Silencing resistance genes of pathogenic bacteria by RNA interference (RNAi) is a potential strategy to fight antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Currently, RNAi cannot be achieved in bacteria due to the lack of RNA-induced silencing complex machinery and the difficulty of small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery. Here, we show that exosomal siRNAs can be efficiently delivered into bacterial cells and can silence target genes primarily through translational repression without mRNA degradation. The exosomal Argonaute 2 (AGO2) protein forms a complex with siRNAs, which is essential for bacterial gene silencing. Both in vitro and in vivo-generated exosome-packaged siRNAs resensitize methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to methicillin treatment by silencing the mecA gene, which is the primary beta-lactam resistance determinant of MRSA. This approach significantly enhances the therapeutic effect in a mouse model of MRSA infection. In summary, our study provides a method for siRNA delivery to bacteria that may facilitate the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection.
Keywords: AGO; MRSA; RNA delivery; antibiotic resistance; exosome; gene silencing; in vivo self-assembled siRNA; small RNA; translational repression.
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