Extracellular bacterial metabolites have potential as markers of bacterial growth and resistance emergence but have not been evaluated in dynamic in vitro studies. We investigated the dynamic metabolomic footprint of a multidrug-resistant hypermutable Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolate exposed to ceftolozane/tazobactam as continuous infusion (4.5 g/day, 9 g/day) in a hollow-fiber infection model over 7-9 days in biological replicates (n = 5). Bacterial samples were collected at 0, 7, 23, 47, 71, 95, 143, 167, 191, and 215 h, the supernatant quenched, and extracellular metabolites extracted. Metabolites were analyzed via untargeted metabolomics, including hierarchical clustering and correlation with quantified total and resistant bacterial populations. The time-courses of five (of 1,921 detected) metabolites from enriched pathways were mathematically modeled. Absorbed L-arginine and secreted L-ornithine were highly correlated with the total bacterial population (r -0.79 and 0.82, respectively, P<0.0001). Ribose-5-phosphate, sedoheptulose-7-phosphate, and trehalose-6-phosphate correlated with the resistant subpopulation (0.64, 0.64, and 0.67, respectively, P<0.0001) and were likely secreted due to resistant growth overcoming oxidative and osmotic stress induced by ceftolozane/tazobactam. Using pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic-based transduction models, these metabolites were successfully modeled based on the total or resistant bacterial populations. The models well described the abundance of each metabolite across the differing time-course profiles of biological replicates, based on bacterial killing and, importantly, resistant regrowth. These proof-of-concept studies suggest that further exploration is warranted to determine the generalizability of these findings. The metabolites modeled here are not exclusive to bacteria. Future studies may use this approach to identify bacteria-specific metabolites correlating with resistance, which would ultimately be extremely useful for clinical translation.
Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa; antibiotic resistance; dynamic in vitro model; mathematical modeling; metabolomics.