The effect of iron on the invasiveness of Escherichia coli carrying the inv gene of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

Iron Acquisition Systems of Gram-negative Bacterial Pathogens Define TonB-Dependent Pathways to Novel Antibiotics

Iron is an indispensable metabolic cofactor in both pro- and eukaryotes, which engenders a natural competition for the metal between bacterial pathogens and their human or animal hosts. Bacteria secrete siderophores that extract Fe3+ from tissues, fluids, cells, and proteins; the ligand gated porins of the Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane actively acquire the resulting ferric siderophores, as well as other iron-containing molecules like heme. Conversely, eukaryotic hosts combat bacterial iron scavenging by sequestering Fe3+ in binding proteins and ferritin. The variety of iron uptake systems in Gram-negative bacterial pathogens illustrates a range of chemical and biochemical mechanisms that facilitate microbial pathogenesis. This document attempts to summarize and understand these processes, to guide discovery of immunological or chemical interventions that may thwart infectious disease.

Inhibiting avian influenza virus shedding using a novel RNAi antiviral vector technology: proof of concept in an avian cell model

Influenza A viruses pose significant health and economic threats to humans and animals. Outbreaks of avian influenza virus (AIV) are a liability to the poultry industry and increase the risk for transmission to humans. There are limitations to using the AIV vaccine in poultry, creating barriers to controlling outbreaks and a need for alternative effective control measures. Application of RNA interference (RNAi) techniques hold potential; however, the delivery of RNAi-mediating agents is a well-known obstacle to harnessing its clinical application. We introduce a novel antiviral approach using bacterial vectors that target avian mucosal epithelial cells and deliver (small interfering RNA) siRNAs against two AIV genes, nucleoprotein (NP) and polymerase acidic protein (PA). Using a red fluorescent reporter, we first demonstrated vector delivery and intracellular expression in avian epithelial cells. Subsequently, we demonstrated significant reductions in AIV shedding when applying these anti-AIV vectors prophylactically. These antiviral vectors provided up to a 10,000-fold reduction in viral titers shed, demonstrating in vitro proof-of-concept for using these novel anti-AIV vectors to inhibit AIV shedding. Our results indicate this siRNA vector technology could represent a scalable and clinically applicable antiviral technology for avian and human influenza and a prototype for RNAi-based vectors against other viruses.

Antibiotics involved in Clostridium difficile-associated disease increase colonization factor gene expression

Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Antibiotics are presumed to disturb the normal intestinal microbiota, leading to depletion of the barrier effect and colonization by pathogenic bacteria. This first step of infection includes adherence to epithelial cells. We investigated the impact of various environmental conditions in vitro on the expression of genes encoding known, or putative, colonization factors: three adhesins, P47 (one of the two S-layer proteins), Cwp66 and Fbp68, and a protease, Cwp84. The conditions studied included hyperosmolarity, iron depletion and exposure to several antibiotics (ampicillin, clindamycin, ofloxacin, moxifloxacin and kanamycin). The analysis was performed on three toxigenic and three non-toxigenic C. difficile isolates using real-time PCR. To complete this work, the impact of ampicillin and clindamycin on the adherence of C. difficile to Caco-2/TC7 cells was analysed. Overall, for the six strains of C. difficile studied, exposure to subinhibitory concentrations (1/2 MIC) of clindamycin and ampicillin led to the increased expression of genes encoding colonization factors. This was correlated with the increased adherence of C. difficile to cultured cells under the same conditions. The levels of gene regulation observed among the six strains studied were highly variable, cwp84 being the most upregulated. In contrast, the expression of these genes was weakly, or not significantly, modified in the presence of ofloxacin, moxifloxacin or kanamycin. These results suggest that, in addition to the disruption of the normal intestinal microbiota and its barrier effect, the high propensity of antibiotics such as ampicillin and clindamycin to induce C. difficile infection could also be explained by their direct role in enhancing colonization by C. difficile.

