The 94th Annual Meeting of Japanese Society for Bacteriology

Presentation information

On-demand Presentation

7 Antimicrobials and Drug Resistance

[ODP7B] b. Drug Resistance

[ODP-210] Identification of β-lactam ring opened carbothioic S-acids mediated by cysteine hydropersulfide

○Katsuhiko Ono1, Hiroyasu Tsutsuki1, Tianli Zhang1, Takaaki Akaike2, Tomohiro Sawa1 (1Dept. Microbiol., Grad. Sch. Med. Sci., Kumamoto Univ., 2Dept. Envir. Med. Mol. Toxicol., Tohoku Univ., Grad. Sch. Med.)

Antibiotic resistance is a global concern. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) formed during sulfur metabolisms in bacteria has been considered to implicate for the development of resistant against β-lactam antibiotics, whereas detail mechanisms remains unclear. Here we demonstrated that cysteine hydropersulfide (CysSSH) derived from reaction between cystine and H2S efficiently reacted with penicillin G to form a novel product β-lactam ring opened penicillin G carbothioic S-acid (PG-COSH). Formation of PG-COSH is specific for CysSSH, and was not observed for reaction between penicillin G and H2S, cysteine, or cystine. Bacterial growth assay revealed that PG-COSH showed no antibacterial activity. We developed sensitive detection method for PG-COSH by means of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with monobromobimane derivatization. Importantly, PG-COSH was detected from both Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphyrococcus aureus) bacteria under the treatment of penicillin G, suggesting the endogenous formation of PG-COSH. Our data suggest that carbothioic S-acid β-lactams may be useful biomarkers for monitoring hydropersulfide-catalyzed inactivation of β-lactams, and hence, for exploring potent antibacterial modulators that are capable of enhancing antibacterial activity of β-lactams by inhibiting hydropersulfides formation.