Data from: An In Vitro Combined Antibiotic-Antibody Treatment Eliminates Toxicity from Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli

Treating Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) gastrointestinal infections is difficult. The utility of antibiotics for STEC treatment is controversial, since antibiotic resistance among STEC isolates is widespread and certain antibiotics dramatically increase the expression of Shiga toxins (Stxs), which are some of the most important virulence factors in STEC. Stxs contribute to life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which develops in considerable proportions of patients with STEC infections. Understanding the antibiotic resistance profiles of STEC isolates and the Stx induction potential of promising antibiotics is essential for evaluating any antibiotic treatment of STEC. In this study, 42 O157:H7 or non-O157 STEC isolates (including the “big six” serotypes) were evaluated for their resistance against 22 antibiotics by using an antibiotic array. Tigecycline inhibited the growth of all of the tested STEC isolates and also inhibited the production of Stxs (Stx2 in particular). In combination with neutralizing antibodies to Stx1 and Stx2, the tigecycline-antibody treatment fully protected Vero cells from Stx toxicity, even when the STEC bacteria and the Vero cells were cultured together. The combination of an antibiotic such as tigecycline with neutralizing antibodies presents a promising strategy for future STEC treatments.

• Resource Title: Supplemental Materials.

  File Name: Web Page, url: https://aac.asm.org/content/59/9/5435/figures-only#fig-data-additional-files

  Table S1: Descriptions and characteristics of antibiotics used in this study. XLS, 35K

  Table S2: MICs of antibiotics for STEC serotypes and probiotics. XLS, 30K

  Table S3: MICs of antibiotics for individual isolates. XLS, 47K

  Table S4: Induction of Stx1 and Stx2 by selected antibiotics. XLS, 35K