D-Serine reduces the expression of the cytopathic genotoxin colibactin

Abstract

Some Escherichia coli strains harbour the pks island, a 54 kb genomic island en-coding the biosynthesis genes for a genotoxic compound named colibactin. In eukaryotic cells, colibactin can induce DNA damage, cell cycle arrest and chro-mosomal instability. Production of colibactin has been implicated in the devel-opment of colorectal cancer (CRC). In this study, we demonstrate the inhibito-ry effect of D-Serine on the expression of the pks island in both prototypic and clinically-associated colibactin-producing strains and determine the implications for cytopathic effects on host cells. We also tested a comprehensive panel of proteinogenic L-amino acids and corresponding D-enantiomers for their ability to modulate clbB transcription. Whilst several D-amino acids exhibited the abil-ity to inhibit expression of clbB, D-Serine exerted the strongest repressing ac-tivity (>3.8-fold) and thus, we focussed additional experiments on D-Serine. To investigate the cellular effect, we investigated if repression of colibactin by D-Serine could reduce the cytopathic responses normally observed during infec-tion of HeLa cells with pks+ strains. Levels of γ-H2AX (a marker of DNA double strand breaks) were reduced 2.75-fold in cells infected with D-Serine treat-ment. Moreover, exposure of pks+ E. coli to D-Serine during infection caused a reduction in cellular senescence that was observable at 72 h post infection. The recent finding of an association between pks-carrying commensal E. coli and CRC, highlights the necessity for the development of colibactin targeting thera-peutics. Here we show that D-Serine can reduce expression of colibactin, and inhibit downstream cellular cytopathy, illuminating its potential to prevent colibactin-associated disease.