Photoinactivation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae: A Paradigm-Changing Approach for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Gonococcal Infection
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a major issue of public health, and there is a critical need for the development of new antigonococcal strategies. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of antimicrobial blue light (aBL; wavelength, 405 nm), an innovative nonpharmacological approach, for the inactivation of N. gonorrhoeae. Our findings indicated that aBL preferentially inactivated N. gonorrhoeae, including antibiotic-resistant strains, over human vaginal epithelial cells in vitro. Furthermore, no aBL-induced genotoxicity to the vaginal epithelial cells was observed at the radiant exposure used to inactivate N. gonorrhoeae. aBL also effectively inactivated N. gonorrhoeae that had attached to and invaded into the vaginal epithelial cells in their cocultures. No gonococcal resistance to aBL developed after 15 successive cycles of inactivation induced by subtherapeutic exposure to aBL. Endogenous aBL-activatable photosensitizing porphyrins in N. gonorrhoeae were identified and quantified using ultraperformance liquid chromatography, with coproporphyrin being the most abundant species in all N. gonorrhoeae strains studied. Singlet oxygen was involved in aBL inactivation of N. gonorrhoeae. Together, these findings show that aBL represents a potential potent treatment for antibiotic-resistant gonococcal infection.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 09, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1093/infdis/jiz018
Entities
People
- Jeffrey A. Gelfand
- Kathryn D Held
- Raquel Ferrer-Espada
- Tianhong Dai
- Xueping S Goh
- Yan Baglo
- Ying Gu
- Ying Wang
- Yonatan H Grad
Organizations
- China Scholarship Council
- Harvard Medical School
- Harvard University
- National Institutes of Health
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- United States Department of Defense