Recovery and characterization of Proteus mirabilis persisters

Abokhalil, Rana N.; Elkhatib, Walid Faisal; Aboulwafa, Mohammad M.; Hassouna, Nadia A.

doi:10.21608/aps.2018.18732

Recovery and characterization of Proteus mirabilis persisters

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11566, Egypt

² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, African Union Organization St., Abbassia 11566, Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/aps.2018.18732

Abstract

Bacterial persistence is a phenomenon in which a subpopulation of cells survives antibiotic treatment. The occurrence of bacterial persisters is associated with recurrence of chronic infections. In this study, we aimed to isolate, characterize persister subpopulation in Proteus mirabilis. Persister cells isolation was done by the dose-dependent killing of ciprofloxacin. Their characterization was achieved by determining their growth rates. Our results revealed that 1.3% of persister cells could be recovered from the Proteus mirabilis test isolate. Upon resuscitation, these cell subpopulations exhibited slow growth rate than wild-type cells. As a common phenomenon demonstrated among microbial pathogens, Proteus mirabilis persisters could be isolated with ciprofloxacin. The slow growth rate is one of its characters recorded in the study for persister cells of such bacterial species.

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