Patients with Sézary syndrome (SS), a leukemic variant of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL), are prone to Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections and have a poor prognosis due to treatment-resistance. Here, we report that S. aureus and staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) induce drug resistance in malignant T-cells against therapeutics commonly used in CTCL. Supernatant from patient-derived, SE-producing S. aureus and recombinant SE significantly inhibit cell death induced by HDAC …