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Dear Colleagues,

Pulmonary infections are among the most important reasons for morbidity and mortality in people with cystic fibrosis. The pathogens responsible for this infection include ‘usual suspects’ like the long-known opportunistic pathogens Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Burkholderia cepacia, though non-tuberculous Mycobacteria and other bacteria have received increased attention in recent years. In addition, it is now clear that viruses like adenovirus or the respiratory syncytial virus play an important role in CF pathogenesis. Moreover, as metagenomics studies have shown, the CF lung contains a vastly higher number of microorganisms than previously thought.

This Special Issue of Metabolites will be dedicated to novel findings in the area of CF pathogen-related metabolism. The topics covered include but are not limited to pathogen metabolism, examining changes over time during clonal long-term infection, host metabolic changes in response to the pathogen, and bacterial–bacterial, bacterial–fungal or even bacterial–viral interaction and their metabolic impact and microbial communication. Manuscripts highlighting technical advances in the field of CF pathogens are also very welcome.

Dr. Jake Bundy
Dr. Volker Behrends
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metabolites is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Cystic fibrosis
Opportunistic infections
Metabolic profiling
Antimicrobial resistance

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 1407 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Intracellular Staphylococcus aureus Elicits the Production of Host Very Long-Chain Saturated Fatty Acids with Antimicrobial Activity

by Natalia Bravo-Santano, James K. Ellis, Yolanda Calle, Hector C. Keun, Volker Behrends and Michal Letek

Metabolites 2019, 9(7), 148; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/metabo9070148 - 20 Jul 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4545

Abstract

As a facultative intracellular pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus is able to invade and proliferate within many types of mammalian cells. Intracellular bacterial replication relies on host nutrient supplies and, therefore, cell metabolism is closely bound to intracellular infection. Here, we investigated how S. aureus invasion affects the host membrane-bound fatty acids. We quantified the relative levels of fatty acids and their labelling pattern after intracellular infection by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Interestingly, we observed that the levels of three host fatty acids—docosanoic, eicosanoic and palmitic acids—were significantly increased in response to intracellular S. aureus infection. Accordingly, labelling carbon distribution was also affected in infected cells, in comparison to the uninfected control. In addition, treatment of HeLa cells with these three fatty acids showed a cytoprotective role by directly reducing S. aureus growth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolic Profiling of Cystic Fibrosis Pathogens)

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Review

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15 pages, 2210 KiB

Open AccessReview

Adapting to the Airways: Metabolic Requirements of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during the Infection of Cystic Fibrosis Patients

by Ruggero La Rosa, Helle Krogh Johansen and Søren Molin

Metabolites 2019, 9(10), 234; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/metabo9100234 - 16 Oct 2019

Cited by 40 | Viewed by 5628

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality of cystic fibrosis patients. During the infection, the bacteria colonize the nutritional rich lung mucus, which is present in the airway secretions in the patients, and they adapt their phenotype accordingly to the lung environment. In the airways, P. aeruginosa undergoes a broad metabolic rewiring as a consequence of the nutritional and stressful complexity of the lungs. However, the role of such metabolic rewiring on the infection outcome is poorly understood. Here, we review the metabolic evolution of clinical strains of P. aeruginosa during a cystic fibrosis lung infection and the metabolic functions operating in vivo under patho-physiological conditions. Finally, we discuss the perspective of modeling the cystic fibrosis environment using genome scale metabolic models of P. aeruginosa. Understanding the physiological changes occurring during the infection may pave the way to a more effective treatment for P. aeruginosa lung infections. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolic Profiling of Cystic Fibrosis Pathogens)

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