LiaX is a surrogate marker for cell-envelope stress and daptomycin non-susceptibility inEnterococcus faecium

Abstract

ABSTRACTDaptomycin (DAP) is often used as a first line therapy to treat vancomycin-resistantEnterococcus faecium(VREfm) infections but emergence of DAP non-susceptibility threatens the effectiveness of this antibiotic. Moreover, current methods to determine DAP MICs have poor reproducibility and accuracy. In enterococci, DAP resistance is mediated by the LiaFSR cell membrane stress response system and deletion ofliaRencoding the response regulator results in hypersusceptibility to DAP and antimicrobial peptides. The main genes regulated by LiaR are a cluster of three genes, designatedliaXYZ. InEnterococcus faecalis, LiaX is surface exposed with a C-terminus that functions as a negative regulator of cell membrane remodeling and an N-terminal domain that is released to the extracellular medium where it binds DAP. Thus, inE. faecalis, LiaX functions as a sentinel molecule recognizing DAP and controlling the cell membrane response, but less is known about LiaX inE. faecium. Here, we found thatliaXis essential inE. faecium(Efm) with an activated LiaFSR system. UnlikeE. faecalis,EfmLiaX is not detected in the extracellular milieu and does not appear to alter phospholipid architecture. We further postulated that LiaX could be used as a surrogate marker for cell envelope activation and non-susceptibility to DAP. For this purpose, we developed and optimized a LiaX ELISA. We then assessed 86 clinicalE. faeciumBSI isolates for DAP MICs and used whole genome sequencing to assess for substitutions in LiaX. All DAP-R clinical strains ofE. faeciumexhibited elevated LiaX levels. Strikingly, 73% of DAP-S isolates by standard MIC determination had elevated LiaX ELISAs above the established cut-off. Phylogenetic analyses of predicted amino acid substitutions showed 12 different variants of LiaX without a specific association with DAP MIC or LiaX ELISA values. Our findings also suggest that manyEfmisolates that test DAP susceptible by standard MIC determination are likely to have an activated cell stress response that may predispose to DAP failure. As LiaX appears to be essential for the cell envelope response to DAP, its detection could prove useful to improve the accuracy of susceptibility testing by anticipating therapeutic failure.