Identification and treatment of the Staphylococcus aureus reservoir in vivo

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia is reaching epidemic proportions causing morbidity, mortality, and chronic disease due to relapses, suggesting an intracellular reservoir. Using spinning-disk confocal intravital microscopy to track MRSA-GFP in vivo, we identified that within minutes after intravenous infection MRSA is primarily sequestered and killed by intravascular Kupffer cells (KCs) in the liver. However, a minority of the Staphylococci overcome the KC’s antimicrobial defenses. These bacteria survive and proliferate for many days within this intracellular niche, where they remain undetected by recruited neutrophils. Over time, the KCs lyse, releasing bacteria into the circulation, enabling dissemination to other organs such as the kidneys. Vancomycin, the antibiotic of choice to treat MRSA bacteremia, could not penetrate the KCs to eradicate intracellular MRSA. However, based on the intravascular location of these specific macrophages, we designed a liposomal formulation of vancomycin that is efficiently taken up by KCs and diminished the intracellular MRSA. Targeting the source of the reservoir dramatically protected the liver but also dissemination to other organs, and prevented mortality. This vancomycin formulation strategy could help treat patients with Staphylococcal bacteremia without a need for novel antibiotics by targeting the previously inaccessible intracellular reservoir in KCs.