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Gene expression and cell culture assays reveal cheese isolate Lactococcus lactis MC5 may influence the virulence of Staphylococcus aureus

  • Food Microbiology - Research Paper
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Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus (SA) can thrive in a wide variety of hosts and environments, causing clinical infections and foodborne intoxications. In Brazil, SA is commonly isolated from traditional soft cheeses, especially those prepared from unpasteurized milk. In this research, the isolate S. aureus SABRC1 was evaluated for virulence traits under different conditions, including co-inoculation with Lactococcus lactis MC5 (isolated from “Fresh Minas Cheese”), which produces antibacterial peptides. Results from experiments with Caco-2 culture indicated S. aureus SABRC1 was able to adhere (42.83 ± 1.79%) and to invade (48.57 ± 0.41%) the intestinal cells. On the other hand, L. lactis MC5 presented anti-staphylococcal activity as indicated by agar assays, and it was also able to antagonize intestinal cell invasion by S. aureus. Moreover, Reverse Transcriptase-PCR experiments showed virulence genes of S. aureus SABRC1 (hla, icaA and sea) were differentially expressed under diverse culture conditions, which included Brain Heart Infusion modified or not by the addition of glucose, sodium chloride, milk or cheese. This suggests the virulence of S. aureus SABRC1 is influenced by compounds commonly found in daily diets, and not only by its genetic repertoire, adding a novel level of complexity for controlling infection by this pathogen.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

MGP especially acknowledges CAPES for a post-doctoral fellowship (PNPD). ECPDM is a research fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)—Brazil and FCNA received a Master fellowship from CNPq.

Funding

The authors are grateful to São Paulo Research Foundation—Brazil for a research grant (FAPESP 2012/50507–1), to the Multiuser Laboratory of Confocal Microscopy—LMMC (FAPESP 2004/08868–0) and also to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brazil (CAPES; finance code 001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP-USP), Brazil

    Fabian Camilo Niño-Arias, Marita Gimenez Pereira & Elaine Cristina Pereira De Martinis

  2. Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Rua 240 Esquina Com a 5ª Avenida, S/N, Setor Leste Universitário, Goiânia/GO, CEP: 74605-170, Brazil

    Virgínia Farias Alves

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  1. Fabian Camilo Niño-Arias
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  2. Virgínia Farias Alves
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  3. Marita Gimenez Pereira
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  4. Elaine Cristina Pereira De Martinis
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the development of the study. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by FCNA and MGP. VFA collaborated by discussing experiments and drafting the manuscript. ECPDM coordinated a financial grant for this project, designed and supervised the microbiological tests. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Virgínia Farias Alves.

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Niño-Arias, F.C., Alves, V.F., Pereira, M.G. et al. Gene expression and cell culture assays reveal cheese isolate Lactococcus lactis MC5 may influence the virulence of Staphylococcus aureus. Braz J Microbiol 54, 2027–2034 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-023-01004-3

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