Vaccine-enhanced competition permits rational bacterial strain replacement in the gut

Colonization of the intestinal lumen precedes invasive infection for a wide range of enteropathogenic and opportunistic pathogenic bacteria. We show that combining oral vaccination with engineered or selected niche-competitor strains permits pathogen exclusion and strain replacement in the mouse gut lumen. This approach can be applied either prophylactically to prevent invasion of nontyphoidal <i>Salmonella</i> strains, or therapeutically to displace an established <i>Escherichia coli.</i> Both intact adaptive immunity and metabolic niche competition are necessary for efficient vaccine-enhanced competition. Our findings imply that mucosal antibodies have evolved to work in the context of gut microbial ecology by influencing the outcome of competition. This has broad implications for the elimination of pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacterial reservoirs and for rational microbiota engineering.

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Publication Details

Journal
Science
Published
2025-04-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp5011
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Escherichia coli research studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.18
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article

Vaccine-enhanced competition permits rational bacterial strain replacement in the gut

Stefan A. Fattinger, Wolf‐Dietrich Hardt, Claudia Moresi, Aurore Woller et al.
9 citations
Science
Escherichia coli research studies
16.18
article

Vaccine-enhanced competition permits rational bacterial strain replacement in the gut

Stefan A. Fattinger, Wolf‐Dietrich Hardt, Claudia Moresi, Aurore Woller, Emma Slack, Louise Larsson, Andrea Rocker, Selma Aslani, Nicolas Wenner, Claude Loverdo, Verena Lentsch, Médéric Diard, Elisa Cappio Barazzone, Niina Ruoho
article en
9 citations

Abstract

Colonization of the intestinal lumen precedes invasive infection for a wide range of enteropathogenic and opportunistic pathogenic bacteria. We show that combining oral vaccination with engineered or selected niche-competitor strains permits pathogen exclusion and strain replacement in the mouse gut lumen. This approach can be applied either prophylactically to prevent invasion of nontyphoidal <i>Salmonella</i> strains, or therapeutically to displace an established <i>Escherichia coli.</i> Both intact adaptive immunity and metabolic niche competition are necessary for efficient vaccine-enhanced competition. Our findings imply that mucosal antibodies have evolved to work in the context of gut microbial ecology by influencing the outcome of competition. This has broad implications for the elimination of pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacterial reservoirs and for rational microbiota engineering.

ScienceVol. 388(6742)
Uppsala University (SE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE), University of Basel (CH), Science for Life Laboratory (SE), ETH Zurich (CH), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Oxford (GB), Institute for Biomedical Engineering (CH), Laboratoire Jean Perrin (FR), Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine (FR), MRC Human Immunology Unit (GB)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Escherichia coli research studies
16.18
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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