Dulantha Ulluwishewa, Liang Wang, Callen Pereira, Stephanie Flynn, Elizabeth Cain​, Stephen Stick​, F. Jerry Reen​, Joshua P. Ramsay, Fergal O’Gara1

http://mic.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.000317

MICROBIOLOGY JOURNAL EDITOR'S CHOICE AUGUST 2016

Dissecting the regulation of bile-induced biofilm formation in Staphylococcus aureus

Persistent colonisation of the lung by respiratory pathogens is a major contributing factor to the chronic inflammation and eventual lung decline that is characteristic of respiratory disease. We have shown that bile acid aspiration, a major comorbidity associated with a range of lung diseases including Cystic Fibrosis (CF), promotes colonisation of the paediatric CF lung by Proteobacterial pathogens. Bile signalling enhances the formation of antibiotic-tolerant biofilms, thus seriously impacting the effectiveness of current clinical infection management. Understanding the molecular mechanisms through which this occurs can potentially deliver innovative therapeutic options for the prevention of chronic lung infection in respiratory disease.