SCAN:Recent findings on antibiotic resistance and virulence of an old companion

SCAN Seminar- ITQB

Title: Recent findings on antibiotic resistance and virulence of an old companion

Speaker: Fátima Lopes

Affiliation: Stress by Antibiotics and Virulence of Enterococci Laboratory

Abstract:

Enterococcus genus is an old companion as it establishes in the human GI tract as soon as we are born, is part of the human commensal microbiota and surrounds us, namely in fermented food products we eat everyday. For more then a century it has also been recognized as an opportunistic pathogen, but its role as an important nosocomial infectious agent has been mostly established in the last two decades. Its intrinsic antibiotic resistance and ease in acquiring high-level resistance to antiotics used in the clinical practice and in agriculture have been considered simultaneously a cause and an effect of their status as major nosocomial pathogens. Multidrug resistance is emerging amongst enterococcal strains and pharmaceutical companies are not keen on discovery of new antibiotics. Can we revitalize “old” antibiotics? This will be discussed during the presentation. In order to be able to break the equilibrium in a bacteria-host relatioship,  bacterial cells need mechanisms to invade and take over the host defenses, the so called virulence factors. Although more then a dozen have been identified in Enterococcus faecalis, the enterococcal species  more frenquently associated with humans and human nosocomial infections, we are still far from fully understanding enterococcal pathogenicity. During the last three years, together with five other groups, we made a genome wide search for genes involved in antibiotic resistance and virulence in E. faecalis, aiming to complete the puzzle. Our findings will be also reported and discussed during the presentation.