PMID:21821749

Citation	Hidalgo, G, Chan, M and Tufenkji, N (2011) Inhibition of Escherichia coli CFT073 fliC expression and motility by cranberry materials. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 77:6852-7
Abstract	In humans, uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the most common etiological agent of uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs). Cranberry extracts have been linked to the prevention of UTIs for over a century; however, a mechanistic understanding of the way in which cranberry derivatives prevent bacterial infection is still lacking. In this study, we used a fliC-lux reporter as well as quantitative reverse transcription-PCR to demonstrate that when UPEC strain CFT073 was grown or exposed to dehydrated, crushed cranberries or to purified cranberry-derived proanthocyanidins (cPACs), expression of the flagellin gene (fliC) was inhibited. In agreement with these results, transmission electron microscopy imaging of bacteria grown in the presence of cranberry materials revealed fewer flagella than those in bacteria grown under control conditions. Furthermore, we showed that swimming and swarming motilities were hindered when bacteria were grown in the presence of the cranberry compounds. Because flagellum-mediated motility has been suggested to enable UPEC to disseminate to the upper urinary tract, we propose that inhibition of flagellum-mediated motility might be a key mechanism by which cPACs prevent UTIs. This is the first report to show that cranberry compounds inhibit UPEC motility via downregulation of the fliC gene. Further studies are required to establish whether these inhibitors play a role in vivo.
Links	PubMed PMC3187111 Online version:10.1128/AEM.05561-11
Keywords	Anti-Bacterial Agents/isolation & purification; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology; Artificial Gene Fusion; Escherichia coli Proteins/biosynthesis; Flagella/drug effects; Flagella/physiology; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial/drug effects; Genes, Reporter; Locomotion/drug effects; Luciferases/genetics; Luciferases/metabolism; Plant Extracts/isolation & purification; Plant Extracts/pharmacology; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Uropathogenic Escherichia coli/drug effects; Uropathogenic Escherichia coli/physiology; Vaccinium macrocarpon/chemistry
edit table

Main Points of the Paper

Please summarize the main points of the paper.

Materials and Methods Used

Please list the materials and methods used in this paper (strains, plasmids, antibodies, etc).

Phenotype Annotations

See Help:AnnotationTable for details on how to edit this table.
<protect>

Phenotype of	Taxon Information	Genotype Information (if known)	Condition Information	OMP ID	OMP Term Name	ECO ID	ECO Term Name	Notes	Status
edit table

</protect>

References

See Help:References for how to manage references in omp dev.