Resensitizing tigecycline- and colistin-resistant Escherichia coli using an engineered conjugative CRISPR/Cas9 system

Abstract

The emergence of plasmid-encoded tet (X4) and mcr-1 isolated from human and animal sources has affected the treatment of tigecycline and colistin, and has posed a significant threat to public health. Tigecycline and colistin are considered as the “last line of defense” for the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacterial infections, so there is an urgent need to find a method that can resensitize tet (X4)-mediated tigecycline-resistant and mcr-1 -mediated colistin-resistant bacteria. In this study, we developed a glutamate-based, chromosomal, plasmid-balanced lethal conjugative CRISPR/Cas9 system, which can simultaneously resensitize tet (X4)-mediated tigecycline-resistant and mcr-1 -mediated colistin-resistant Escherichia coli . The counts of tigecycline- and colistin-resistant bacteria decreased to 1% in vivo after the resensitization system was administered. This study opens up new pathways for the development of CRISPR-based tools for selective bacterial pathogen elimination and precise microbiome composition change.