Abstract #0921

In Vivo Metabolic Analysis of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Live Bacteria Using High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning NMR Spectroscopy

Valeria Righi^1,2, Caterina Constantinou³, Meenu Kesarwani³, Laurence G. Rahme³, A Aria Tzika^1,2

¹NMR Surgical Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; ²Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, United States; ³Molecular Surgery Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

We tested the feasibility of H1 High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning (HRMAS) NMR in determining metabolic profiles of live bacteria. We used Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a human opportunistic pathogen responsible for chronic and acute infections, and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis patients. We found that HRMAS is powerful technique for monitoring the metabolic fingerprint of in vivo models, including live bacterial cells. This technique may prove to be a helpful tool in gene function validation, the study of pathogenesis mechanisms and the testing of anti-bacterial agents.