RNAseq transcriptome analysis of A. baumannnii MS14413 treated with PBT2, zinc and tetracycline

Acinetobacter baumannii causes high mortality in ventilator-associated pneumonia patients and antibiotic treatment is compromised in multi-drug resistant strains resistant to beta-lactams, carbapenems, cephalosporins, polymyxins and tetracyclines. Among COVID-19 patients receiving ventilator support, multi-drug resistant A. baumannii secondary infection is associated with a two-fold increase in mortality. Here we investigated the use of the 8-hydroxyquinoline ionophore PBT2 to break resistance of A. baumannii to tetracycline class antibiotics. For A. baumannii MS14413, 3 sample conditions in triplicate were analyzed. Sample conditions included: 1) bacterial treatment with cation-adjusted Muller Hinton broth (CA-MHB; reference sample); or 2) CA-MHB + 64 µM PBT2 + 8 µM ZnSO4; or 3) CA-MHB + 64 µM PBT2 + 8 µM ZnSO4 + 1 µg/mL tetracycline