scholarly journals Human GBP1 promotes pathogen vacuole rupture and inflammasome activation during Legionella pneumophila infection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia R. Bass ◽  
Sunny Shin

AbstractThe inflammasome is an essential component of host defense against intracellular bacterial pathogens, such as Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of the severe pneumonia Legionnaires’ disease. Inflammasome activation leads to recruitment and activation of caspases, which promote IL-1 family cytokine release and pyroptosis. In mice, interferon (IFN) signaling promotes inflammasome responses against L. pneumophila, in part through the functions of a family of IFN-inducible GTPases known as guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) (1). Within murine macrophages, IFN signaling promotes rupture of the L. pneumophila-containing vacuole (LCV), whereas GBPs are dispensable for vacuole rupture. Instead, GBPs facilitate the lysis of cytosol-exposed L. pneumophila. In contrast to mouse GBPs, the functions of human GBPs in inflammasome responses to L. pneumophila are poorly understood. Here, we show that IFN-γ promotes caspase-1, caspase-4, and caspase-5 inflammasome activation during L. pneumophila infection and upregulates GBP expression in primary human macrophages. We find that human GBP1 is important for maximal IFN-γ-driven inflammasome responses to L. pneumophila. Furthermore, IFN-γ signaling promotes the rupture of LCVs. Intriguingly, in contrast to murine GBPs, human GBP1 targets the LCV in a T4SS-dependent manner and promotes vacuolar lysis, resulting in increased bacterial access to the host cell cytosol. Our findings show a key role for human GBP1 in targeting and disrupting pathogen-containing vacuoles and reveal mechanistic differences in how mouse and human GBPs promote inflammasome responses to L. pneumophila.

2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 5350-5357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Kikuchi ◽  
Sita Andarini ◽  
Hong Xin ◽  
Kazunori Gomi ◽  
Yutaka Tokue ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Legionnaires' disease is clinically manifested as severe pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila. However, the dendritic cell (DC)-centered immunological framework of the host defense against L. pneumophila has not been fully delineated. For this study, we focused on a potent chemoattractant for lymphocytes, fractalkine/CX3CL1, and observed that the fractalkine expression of DCs was somewhat up-regulated when they encountered L. pneumophila. We therefore hypothesized that fractalkine expressed by Legionella-capturing DCs is involved in the induction of T-cell-mediated immune responses against Legionella, which would be enhanced by a genetic modulation of DCs to overexpress fractalkine. In vivo immunization-challenge experiments demonstrated that DCs modified with a recombinant adenovirus vector to overexpress fractalkine (AdFKN) and pulsed with heat-killed Legionella protected immunized mice from a lethal Legionella infection and that the generation of in vivo protective immunity depended on the host lymphocyte subsets, including CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and B cells. Consistent with this, immunization with AdFKN/Legionella/DC induced significantly higher levels of serum anti-Legionella antibodies of several isotypes than those induced by control immunizations. Further analysis of spleen cells from the immunized mice indicated that the AdFKN/Legionella/DC immunization elicited Th1-dominated immune responses to L. pneumophila. These observations suggest that fractalkine may play an important role in the DC-mediated host defense against intracellular pathogens such as L. pneumophila.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary K. Truchan ◽  
Harry D. Christman ◽  
Richard C. White ◽  
Nakisha S. Rutledge ◽  
Nicholas P. Cianciotto

