The impact of mgrA on progression of Staphylococcus aureus sepsis

Abstract

Sepsis induced by Staphylococcus aureus has worse outcome with the appearance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) because of multi-resistance to a large group of antibiotics, which may lead to death from septic shock. Pathogenesis of S. aureus infections are involved in the production of a wide variety of virulence factors. MgrA, a noval global regulator, is a member of the MarR (multiple antibiotic resistance regulator)/SarA (staphylococcal accessory regulator A) family proteins, which plays a key role in regulating the expression of major virulence factors in S. aureus. In the present study, by using a murine model of sepsis, we investigated the role of mgrA in onset and progression of S. aureus induced sepsis. We found that mice inoculated with wild-type strain Newman had significantly higher mortality (p = 0.029), more weight lost, more bacterial load in blood, spleen and kidney, more intense inflammation response, and worse histopathology than mice inoculated with mgrA knockout strain. Our results has provided evidence that mgrA is a global regulator in S. aureus, and play an important role in S. aureus sepsis, could increase mortality and accelerate the onset and development of sepsis.

Keywords: Sepsis; Staphylococcus aureus; Virulence; mgrA.