Proteus mirabilis is an opportunistic pathogen implicated in urinary tract infections, with virulence largely attributed to factors such as ZapA, a metalloprotease, and UreR, a regulator of urease activity. Lipopolysaccharides LPS are a vital ingredient of the outing Gram-negative bacteria membranes, functioning in both structural integrity and pathogenesis. However, the role of endogenous LPS for expressing the genes of virulence factors in P. mirabilis remains unclear. This study objected to assess the LPS extract from P. mirabilis on the expression of ZapA and UreR genes within P. mirabilis cells. LPS was isolated from cultured P. mirabilis using a hot phenol-water extraction method and applied to fresh bacterial cultures on different levels. Entire RNA was obscure, and expressing the ZapA and UreR quantified via qRT-PCR, with 16S rRNA used as the internal control. Comparative analysis between treated and untreated groups had achieved to investigate the LPS exposure on the target genes. Exposure to extracted LPS significantly led to an upregulation of ZapA and UreR genes expression. These findings suggest LPS may act as an autocrine or paracrine signaling molecule modulating virulence gene expression in P. mirabilis. The results demonstrate that LPS derived from P. mirabilis can modulate the core virulence-associating gene expression, ZapA and UreR, potentially influencing the pathogenicity of P. mirabilis.
Gazaa et al. (Tue,) studied this question.