ABSTRACTLegionella pneumophilareplicates in macrophages in a host-derived phagosome, termed theLegionella-containing vacuole (LCV). While the translocation of type IV secretion (T4S) effectors into the macrophage cytosol is well established, the location of type II secretion (T2S) substrates in the infected host cell is unknown. Here, we show that the T2S substrate ProA, a metalloprotease, translocates into the cytosol of human macrophages, where it associates with the LCV membrane (LCVM). Translocation is detected as early as 10 h postinoculation (p.i.), which is approximately the midpoint of the intracellular life cycle. However, it is detected as early as 6 h p.i. if ProA is hyperexpressed, indicating that translocation depends on the timing of ProA expression and that any other factors necessary for translocation are in place by that time point. Translocation occurs with allL. pneumophilastrains tested and in amoebae, natural hosts forL. pneumophila. It was absent in murine bone marrow-derived macrophages and murine macrophage cell lines. The ChiA chitinase also associated with the cytoplasmic face of the LCVM at 6 h p.i. and in a T2S-dependent manner. Galectin-3 and galectin-8, eukaryotic proteins whose localization is influenced by damage to host membranes, appeared within the LCV of infected human but not murine macrophages beginning at 6 h p.i. Thus, we hypothesize that ProA and ChiA are first secreted into the vacuolar lumen by the activity of the T2S and subsequently traffic into the macrophage cytosol via a novel mechanism that involves a semipermeable LCVM.IMPORTANCEInfection of macrophages and amoebae plays a central role in the pathogenesis ofL. pneumophila, the agent of Legionnaires’ disease. We have previously demonstrated that the T2S system ofL. pneumophilagreatly contributes to intracellular infection. However, the location of T2S substrates within the infected host cell is unknown. This report presents the first evidence of aL. pneumophilaT2S substrate in the host cell cytosol and, therefore, the first evidence of a non-T4S effector trafficking out of the LCV. We also provide the first indication that the LCV is not completely intact but is instead semipermeable and that this occurs in human but not murine macrophages. Given this permeability, we hypothesize that other T2S substrates and LCV lumenal contents can escape into the host cell cytosol. Thus, these substrates may represent a battery of previously unidentified effectors that can interact with host factors and contribute to intracellular infection byL. pneumophila.


2015 ◽  
Vol 83 (12) ◽  
pp. 4740-4749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Finethy ◽  
Ine Jorgensen ◽  
Arun K. Haldar ◽  
Marcel R. de Zoete ◽  
Till Strowig ◽  
...  

Interferon (IFN)-inducible guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) mediate cell-autonomous host resistance to bacterial pathogens and promote inflammasome activation. The prevailing model postulates that these two GBP-controlled activities are directly linked through GBP-dependent vacuolar lysis. It was proposed that the rupture of pathogen-containing vacuoles (PVs) by GBPs destroyed the microbial refuge and simultaneously contaminated the host cell cytosol with microbial activators of inflammasomes. Here, we demonstrate that GBP-mediated host resistance and GBP-mediated inflammatory responses can be uncoupled. We show that PVs formed by the rodent pathogenChlamydia muridarum, so-called inclusions, remain free of GBPs and thatC. muridarumis impervious to GBP-mediated restrictions on bacterial growth. Although GBPs neither bind toC. muridaruminclusions nor restrictC. muridarumgrowth, we find that GBPs promote inflammasome activation inC. muridarum-infected macrophages. We demonstrate thatC. muridaruminfections induce GBP-dependent pyroptosis through both caspase-11-dependent noncanonical and caspase-1-dependent canonical inflammasomes. Among canonical inflammasomes, we find thatC. muridarumand the human pathogenChlamydia trachomatisactivate not only NLRP3 but also AIM2. Our data show that GBPs support fast-kinetics processing and secretion of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18 by the NLRP3 inflammasome but are dispensable for the secretion of the same cytokines at later times postinfection. Because IFN-γ fails to induce IL-1β transcription, GBP-dependent fast-kinetics inflammasome activation can drive the preferential processing of constitutively expressed IL-18 in IFN-γ-primed macrophages in the absence of prior Toll-like receptor stimulation. Together, our results reveal that GBPs control the kinetics of inflammasome activation and thereby shape macrophage responses toChlamydiainfections.


