{
  "id": 5006072,
  "title": "Model-based evaluation of Targeted-Antibacterial-Plasmids (TAPs) transfer kinetics and resensitization of pOXA-48 carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/model-based-evaluation-of-targeted-antibacterial-plasmids-taps",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.01.748484v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The study examines the transfer kinetics and resensitization of pOXA-48 carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli using Targeted-Antibacterial Plasmids (TAPs). Unlike traditional evaluations, this research assesses the efficiency at multiple time points, as the success of TAP-mediated resensitization relies on the dynamics of plasmid transfer and interactions between bacterial subpopulations. The study introduces a model analogous to conventional antibiotics to analyze the role of each process in resensitization: plasmid delivery, dCas9 activity, and the emergence of refractory and escape populations. By fitting the model to 44 longitudinal conjugation experiments over 24 hours, researchers discovered that up to 24% of recipients become refractory to further conjugation within the same timeframe, while transconjugant emergence remains below 0.01%. Overall, resensitization efficiency reaches up to 80%. The results indicate that plasmid transfer, rather than dCas9 repression, is the primary bottleneck limiting the efficiency of TAPF-dCas9-OXA48. This finding highlights plasmid delivery as a critical engineering target for enhancing the performance of future TAPs.",
  "summary": "Background Targeted-Antibacterial Plasmids (TAPs) are engineered mobile genetic elements that use bacterial conjugation to deliver selective CRISPR/Cas9 antibacterial activity against a specific target strain. Yet, the efficiency of TAPs is typically evaluated at a single time point, whereas the success of TAP-mediated resensitization critically depends on the dynamics of plasmid transfer and the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}