Efficacy of Selected Live Biotherapeutic Candidates to Inhibit the Interaction of an Adhesive-Invasive Escherichia coli Strain with Caco-2, HT29-MTX Cells and Their Co-Culture

Bronwyn Smit; Chiemeka C Chinaka; Albert A Scott; Kirsten Gaiduschek; Eva Hatje; Anna Kuballa; Samantha Coulson; Wayne Finlayson; Mohammad Katouli

doi:10.3390/biomedicines10092245

Efficacy of Selected Live Biotherapeutic Candidates to Inhibit the Interaction of an Adhesive-Invasive Escherichia coli Strain with Caco-2, HT29-MTX Cells and Their Co-Culture

Biomedicines. 2022 Sep 9;10(9):2245. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10092245.

Authors

Bronwyn Smit¹, Chiemeka C Chinaka¹, Albert A Scott¹, Kirsten Gaiduschek¹, Eva Hatje^{1

2}, Anna Kuballa³, Samantha Coulson⁴, Wayne Finlayson⁴, Mohammad Katouli¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Bioinnovation and School of Science, Technology and Engineering University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore 4558, Australia.
² School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4000, Australia.
³ School of Health and Behavioural Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore 4558, Australia.
⁴ Servatus Biopharmaceuticals, Coolum Beach 4573, Australia.

Abstract

Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) has been implicated as a microbiological factor in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We evaluated the ability of six live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) to inhibit the interaction of an AIEC strain to three cell lines representing human gut epithelium. Co-inoculation of LBPs with AIEC showed a reduction in adhesion (up to 73%) and invasion of AIEC (up to 89%). Pre-inoculation of LBPs in HT-29-MTX and Caco-2 cells before challenging with AIEC further reduced the adhesion and invasion of the AIEC, with three LBPs showing significantly (p < 0.0001) higher efficiency in reducing the adhesion of AIEC. In co-inoculation experiments, the highest reduction in adhesion (73%) of AIEC was observed in HT-29-MTX cells, whereas the highest reduction in invasion (89%) was seen in HT-29-MTX and the co-culture of cells. Pre-inoculation of LBPs further reduced the invasion of AIEC with highest reduction (97%) observed in co-culture of cells. Our results indicated that whilst there were differences in the efficacy of LBPs, they all reduced interaction of AIEC with cell lines representing gut epithelium. Their efficiency was higher when they were pre-inoculated onto the cells, suggesting their potential as candidates for alleviating pathogenesis of AIEC in patients with IBD.

Keywords: AIEC; Caco-2:HT-29-MTX; adhesion; invasion; live biotherapeutic products.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by student scholarships through the University of the Sunshine Coast, and a top-up scholarship (B.S) from Servatus Biopharmaceuticals, the APC was funded by Servatus Biopharmaceuticals.