2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (10) ◽  
pp. 4021-4033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Dolinsky ◽  
Ina Haneburger ◽  
Adam Cichy ◽  
Mandy Hannemann ◽  
Aymelt Itzen ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTLegionellaspp. cause the severe pneumonia Legionnaires' disease. The environmental bacteria replicate intracellularly in free-living amoebae and human alveolar macrophages within a distinct, endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-derived compartment termed theLegionella-containing vacuole (LCV). LCV formation requires the bacterial Icm/Dot type IV secretion system (T4SS) that translocates into host cells a plethora of different “effector” proteins, some of which anchor to the pathogen vacuole by binding to phosphoinositide (PI) lipids. Here, we identified by unbiased pulldown assays inLegionella longbeachaelysates a 111-kDa SidC homologue as the major phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate [PtdIns(4)P]-binding protein. The PI-binding domain was mapped to a 20-kDa P4C [PtdIns(4)Pbinding of SidC] fragment. Isothermal titration calorimetry revealed that SidC ofL. longbeachae(SidCLlo) binds PtdIns(4)Pwith aKd(dissociation constant) of 71 nM, which is 3 to 4 times lower than that of the SidC orthologue ofLegionella pneumophila(SidCLpn). Upon infection of RAW 264.7 macrophages withL. longbeachae, endogenous SidCLloor ectopically produced SidCLpnlocalized in an Icm/Dot-dependent manner to the PtdIns(4)P-positive LCVs. AnL. longbeachaeΔsidCdeletion mutant was impaired for calnexin recruitment to LCVs inDictyostelium discoideumamoebae and outcompeted by wild-type bacteria inAcanthamoeba castellanii. Calnexin recruitment was restored by SidCLloor its orthologues SidCLpnand SdcALpn. Conversely, calnexin recruitment was restored by SidCLloinL. pneumophilalackingsidCandsdcA. Together, biochemical, genetic, and cell biological data indicate that SidCLlois anL. longbeachaeeffector that binds through a P4C domain with high affinity to PtdIns(4)Pon LCVs, promotes ER recruitment to the LCV, and thus plays a role in pathogen-host interactions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen M. Pike ◽  
Rebecca R. Noll ◽  
M. Ramona Neunuebel

Manipulation of host phosphoinositide lipids has emerged as a key survival strategy utilized by pathogenic bacteria to establish and maintain a replication-permissive compartment within eukaryotic host cells. The human pathogen, Legionella pneumophila, infects and proliferates within the lung’s innate immune cells causing severe pneumonia termed Legionnaires’ disease. This pathogen has evolved strategies to manipulate specific host components to construct its intracellular niche termed the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV). Paramount to LCV biogenesis and maintenance is the spatiotemporal regulation of phosphoinositides, important eukaryotic lipids involved in cell signaling and membrane trafficking. Through a specialized secretion system, L. pneumophila translocates multiple proteins that target phosphoinositides in order to escape endolysosomal degradation. By specifically binding phosphoinositides, these proteins can anchor to the cytosolic surface of the LCV or onto specific host membrane compartments, to ultimately stimulate or inhibit encounters with host organelles. Here, we describe the bacterial proteins involved in binding and/or altering host phosphoinositide dynamics to support intracellular survival of L. pneumophila.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Oliva ◽  
Tobias Sahr ◽  
Monica Rolando ◽  
Maike Knoth ◽  
Carmen Buchrieser

ABSTRACT Legionella pneumophila is an environmental bacterium that parasitizes protozoa, but it may also infect humans, thereby causing a severe pneumonia called Legionnaires’ disease. To cycle between the environment and a eukaryotic host, L. pneumophila is regulating the expression of virulence factors in a life cycle-dependent manner: replicating bacteria do not express virulence factors, whereas transmissive bacteria are highly motile and infective. Here we show that Hfq is an important regulator in this network. Hfq is highly expressed in transmissive bacteria but is expressed at very low levels in replicating bacteria. A L. pneumophila hfq deletion mutant exhibits reduced abilities to infect and multiply in Acanthamoeba castellanii at environmental temperatures. The life cycle-dependent regulation of Hfq expression depends on a unique cis -encoded small RNA named Anti-hfq that is transcribed antisense of the hfq transcript and overlaps its 5′ untranslated region. The Anti-hfq sRNA is highly expressed only in replicating L. pneumophila where it regulates hfq expression through binding to the complementary regions of the hfq transcripts. This results in reduced Hfq protein levels in exponentially growing cells. Both the small noncoding RNA (sRNA) and hfq mRNA are bound and stabilized by the Hfq protein, likely leading to the cleavage of the RNA duplex by the endoribonuclease RNase III. In contrast, after the switch to transmissive bacteria, the sRNA is not expressed, allowing now an efficient expression of the hfq gene and consequently Hfq. Our results place Hfq and its newly identified sRNA anti- hfq in the center of the regulatory network governing L. pneumophila differentiation from nonvirulent to virulent bacteria. IMPORTANCE The abilities of L. pneumophila to replicate intracellularly and to cause disease depend on its capacity to adapt to different extra- and intracellular environmental conditions. Therefore, a timely and fine-tuned expression of virulence factors and adaptation traits is crucial. Yet, the regulatory circuits governing the life cycle of L. pneumophila from replicating to virulent bacteria are only partly uncovered. Here we show that the life cycle-dependent regulation of the RNA chaperone Hfq relies on a small regulatory RNA encoded antisense to the hfq -encoding gene through a base pairing mechanism. Furthermore, Hfq regulates its own expression in an autoregulatory loop. The discovery of this RNA regulatory mechanism in L. pneumophila is an important step forward in the understanding of how the switch from inoffensive, replicating to highly virulent, transmissive L. pneumophila is regulated.


