring of surface expression, and these systems may give valuable information on the surface exposure of the protein.

A conserved Aeromonas salmonicida porin provides protective immunity to rainbow trout.

A protein with an apparent M(r) of 28,000 was isolated from outer membrane preparations of Aeromonas salmonicida A440. The protein was tested for the ability to form pores, using a planar lipid bilayer model membrane system. The protein appeared to be a monomer with a single-channel conductance in 1.0 M KCl of 1.96 nS and a cation/anion permeability ratio of 2.91 +/- 0.68. These data show that the porin channel is comparable in size to OmpC and OmpF of Escherichia coli and is relatively nonselective, having some preference for cations over anions. The porin was purified by preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and a polyclonal antibody was raised. Immunoblot analysis showed that an immunologically cross-reactive protein was present in other Aeromonas strains but not in strains of Vibrio or Yersinia. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the porin was determined and was found to show some homology to an Aeromonas hydrophila outer membrane protein. This is the second porin species of A. salmonicida to be described, and it differs from the other in subunit molecular weight, aggregation properties, peptidoglycan association, pore size, and antigenicity. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) immunized intraperitoneally with the purified porin protein were significantly protected from experimental A. salmonicida challenge. This is the first report of successful vaccination against A. salmonicida with a purified outer membrane component.

Cloning, sequencing, and viscometric adhesion analysis of heat-resistant agglutinin 1, an integral membrane hemagglutinin from Escherichia coli O9:H10:K99.

The gene encoding a mannose-resistant hemagglutinating protein was cloned from Escherichia coli O9:H10:K99. The hemagglutinin is different from two other mannose-resistant hemagglutinins in this strain, K99 and F41. The agglutinin, named heat-resistant agglutinin 1 (HRA1) since heating to 70 degrees C does not destroy its aggregative properties, strongly agglutinates human, pig, and dog erythrocytes, shows little or no affinity towards cow and chicken erythrocytes, but agglutinates human colon adenocarcinoma 201 (COLO 201) cells. The hra1 gene present on the recombinant plasmid pETE1 was localized by subcloning, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The gene consists of a 792-bp open reading frame coding for a putative protein of 29 kDa with a predicted N-terminal secretory signal sequence. HRA1 shares no significant identity with data base protein sequences. HRA1 is strongly associated with the bacterial membrane, resisting sonication and isolation attempts based upon standard adhesin purification techniques. N-terminal sequencing of a unique 25-kDa band present in polyacrylamide gels of outer membrane preparations of bacteria harboring pETE1 correlated with the predicted N-terminal amino acid sequence of HRA1 after cleavage of the signal peptide. A viscometric agglutination assay sensitive to the strength of bacterial adhesion shows that the agglutination mediated by bacteria expressing HRA1 is weaker than that of bacteria bearing the F41 adhesin, probably because of the high-molecular-weight, multivalent nature of the latter adhesin. Our observations suggest that HRA1 is a monomeric outer membrane agglutinin.