163 research outputs found
Bacterial fitness shapes the population dynamics of antibiotic-resistant and -susceptible bacteria in a model of combined antibiotic and anti-virulence treatment
Bacterial resistance to antibiotic treatment is a huge concern: introduction
of any new antibiotic is shortly followed by the emergence of resistant
bacterial isolates in the clinic. This issue is compounded by a severe lack of
new antibiotics reaching the market. The significant rise in clinical
resistance to antibiotics is especially problematic in nosocomial infections,
where already vulnerable patients may fail to respond to treatment, causing
even greater health concern. A recent focus has been on the development of
anti-virulence drugs as a second line of defence in the treatment of
antibiotic-resistant infections. This treatment, which weakens bacteria by
reducing their virulence rather than killing them, should allow infections to
be cleared through the body's natural defence mechanisms. In this way there
should be little to no selective pressure exerted on the organism and, as such,
a predominantly resistant population would be unlikely to emerge. However, much
controversy surrounds this approach with many believing it would not be
powerful enough to clear existing infections, restricting its potential
application to prophylaxis. We have developed a mathematical model that
provides a theoretical framework to reveal the circumstances under which
anti-virulence drugs may or may not be successful. We demonstrate that by
harnessing and combining the advantages of antibiotics with those provided by
anti-virulence drugs, given infection-specific parameters, it is possible to
identify treatment strategies that would efficiently clear bacterial
infections, while preventing the emergence of resistant subpopulations. Our
findings strongly support the continuation of research into anti-virulence
drugs and demonstrate that their applicability may reach beyond infection
prevention.Comment: Pre-review manuscript. Submitted to Journal of Theoretical Biology,
July 21st 201
Controlling stability and transport of magnetic microswimmers by an external field
We investigate the hydrodynamic stability and transport of magnetic
microswimmers in an external field using a kinetic theory framework. Combining
linear stability analysis and nonlinear 3D continuum simulations, we show that
for sufficiently large activity and magnetic field strengths, a homogeneous
polar steady state is unstable for both puller and pusher swimmers. This
instability is caused by the amplification of anisotropic hydrodynamic
interactions due to the external alignment and leads to a partial
depolarization and a reduction of the average transport speed of the swimmers
in the field direction. Notably, at higher field strengths a reentrant
hydrodynamic stability emerges where the homogeneous polar state becomes stable
and a transport efficiency identical to that of active particles without
hydrodynamic interactions is restored
Intracellular energy variability modulates cellular decision-making capacity
Cells are able to generate phenotypic diversity both during development and
in response to stressful and changing environments, aiding survival. The
biologically and medically vital process of a cell assuming a functionally
important fate from a range of phenotypic possibilities can be thought of as a
cell decision. To make these decisions, a cell relies on energy dependent
pathways of signalling and expression. However, energy availability is often
overlooked as a modulator of cellular decision-making. As cells can vary
dramatically in energy availability, this limits our knowledge of how this key
biological axis affects cell behaviour. Here, we consider the energy dependence
of a highly generalisable decision-making regulatory network, and show that
energy variability changes the sets of decisions a cell can make and the ease
with which they can be made. Increasing intracellular energy levels can
increase the number of stable phenotypes it can generate, corresponding to
increased decision-making capacity. For this decision-making architecture, a
cell with intracellular energy below a threshold is limited to a singular
phenotype, potentially forcing the adoption of a specific cell fate. We suggest
that common energetic differences between cells may explain some of the
observed variability in cellular decision-making, and demonstrate the
importance of considering energy levels in several diverse biological
decision-making phenomena
Dynamic Monte Carlo Simulations of Anisotropic Colloids
We put forward a simple procedure for extracting dynamical information from
Monte Carlo simulations, by appropriate matching of the short-time diffusion
tensor with its infinite-dilution limit counterpart, which is supposed to be
known. This approach --discarding hydrodynamics interactions-- first allows us
to improve the efficiency of previous Dynamic Monte Carlo algorithms for
spherical Brownian particles. In a second step, we address the case of
