ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1656485
This article is part of the Research TopicBacterial Metabolites: Redefining Strategies to Combat Antimicrobial ResistanceView all 4 articles
OmpW Overexpression in Meropenem-Exposed Acinetobacter baumannii Persister Cells Enhances Virulence and Reveals a Candidate Target
Provisionally accepted
- Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
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Objective: Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most drug-resistant microorganisms in hospital-acquired infections. The treatment of choice for A.baumannii infections is carbapenems (eg, meropenem). However, A.baumannii can develop resistance to all clinical antibiotics associated with the formation of persister cells. We first assessed the virulence and differential expression levels of outer membrane protein W (OmpW) in A.baumannii persister cells and A.baumannii regular cells in vivo and in vitro after exposure to meropenem.Methods: Persister cells were confirmed using a standard method. OmpW characterization was performed using western blot analysis, and OmpW expression was detected using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) after ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction. An A. baumannii virulence assay was performed using the Galleria mellonella larvae model. Relative expression was calculated using the 2 -∆∆CT method.The presence of bona fide A.baumannii persister cells was confirmed after 48 hours of meropenem exposure at 15µg/mL, with levels reaching 0.3216% of the initial bacterial population and a survival fraction of 0.081%. OmpW genes were highly expressed at more than 2.68-fold (p=0.01) with meropenem exposure at 1 µg/mL and 8.61-fold (p=0.0005) with meropenem exposure at 15µg/mL. There was a significant difference in the lethal dose 50% (LD50) at 24h postinfection between persister cells (2.01×10 5 CFU/larva) and regular cells (4.73×10 5 CFU/larva) at p<0.05.Similarly, there was a significant difference between the LD50 at 48h for persister cells (1.61×10 5 CFU/larva) and regular cells (4.08×10 5 CFU/larva) at p<0.05). However, there was no statistically significant difference in the LD50 at 72h, 96h, and 120h postinfection.OmpW overexpression in meropenem-exposed A.baumannii persister cells enhances virulence and reveals a candidate target for preventing and controlling A.baumannii persister cells.
Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii, Outer Membrane Protein W, persister cells, Meropenem, Resistance
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Wang, Hu, Li and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lei Liu, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
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