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Antimicrobial resistance poses an escalating global threat, rendering traditional drug development approaches increasingly ineffective. Thus, novel alternatives to antibiotic-based therapies are needed. Exploiting pathogen cooperation as a strategy for combating resistant infections has been proposed but lacks experimental validation. Empirical findings demonstrate the successful invasion of cooperating populations by non-cooperating cheats, effectively reducing virulence in vitro and in vivo. The idea of harnessing cooperative behaviours for therapeutic benefit involves exploitation of the invasive capabilities of cheats to drive medically beneficial traits into infecting populations of cells. In this study, we employed Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing cheats to drive antibiotic sensitivity into both in vitro and in vivo resistant populations. We demonstrated the successful invasion of cheats, followed by increased antibiotic effectiveness against cheat-invaded populations, thereby establishing an experimental proof of principle for the potential application of the Trojan strategy in fighting resistant infections.

Original publication

DOI

10.1099/mic.0.001454

Type

Journal article

Journal

Microbiology (Reading)

Publication Date

04/2024

Volume

170

Keywords

antimicrobial resistance, cheat, cooperation, microbial social evolution, quorum sensing, trojan cheat, virulence, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Quorum Sensing, Pseudomonas Infections, Animals, Virulence, Drug Resistance, Bacterial, Humans, Mice, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Bacterial Proteins