Vaginal Lactobacilli and Pap Operon Expression in Uropathogenic Escherichia Coli
Reza Ranjbar1, Mehdi Moazzami Goudarzi2٭, Nematollah Jounaidi31Molecular biology research center, Baqiyatallah University of medical science, Tehran, Iran. 2Department of Microbiology, Boroujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd, Iran. 3Health Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of medical science, Tehran, Iran Corresponding author Email: Moma1675@gmail.com
Abstract: The present study aims to evaluate the effects of lactobacillus by-products on pyelonephritis-associated pili pap expression in Escherichia (E.) coli. Vaginal lactobacillus rhamnosus and lactobacillus crispatus species were isolated and the effects of their culture supernatants (CS) on pap promoter activity in uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) were studied. A new reporter construct of pET28a including Iranian firefly luciferase coding sequence was used to assess the pap propotor activity. The lactobacillus rhamnosus forced the pap promoter to turn off when UPEC was exposed to 1%, 1.1%, and 1.3% of the culture supernatant. In addition, lactobacillus crispatus could continuously switch off pap promoter phase variations when UPEC was exposed to a serial dilution of culture supernatant. The findings showed therapeutic and preventive potential of lactobacillus rhamnosus and lactobacillus crispatus for bacterial vaginitis and urinary tract infection (UTI) through controlling the virulence factors expression via their ecological origins.
Keywords: Escherichia coli; Vaginitis; Urinary Tract Infection; lactobacillus rhamnosus; lactobacillus crispatus Back to TOC