Identification of new P. aeruginosa antigens and characterization of the CdrA adhesin involved in biofilm formation.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen of animals and humans causing medical complications in burns, wounds, and cystic fibrosis. P. aeruginosa is efficient at adapting its virulence phenotype depending on the site of infection. It is because of its relatively large genome and flexible metabolic capabilities that this organism is able to exploit different environmental conditions in which to grow and to evade normal immune defenses. P. aeruginosa is one of the most common hospital pathogens and is the second most common pathogen detected in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) [16]. The main reasons for the high incidence of this bacterium in healthcare institutions include the poor health status of patients, the high rate of spread of often multiresistant strains in hospital wards, and the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Emerging multi-drug resistant strains, also due to the biofilm that confers resistances, and the limited number of effective anti-pseudomonal antibiotics make P. aeruginosa infections extremely difficult to treat. To address this need, this work considers the production and the biochemical and functional characterization of the CdrA protein, which is considered to be one of the most important protein involved in the biofilm stabilization, and the identification of new antigens involved in P. aeruginosa infections, in order to use them as vaccine candidates and therapeutic targets.