Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen responsible for serious nosocomial infections, particularly pneumonia. Its clinical relevance lies in its remarkable ability to acquire resistance to multiple antibiotics, making its eradication difficult. Understanding the early interactions between this pathogen and the human airway epithelium is essential for the development of new therapeutic strategies. In this study, the researchers employed for the first time an ex vivo air–liquid interface (ALI) model of differentiated human bronchial epithelial cells to investigate how the human respiratory epithelia respond to A. baumannii initial colonization steps by performing histological, immunofluorescence, and transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses. This work highlights why A. baumannii is such a dangerous adversary: it is not only a drug-resistant bacterium, but it rapidly weakens the host’s natural defenses. The ALI model is a powerful tool for studying respiratory infections and for identifying host targets for therapies against multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains.
Suggested by Dr. Marta De Angelis