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Exploiting the immunosuppressive, analgesic and highly addictive properties of morphine could increase the success of a bacterial pathogen. Therefore, we performed sequence similarity searches for two morphine biosynthesis demethylases in bacteria. For thebaine 6-O-demethylase and codeine O-demethylase, we found strong alignments to three ( Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii ) of the six ESKAPE pathogens ( Enterococcus faecalis , Staphylococcus aureus , K. pneumoniae , A. baumannii , P. aeruginosa and Enterobacter species) that are commonly associated with drug resistance and nosocomial infections. Expression of the aligned sequence found in P. aeruginosa (NP_252880.1/PA4191) is upregulated in isolates obtained from cystic fibrosis patients. Our findings provide putative mechanistic targets for understanding the role of morphine in pathogenicity.
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