2000 ◽  
Vol 68 (12) ◽  
pp. 6567-6573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan K. Brieland ◽  
Craig Jackson ◽  
Steve Hurst ◽  
David Loebenberg ◽  
Tony Muchamuel ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The in vivo role of endogenous interleukin-18 (IL-18) in modulating gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-mediated resolution of replicativeLegionella pneumophila lung infection was assessed using a murine model of Legionnaires' disease. Intratracheal inoculation of A/J mice with virulent bacteria (106 L. pneumophila organisms per mouse) resulted in induction of IL-18 protein in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and intrapulmonary expression of IL-18 mRNA. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR analysis of infected lung tissue demonstrated that induction of IL-18 in BALF preceded induction of IL-12 and IFN-γ mRNAs in the lung. Blocking intrapulmonary IL-18 activity by administration of a monoclonal antibody (MAb) to the IL-18 receptor (anti-IL-18R MAb) prior toL. pneumophila infection inhibited induction of intrapulmonary IFN-γ production but did not significantly alter resolution of replicative L. pneumophila lung infection. In contrast, blocking endogenous IL-12 activity by administration of anti-IL-12 MAb) alone or in combination with anti-IL-18R MAb inhibited induction of intrapulmonary IFN-γ and resulted in enhanced intrapulmonary growth of the bacteria within 5 days postinfection. Taken together, these results demonstrate that IL-18 plays a key role in modulating induction of IFN-γ in the lung in response to L. pneumophila and that together with IL-12, IL-18 regulates intrapulmonary growth of the bacteria.


2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (12) ◽  
pp. 1010-1014
Author(s):  
Ilija Andrijevic ◽  
Jovan Matijasevic ◽  
Djordje Povazan ◽  
Marija Kojicic ◽  
Uros Batranovic

Background. Legionnaires' disease (LD) is a pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila (LP). The disease occurs more often in immunocompromised persons and can be manifested by severe pneumonia, multiple organ failure and has a high mortality. Case report. Immunocompetent patient, male, 53- year old, with severe form of LB had fever, cough, weakness and diarrhea as the initial symptoms of the disease. Laboratory results showed increased number of leukocytes, increased values of acute phase proteins, liver enzymes and hyponatremia. Computed tomography of the chest showed the marked inflammatory lesions on both sides. Pathohystological analysis of the samples retrieved by bronchoscopy pointed to a pneumonia, and diagnosis of LD was confirmed by positive urine test for LP antigen. Later, the disease was complicated by acute adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Treatment with antibiotics (erythromycin, rifampicin, azithromycin) combined with ARDS treatment led to a clinical recovery of the patient together with complete resolution of inflammatory lesions seen on chest radiography. Conclusion. In severe pneumonias it is necessary to consider LD in differential diagnosis, perform tests with aim of detecting LP and apply adequate antibiotic treatment in order to accomplish positive outcome of the therapy and prevent complications.


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