Research Articles:
Microbial Cell, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 173 - 181; doi: 10.15698/mic2025.07.854
Persistence phenotype of adherent-invasive Escherichia coli in response to ciprofloxacin, revealing high-persistence strains
1 Molecular and Cellular Microbiology Laboratory, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Chile. 2 Programa de Microbiología y Micología, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Chile. 3 Laboratory of Innate Immunity, Program of Immunology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 4 Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Keywords: antibiotic, persistence, persister cell, AIEC, chronic diseases, Crohn´s disease.
Received originally: 12/11/2024 Received in revised form: 15/05/2025
Accepted: 27/05/2025
Published: 11/07/2025
Correspondence:
Paula Bustamante, Molecular and Cellular Microbiology Laboratory, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile. Av. del Valle 534, Level 3, Huechuraba, Santiago, 8581151, Chile; paula.bustamante@uautonoma.cl
Conflict of interest statement: The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists with this study.
Please cite this article as: Valeria Pérez-Villalobos, Roberto Vidal, Marcela A. Hermoso and Paula Bustamante (2025). Persistence phenotype of adherent-invasive Escherichia coli in response to ciprofloxacin, revealing high-persistence strains. Microbial Cell 12: 173-181. doi: 10.15698/mic2025.07.854
Abstract
Persister cells are a subpopulation of bacteria capable of surviving antibiotic treatments and are thought to contribute to disease chronicity and symptom relapse of chronic conditions. Crohn’s disease (CD) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract, and adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) have emerged as a key contributor to its pathogenesis. AIEC can survive, replicate, and produce persister cells within macrophages; however, beyond the LF82 reference strain, little is known about the persistence phenotype and its variability among AIEC strains. In this study, the survival of two AIEC reference strains was analyzed following ciprofloxacin treatment, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic commonly used in CD therapy. In addition, four AIEC clinical isolates and two non-AIEC E. coli pathotypes were included for comparison. We investigated the roles of the resident antibiotic resistance plasmid, the stress response protein HtrA, and macrophage-induced persister formation. Our results revealed broad variability in persister cell formation among AIEC strains. Remarkably, the reference NRG857c strain exhibits a threateningly high-persistence phenotype, with persistence levels 200-fold higher than LF82 and certain clinical isolates. Neither the antibiotic resistance plasmid nor HtrA were required for this phenotype. Moreover, unlike LF82, NRG857c did not exhibit increased persistence following macrophage internalization. Overall, our findings demonstrate the presence of distinct persistence phenotypes among AIEC strains and identify NRG857c as a high-persistence variant. These observations underscore the need to consider bacterial persistence in the management of CD, particularly given the potential presence of AIEC strains with elevated persistence capabilities.
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Persistence phenotype of adherent-invasive Escherichia coli in response to ciprofloxacin, revealing high-persistence strains by Pérez-Villalobos et al. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
