Screening under infection-relevant conditions reveals chemical sensitivity in multidrug resistant invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS)

Bloodstream infections caused by invasive, non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) are a major global health concern, particularly in Africa where the pathogenic variant of Salmonella Typhimurium sequence type (ST) 313 is dominant. Unlike S. Typhimurium strains that cause gastroenteritis, iNTS strains cause bloodstream infections and are resistant to multiple first-line antibiotics, thus limiting current treatment options. Here, we developed and implemented multiple small molecule screens under physiological, infection-relevant conditions to reveal chemical sensitivities in ST313 and to identify host-directed therapeutics as entry points to drug discovery to combat the clinical burden of iNTS. Screening ST313 iNTS under host-mimicking growth conditions identified 92 compounds with antimicrobial activity despite inherent multidrug resistance. We characterized the antimicrobial activity of the nucleoside analog 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine as an exemplary compound from this screen, which depended on bacterial thymidine kinase activity for antimicrobial activity. In a companion macrophage-based screening platform designed to enrich for host-directed therapeutics, we identified three compounds (amodiaquine, berbamine, and indatraline) as actives that required the presence of host cells for antibacterial activity. These three compounds had antimicrobial activity only in the presence of host cells that significantly inhibited intracellular ST313 iNTS replication in macrophages. This work provides evidence that despite high invasiveness and multidrug resistance, ST313 iNTS remains susceptible to unconventional drug discovery approaches.