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