Glycosides derived from Hemidesmus indicus R. Br. root inhibit adherence of Salmonella typhimurium to host cells: receptor mimicry

For centuries, indigenous plants have been used against enteritis but their molecular targets and mode of action remain obscure. The present study was carried out to elucidate the protective and therapeutic role, if any, of glycosides from Hemidesmus indicus against S. typhimurium-induced pathogenesis. Studies were carried out in a human intestinal cell line (Int 407) and a murine macrophage cell line (P388D1) in order to evaluate its potency in local as well as systemic infections. The inhibitory role of the glycosides present in Hemidesmus indicus root extract (GHI) were tested by pre-coating the cells (both Int 407 and P388D1) with GHI prior to infection, and by neutralizing the wild-type bacteria with GHI before cell infection. In both cases, GHI protected the host cells from the cytotoxic effects of the wild S. typhimurium. This suggests that the biologically significant sugars (hexose, hexosamine, fucose and sialic acid etc) present in GHI might be mimicking host cell receptor saccharides and thereby blocking the bacterial ligands from binding to the host cells. Int 407 cells infected with wild-type bacteria had a diffused adherence pattern after 4 h incubation, but this typical character was not observed in cells infected with GHI-treated bacteria and the cells were normal in appearance at 4 h. After 18 h cells infected with wild-type bacteria were hypertrophoid with a disintegrated membrane and wrapped in a bacterial coat, whereas cells infected with treated bacteria had comparatively less morphological changes and few defective shrunken rods adhered locally. This suggests that the glycosides can change the adherence pattern of S. typhimurium from diffused to local. Treated bacteria had less adherence and invasion capability in Int 407 as well as P388D1 cells. The results show the decreased ability of adherence of GHI-treated S. typhimurium was due to a loss of surface hydrophobicity. A nonspecific binding between S. typhimurium and the glycosides was confirmed using ELISA. In summary, the glycosides of H. indicus root inhibited S. typhimurium induced pathogenesis nonspecifically, by reducing bacterial surface hydrophobicity and perhaps also by mimicking host cell receptors, thereby blocking its attachment to host cell and further pathological effects.

Inv-mediated apoptosis of epithelial cells infected with enteropathogenic Yersinia: A protective effect of lactoferrin

Yersinia spp., Gram-negative bacteria infecting animals and humans, contain plasmid and chromosomal genes coding for different virulence factors, of which outer membrane proteins are the most important. Among these, the inv gene product allows bacterial adherence and penetration of cells exposed at the intestinal lumen surface, and subsequent colonization of lymph nodes. In this research, we have studied the effects of bovine lactoferrin (bLf) on Y. enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis Inv-mediated interactions with epithelial cells. In particular, we analyzed bLf activity toward adhesion, invasion, and cell death induction by Yersinia spp. and the Escherichia coli HB101 (pRI203) strain (expressing the cloned Yersinia inv gene). Results showed that bLf was ineffective in bacterial adhesivity and invasivity whereas it inhibited apoptosis with a dose-dependent relationship. As epithelial cell apoptosis helps enteropathogenic Yersinia to attack the host and to gain access to the tissue, our results demonstrate a new potential antimicrobial application for bLf.

Clostridium difficile cell attachment is modified by environmental factors

Adherence of Clostridium difficile to Vero cells under anaerobic conditions was increased by a high sodium concentration, calcium-rich medium, an acidic pH, and iron starvation. The level of adhesion of nontoxigenic strains was comparable to that of toxigenic strains. Depending on the bacterial culture conditions, Vero cells could bind to one, two, or three bacterial surface proteins with molecular masses of 70, 50, and 40 kDa.

Iron availability affects entry of Listeria monocytogenes into the enterocytelike cell line Caco-2

The influence of iron on the entry of Listeria monocytogenes into Caco-2 cells was studied. Iron availability was found to modify the surface hydrophobicity and protein profile of L. monocytogenes, with the result that cell invasion strongly increased upon bacterial growth in iron-rich medium. The enhanced invasive capability of iron-overloaded L. monocytogenes cells correlates to the higher-level expression of the inlAB virulence genes, which were positively iron regulated at the transcriptional level.