Acinetobacter baumannii: Human infections, factors contributing to pathogenesis and animal models

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as a medically important pathogen because of the increasing number of infections produced by this organism over the preceding three decades and the global spread of strains with resistance to multiple antibiotic classes. In spite of its clinical relevance, until recently, there have been few studies addressing the factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of this organism. The availability of complete genome sequences, molecular tools for manipulating the bacterial genome, and animal models of infection have begun to facilitate the identification of factors that play a role in A. baumannii persistence and infection. This review summarizes the characteristics of A. baumannii that contribute to its pathogenesis, with a focus on motility, adherence, biofilm formation, and iron acquisition. In addition, the virulence factors that have been identified to date, which include the outer membrane protein OmpA, phospholipases, membrane polysaccharide components, penicillin-binding proteins, and outer membrane vesicles, are discussed. Animal models systems that have been developed during the last 15 years for the study of A. baumannii infection are overviewed, and the recent use of these models to identify factors involved in virulence and pathogenesis is highlighted. © 2012 Federation of European Microbiological Societies.This work was funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III – co-financed by European's Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’ ERDF, Spanish Network for the Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD06/0008/0000). M.J.M. is supported by the Subprograma Miguel Servet from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain. U.S. Public Health AI070174 and NSF 0420479 grants (awarded to L.A.A.) and Miami University funds supported the work reported in this review.Peer Reviewe