Confirming the Impact of Iron Limitation on Acinetobacter baumannii Growth

Background: The CDC and WHO have labeled A. baumannii as the highest threat level in their ranking system for antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Due to its ability to develop resistant properties, A. baumanni has caused 8,500 hospitalizations and approximately 700 deaths in 2017. Currently, no optimal treatments for resistant A. baumannii infections exist; however, iron limitation by an iron chelator has shown to create growth inhibition.ï¾ Methods: Deferiprone is used to create growth inhibition at a standard concentration for all isolates. To confirm iron availability as the reason for inhibition iron was supplemented into each isolate in a concentration gradient. The BacterioScan 216Dx was utilized to collect data for each isolate. Data was then process and graphical representations were created. Results: An increase in concentration of iron caused an increase in growth in the presence of deferiprone resulting in an inverse relationship between growth and iron supplementation of all isolates tested. Conclusions: Our data verifies that iron depletion by deferiprone caused the observed growth inhibition. Manipulation of iron concentration has the potential to be used to treat ntimicrobial resistant A. baumannii infections.