The Aminoglycoside Antibiotic Kanamycin Damages DNA Bases in Escherichia coli: Caffeine Potentiates the DNA-Damaging Effects of Kanamycin while Suppressing Cell Killing by Ciprofloxacin in Escherichia coli and Bacillus anthracis

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe distribution of mutants in the Keio collection ofEscherichia coligene knockout mutants that display increased sensitivity to the aminoglycosides kanamycin and neomycin indicates that damaged bases resulting from antibiotic action can lead to cell death. Strains lacking one of a number of glycosylases (e.g., AlkA, YzaB, Ogt, KsgA) or other specific repair proteins (AlkB, PhrB, SmbC) are more sensitive to these antibiotics. Mutants lacking AlkB display the strongest sensitivity among the glycosylase- or direct lesion removal-deficient strains. This perhaps suggests the involvement of ethenoadenine adducts, resulting from reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation, since AlkB removes this lesion. Other sensitivities displayed by mutants lacking UvrA, polymerase V (Pol V), or components of double-strand break repair indicate that kanamycin results in damaged base pairs that need to be removed or replicated past in order to avoid double-strand breaks that saturate the cellular repair capacity. Caffeine enhances the sensitivities of these repair-deficient strains to kanamycin and neomycin. The gene knockout mutants that display increased sensitivity to caffeine (dnaQ,holC,holD, andpriAknockout mutants) indicate that caffeine blocks DNA replication, ultimately leading to double-strand breaks that require recombinational repair by functions encoded byrecA,recB, andrecC, among others. Additionally, caffeine partially protects cells of bothEscherichia coliandBacillus anthracisfrom killing by the widely used fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin.