Chick heterophils release DNA extracellular traps (DETs) in vitro and in vivo upon Aspergillus fumigatus conidia exposure.

Aspergillosis is a common fungal disease in avian species, causing high mortality in young chicks in agricultural farms and yards. It is caused by fungi belonging to the genus Aspergillus. Aspergillosis occurs by inhalation of fungal conidia, and in chickens, effective infection control relies on a rapid and large influx of heterophils to the lungs. Heterophils, upon different stimuli, release to the extracellular milieu their chromatin associated with several proteins that ensnare and kill different pathogens similarly to neutrophil extracellular traps. Here, we showed that Aspergillus fumigatus conidia and the peptidogalactomannan (PGM), isolated from the fungus cell wall, induce the release of DNA extracellular traps (DETs) in chicks' blood and lung heterophils. We demonstrated that reactive oxygen species, elastase and peptidyl arginine deiminase (PAD) were involved in DETs extrusion, the occurrence of DETs in the lungs of A. fumigatus-exposed chicks in vivo, and its role in chick survival. These results may contribute to developing more efficient tools for the therapeutic and diagnosis of aspergillosis.

Performance assessment of a new indirect rapid diagnostic test for plague detection in humans and other mammalian hosts.

Plague is a flea-borne zoonosis that affects a wide range of mammals and still causes outbreaks in human populations yearly across several countries. While crucial for proper treatment, early diagnosis is still a major challenge in low- and middle-income countries due to poor access to laboratory infrastructure in rural areas. To tackle this issue, we developed and evaluated a new Fraction 1 capsular antigen (F1)-based rapid diagnostic test (RDT) as an alternative method for plague serological diagnosis and surveillance in humans and other mammals. In this study, 187 serum samples from humans, dogs, rodents and rabbits were retrospectively assessed using the plague RDT method. To calculate its performance, results were compared to those obtained by traditional hemagglutination (HA) and ELISA, which are well-established methods in the plague routine serodiagnosis. Remarkably, the results from RDT were in full agreement with those from the ELISA and HA assays, resulting in 100% (CI 95% = 95.5-100%) of sensitivity and 100% (CI 95% = 96.6-100%) of specificity. Accordingly, the Cohen's Kappa test coefficient was 1.0 (almost perfect agreement). Moreover, the RDT showed no cross-reaction when tested with sera from individuals positive to other pathogens, such as Y. pseudotuberculosis, Yersinia enterocolitica, Anaplasma platys, Ehrlichia canis and Leishmania infantum. Although preliminary, this study brings consistent proof-of-concept results with high performance of the Plague RDT when compared to HA and ELISA. Although further human and animal population-based studies will be necessary to validate these findings, the data presented here show that the plague RDT is highly sensitive and specific, polyvalent to several mammal species and simple to use in field surveillance or point-of-care situations with instant results.

DH82 Canine and RAW264.7 Murine Macrophage Cell Lines Display Distinct Activation Profiles Upon Interaction With Leishmania infantum and Leishmania amazonensis.

Leishmaniasis is an anthropozoonotic disease, and dogs are considered the main urban reservoir of the parasite. Macrophages, the target cells of Leishmania sp., play an important role during infection. Although dogs have a major importance in the epidemiology of the disease, the majority of the current knowledge about Leishmania-macrophage interaction comes from murine experimental models. To assess whether the canine macrophage strain DH82 is an accurate model for the study of Leishmania interaction, we compared its infection by two species of Leishmania (Leishmania infantum and L. amazonensis) with the murine macrophage cell line (RAW264.7). Our results demonstrated that L. amazonensis survival was around 40% at 24 h of infection inside both macrophage cell lines; however, a reduction of 4.3 times in L. amazonensis infection at 48 h post-infection in RAW 264.7 macrophages was observed. The survival index of L. infantum in DH82 canine macrophages was around 3 times higher than that in RAW264.7 murine cells at 24 and 48 h post-infection; however, at 48 h a reduction in both macrophages was observed. Surprisingly at 24 h post-infection, NO and ROS production by DH82 canine cells stimulated with LPS or menadione or during Leishmania infection was minor compared to murine RAW264.7. However, basal arginase activity was higher in DH82 cells when compared to murine RAW264.7 cells. Analysis of the cytokines showed that these macrophages present a different response profile. L. infantum induced IL-12, and L. amazonensis induced IL-10 in both cell lines. However, L. infantum and L. amazonensis also induced TGF-ß in RAW 264.7. CD86 and MHC expression showed that L. amazonensis modulated them in both cell lines. Conversely, the parasite load profile did not show significant difference between both macrophage cell lines after 48 h of infection, which suggests that other mechanisms of Leishmania control could be involved in DH82 cells.

Neutrophil extracellular traps contribute to the pathogenesis of leprosy type 2 reactions.

Up to 50% of patients with the multibacillary form of leprosy are expected to develop acute systemic inflammatory episodes known as type 2 reactions (T2R), thus aggravating their clinical status. Thalidomide rapidly improves T2R symptoms. But, due to its restricted use worldwide, novel alternative therapies are urgently needed. The T2R triggering mechanisms and immune-inflammatory pathways involved in its pathology remain ill defined. In a recent report, we defined the recognition of nucleic acids by TLR9 as a major innate immunity pathway that is activated during T2R. DNA recognition has been described as a major inflammatory pathway in several autoimmune diseases, and neutrophil DNA extracellular traps (NETs) have been shown to be a prime source of endogenous DNA. Considering that neutrophil abundance is a marked characteristic of T2R lesions, the objective of this study was to investigate NETs production in T2R patients based on the hypothesis that the excessive NETs formation would play a major role in T2R pathogenesis. Abundant NETs were found in T2R skin lesions, and increased spontaneous NETs formation was observed in T2R peripheral neutrophils. Both the M. leprae whole-cell sonicate and the CpG-Hlp complex, mimicking a mycobacterial TLR9 ligand, were able to induce NETs production in vitro. Moreover, TLR9 expression was shown to be higher in T2R neutrophils, suggesting that DNA recognition via TLR9 may be one of the pathways triggering this process during T2R. Finally, treatment of T2R patients with thalidomide for 7 consecutive days resulted in a decrease in all of the evaluated in vivo and ex vivo NETosis parameters. Altogether, our findings shed light on the pathogenesis of T2R, which, it is hoped, will contribute to the emergence of novel alternative therapies and the identification of prognostic reactional markers in the near future.

Neutrophil properties in healthy and Leishmania infantum-naturally infected dogs.

Visceral leishmaniasis is a chronic disease that affects humans and dogs as well. Dogs, the domestic reservoir of Leishmania, play a central role in the transmission of visceral leishmaniasis, the most severe form of this disease. Neutrophils are the most abundant leukocytes in blood and interact with the parasite after infection. Here, we evaluate the effector properties of neutrophils from healthy and naturally Leishmania infantum-infected dogs. Our results showed that the parasite induced neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) release from neutrophils in both groups. Additionally, phagocytosis and NETs contributed differently to parasite killing by neutrophils from healthy and infected animals, and IFN-γ, IL-8, IL-4 and TNF-α production by neutrophils from both groups were differentially modulated by the parasite. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the complex role played by neutrophils in canine visceral leishmaniasis, which may favor the development of more effective therapies.