anisotropic colloids with orientational degrees of freedom. As an illustration,
we present a detailed study of the dynamics of thin platelets, with emphasis on
long-time diffusion and orientational correlations.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Dynamic Boolean modelling reveals the influence of energy supply on bacterial efflux pump expression
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health issue. One key factor contributing to AMR is the ability of bacteria to export drugs through efflux pumps, which relies on the ATP-dependent expression and interaction of several controlling genes. Recent studies have shown that significant cell-to-cell ATP variability exists within clonal bacterial populations, but the contribution of intrinsic cell-to-cell ATP heterogeneity is generally overlooked in understanding efflux pumps. Here, we consider how ATP variability influences gene regulatory networks controlling expression of efflux pump genes in two bacterial species. We develop and apply a generalizable Boolean modelling framework, developed to incorporate the dependence of gene expression dynamics on available cellular energy supply. Theoretical results show that differences in energy availability can cause pronounced downstream heterogeneity in efflux gene expression. Cells with higher energy availability have a superior response to stressors. Furthermore, in the absence of stress, model bacteria develop heterogeneous pulses of efflux pump gene expression which contribute to a sustained sub-population of cells with increased efflux expression activity, potentially conferring a continuous pool of intrinsically resistant bacteria. This modelling approach thus reveals an important source of heterogeneity in cell responses to antimicrobials and sheds light on potentially targetable aspects of efflux pump-related antimicrobial resistance.publishedVersio
Effects of inertia on conformation and dynamics of active filaments
Many macroscopic active systems such as snakes, birds and fishes have
flexible shapes and inertial effects on their motion, in contrast to their
microscopic counterparts, cannot be ignored. Nonetheless, the consequences of
interplay between inertia and flexibility on their shapes and dynamics remain
unexplored. Here, we examine inertial effects on the most studied active
flexible system, {\it i.e.} linear active filaments pertinent to worms, snakes
and filamentous robots. Performing Langevin dynamics simulations of active
polymers with underdamped and overdamped dynamics for a wide range of contour
lengths and activities, we uncover striking inertial effects on their
conformation and dynamics. Inertial collisions increase the persistence length
of active polymers and remarkably alter their scaling behavior. In stark
contrast to passive polymers, inertia leaves its fingerprint at long times by
an enhanced diffusion of the center of mass. We rationalize inertia-induced
enhanced dynamics by analytical calculations of center of mass velocity
correlations, revealing significant contributions from active force
fluctuations convoluted by inertial relaxation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Active motion of tangentially driven polymers in periodic array of obstacles
One key question about transport of active polymers within crowded environments is how spatial order of obstacles influences their conformation and dynamics when compared to disordered media. To this end, we computationally investigate the active transport of tangentially driven polymers with varying degrees of flexibility and activity in two-dimensional square lattices of obstacles. Tight periodic confinement induces notable conformational changes and distinct modes of transport for flexible and stiff active filaments. It leads to caging of low activity flexible polymers inside the inter-obstacle pores while promoting more elongated conformations and enhanced diffusion for stiff polymers at low to moderate activity levels. The migration of flexible active polymers occurs via hopping events, where they unfold to move from one cage to another, similar to their transport in disordered media. However, in ordered media, polymers are more compact and their long-time dynamics is significantly slower. In contrast, stiff chains travel mainly in straight paths within periodic inter-obstacle channels while occasionally changing their direction of motion. This mode of transport is unique to periodic environment and leads to more extended conformation and substantially enhanced long-time dynamics of stiff filaments with low to moderate activity levels compared to disordered media. At high active forces, polymers overcome confinement effects and move through inter-obstacle pores just as swiftly as in open spaces, regardless of the spatial arrangement of obstacles. We explain the center of mass dynamics of semiflexible polymers in terms of active force and obstacle packing fraction by developing an approximate analytical theory
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