Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance to enrofloxacin in uropathogenic Escherichia coli in dog

Escherichia coli (E. coli) urinary tract infections (UTIs) are becoming a serious problem both for pets and humans (zoonosis) due to the close contact and to the increasing resistance to antibiotics. This study has been performed in order to unravel the mechanism of induced enrofloxacin resistance in canine E. coli isolates that represent a good tool to study this pathology. The isolated E. coli has been induced with enrofloxacin and studied through 2D DICE and shotgun MS. Discovered differentially expressed proteins are principally involved in antibiotic resistance and linked to oxidative stress response, to DNA protection and to membrane permeability. Moreover, since enrofloxacin is an inhibitor of DNA gyrase, the overexpression of DNA starvation/stationary phase protection protein (Dsp) could be a central point to discover the mechanism of this clone to counteract the effects of enrofloxacin. In parallel, the dramatic decrease of the synthesis of the outer membrane protein W, which represents one of the main gates for enrofloxacin entrance, could explain additional mechanism of E. coli defense against this antibiotic. All 20 DICE and MS data have been deposited into the ProteomeXchange Consortium with identifier PXD002000 and DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.601/PXD002000.