{
  "abstract": "Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) necessitates programmable antibacterial strategies with novel mechanisms. Here, we evaluated an inducible intracellular CRISPR/Cas12a2 system in engineered Escherichia coli targeting a chloramphenicol-resistance (Chl) transcript. Cas12a2 activation significantly delayed bacterial growth and reduced recoverable colony-forming units (CFU) by 3-log10 in vitro, and reduced bacterial burdens in a mouse skin wound model. Transcriptomic profiling revealed upregulation of recA, a key mediator of the SOS response. We therefore designed a Chl-recA dual-targeting construct, which produced a greater growth delay than either single-targeting counterpart. The optimized dual-targeting system led to an approximately 4-log10 reduction in bacterial burden in vivo. Furthermore, exploratory qPCR of culture supernatants suggested a treatment-associated decrease in amplifiable plasmid DNA. Overall, this study provides proof-of-concept for resistance-transcript-guided Cas12a2 antibacterial activity and highlights the potential of co-targeting stress-associated transcripts to enhance programmable antimicrobials.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "China Pharmaceutical University"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Y. Bai"
    },
    {
      "name": "Y. Song"
    },
    {
      "name": "W. Gu"
    },
    {
      "name": "H. Wu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Y. Liu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1wnt9nd5a5djr.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.11.03.763947",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.03.763947v1.full",
  "id": "1wnt9nd5a5djr",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.03.763947v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "bioengineering"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.03.763947v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-03",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1wnt9nd5a5djr.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-05T12:20:42Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.11.03.763947",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.03.763947v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:bioengineering",
      "subfield": "systems-synthetic"
    }
  ],
  "title": "RNA-triggered Cas12a2 antibacterial activity and resistance plasmid degradation",
  "title_text": "RNA-triggered Cas12a2 antibacterial activity and resistance plasmid degradation",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-07T00:20:54Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1wnt9nd5a5djr",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}