Fight against pathogenic and multi-resistant bacteria is a major challenge for human and animal health. The gastrointestinal tract is a reservoir for opportunistic pathogens or pathobionts, which benefit from the imbalance or dysbiosis of the microbiota to invade and infect susceptible hosts.
Enterococci, especially Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, rank among the top five causes of opportunistic infections in humans. They are present at a sub-dominant level in the gastrointestinal microbiota of healthy humans. Thanks to their intrinsic resistance to different classes of antibiotics and their ability to acquire new ones, enterococci proliferate in the intestinal tract of immunocompromised patients treated with antibiotics, and cause nosocomial infections. Enterococcus cecorum is a commensal of avian species that has emerged as a major cause of lameness in poultry, causing significant economic lost and frequent antibiotic treatments.
Our research focuses on the identification and characterisation of bacterial, host and environmental determinants involved in the transition from enterococcal commensalism to pathogenesis. All of our studies are based on collaborative projects with academic or private partners. They focus on two research lines.
CPE goal is to understand the molecular, cellular and physiologic mechanisms that allow enterococci to become pathogenic, using E. faecalis and E. cecorum as main model organisms.
Our work aims to generate knowledge to develop new prevention, therapeutic and diagnostic strategies against multi-resistant pathogens, to ultimately limit the use of antibiotics in human and animal health.
Our current projects involve :
E. faecalis is one of the rare bacteria whose intestinal overgrowth is associated with liver damage upon excessive alcohol consumption. We have recently shown that E. faecalis replicates in hepatocytes. We are studying the mechanisms of infection of hepatocytes by E. faecalis and its pathophysiological consequences. We are also investigating how the rhamnopolysaccharide EPA allows E. faecalis to escape from phagocytosis.
All the team publications are available in the CPE-MICALIS HAL collection.
