Serotonin Activates Bacterial Quorum Sensing and Enhances the Virulence of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa in the Host

Overview

Journal EBioMedicine

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2016 Jun 23

PMID 27333040

Citations 44

Authors

Leslie D Knecht

Gregory OConnor

Rahul Mittal

Xue Z Liu

Pirouz Daftarian

Sapna K Deo

Sylvia Daunert

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Bacteria in humans play an important role in health and disease. Considerable emphasis has been placed in understanding the role of bacteria in host-microbiome interkingdom communication. Here we show that serotonin, responsible for mood in the brain and motility in the gut, can also act as a bacterial signaling molecule for pathogenic bacteria. Specifically, we found that serotonin acts as an interkingdom signaling molecule via quorum sensing and that it stimulates the production of bacterial virulence factors and increases biofilm formation in vitro and in vivo in a novel mouse infection model. This discovery points out at roles of serotonin both in bacteria and humans, and at phenotypic implications not only manifested in mood behavior but also in infection processes in the host. Thus, regulating serotonin concentrations in the gut may provide with paradigm shifting therapeutic approaches.

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