Abstract 1366 Antibiotic Impact on the Release of Extracellular Vesicles from E. coli

Sepsis is currently the leading cause of deaths in hospitals in the United States. Antibiotics are an important part of sepsis treatment, but may contribute to the over-exuberant inflammatory response that is the hallmark of sepsis due to its trigger of the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from bacteria. In this study, we determined the effect of nine clinically relevant antibiotics from three different antibiotic families on EV release from a pathogenic strain of Escherichia coli. Following incubation of the bacteria with individual antibiotics, we isolated the EVs using ultracentrifugation and quantified the EVs using immunoblotting, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. Our results demonstrate that several commonly used beta-lactam antibiotics significantly enhance the release of EVs from E. coli compared to the other types of antibiotics tested. The results of our study suggest that the selection of antibiotics for sepsis treatment has a significant impact on bacterial EV production, which could lead to an increase in sepsis-related inflammation. This work was supported by NIAID of the National Institutes of Health under award number R21AI163782 to LVM and TG.