Capsular polysaccharide can sensitize bacteria to non-antibiotic drugs

Abstract

Medications administered over long durations, such as phenothiazine antipsychotics, accumulate in the gut at concentrations that affect microbial growth. However, the bacterial features influencing sensitivity to these non-antibiotics remain poorly understood. Bacterial capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) typically confer protection against environmental stressors, including chemical, viral, and immunological pressures within the gut. But their roles under non-antibiotic drug pressure are unknown. Here, we show that the K5 CPS of Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) sensitizes it to thioridazine (TDZ) and related antipsychotics. Among a panel of E. coli strains grown in minimal medium, EcN exhibited the highest sensitivity to TDZ. Experimentally evolving EcN under gut-relevant TDZ concentrations selected for resistant populations with convergent variants affecting the CPS locus, and TDZ-resistant clones correspondingly had lower CPS expression than their drug-susceptible counterparts. Genetic, transcriptomic, and phenotypic analyses confirmed that the K5 CPS enhances, rather than mitigates, TDZ sensitivity. These findings demonstrate that canonically protective surface structures can become vulnerabilities under non-antibiotic pharmaceutical pressure. Human medications may therefore inadvertently shape the expression and evolution of bacterial surface structures in the gastrointestinal tract, challenging presumptions of CPS-mediated environmental protection.