Inhibition of gene expression and growth of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii by antisense peptide nucleic acids

Acinetobacter baumannii causes common and severe community- and hospital-acquired infections. The increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and pan-drug resistant A. baumannii has limited the therapeutic options, highlighting the need for new therapeutic strategies. The goal of this study was to investigate whether antisense peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) could mediate gene-specific inhibition effects in MDR A. baumannii . We described a screening strategy based on computational prediction and dot hybridization for identifying potential inhibitory PNAs, and evaluated the in vitro growth inhibition potency of two PNAs conjugated to the (KFF) 3 K peptide (pPNA1 and pPNA2), both of which targeted the growth essential gene gyrA of A. baumannii. Both pPNAs showed strong inhibition effects on bacterial growth and gyrA mRNA expression in a dose-dependent manner. The lowest inhibitory and bactericidal concentration were 5 and 10 μM, respectively. Combination of the two pPNAs showed superimposed effect other than synergistic effect. Control PNAs without (KFF) 3 K peptide conjugation or with mismatched antisense sequence had no inhibition effects on bacterial growth or mRNA expression. Our study suggests that anti- gyrA pPNAs can efficiently inhibit gene expression and bacterial growth, and has the potential as a new therapeutic option for MDR A. baumannii.