CXCL9 contributes to antimicrobial protection of the gut during citrobacter rodentium infection independent of chemokine-receptor signaling.

Chemokines have been shown to be effective bactericidal molecules against a variety of bacteria and fungi in vitro. These direct antimicrobial effects are independent of their chemotactic activities involving immunological receptors. However, the direct biological role that these proteins may play in host defense, particularly against intestinal pathogens, is poorly understood. Here, we show that CXCL9, an ELR- chemokine, exhibits direct antimicrobial activity against Citrobacter rodentium, an attaching/effacing pathogen that infects the gut mucosa. Inhibition of this antimicrobial activity in vivo using anti-CXCL9 antibodies increases host susceptibility to C. rodentium infection with pronounced bacterial penetration into crypts, increased bacterial load, and worsened tissue pathology. Using Rag1(-/-) mice and CXCR3(-/-) mice, we demonstrate that the role for CXCL9 in protecting the gut mucosa is independent of an adaptive response or its immunological receptor, CXCR3. Finally, we provide evidence that phagocytes function in tandem with NK cells for robust CXCL9 responses to C. rodentium. These findings identify a novel role for the immune cell-derived CXCL9 chemokine in directing a protective antimicrobial response in the intestinal mucosa.

Identification of the docking site between a type III secretion system ATPase and a chaperone for effector cargo.

A number of Gram-negative pathogens utilize type III secretion systems (T3SSs) to inject bacterial effector proteins into the host. An important component of T3SSs is a conserved ATPase that captures chaperone-effector complexes and energizes their dissociation to facilitate effector translocation. To date, there has been limited work characterizing the chaperone-T3SS ATPase interaction despite it being a fundamental aspect of T3SS function. In this study, we present the 2.1 Å resolution crystal structure of the Salmonella enterica SPI-2-encoded ATPase, SsaN. Our structure revealed a local and functionally important novel feature in helix 10 that we used to define the interaction domain relevant to chaperone binding. We modeled the interaction between the multicargo chaperone, SrcA, and SsaN and validated this model using mutagenesis to identify the residues on both the chaperone and ATPase that mediate the interaction. Finally, we quantified the benefit of this molecular interaction on bacterial fitness in vivo using chromosomal exchange of wild-type ssaN with mutants that retain ATPase activity but no longer capture the chaperone. Our findings provide insight into chaperone recognition by T3SS ATPases and demonstrate the importance of the chaperone-T3SS ATPase interaction for the pathogenesis of Salmonella.

Characterization of DalS, an ATP-binding cassette transporter for D-alanine, and its role in pathogenesis in Salmonella enterica.

Expansion into new host niches requires bacterial pathogens to adapt to changes in nutrient availability and to evade an arsenal of host defenses. Horizontal acquisition of Salmonella Pathogenicity Island (SPI)-2 permitted the expansion of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium into the intracellular environment of host cells by allowing it to deliver bacterial effector proteins across the phagosome membrane. This is facilitated by the SsrA-SsrB two-component regulatory system and a type III secretion system encoded within SPI-2. SPI-2 acquisition was followed by evolution of existing regulatory DNA, creating an expanded SsrB regulon involved in intracellular fitness and host infection. Here, we identified an SsrB-regulated operon comprising an ABC transporter in Salmonella. Biochemical and structural studies determined that the periplasmic solute-binding component, STM1633/DalS, transports D-alanine and that DalS is required for intracellular survival of the bacteria and for fitness in an animal host. This work exemplifies the role of nutrient exchange at the host-pathogen interface as a critical determinant of disease outcome.

Mapping and regulation of genes within Salmonella pathogenicity island 12 that contribute to in vivo fitness of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium.

Salmonella pathogenicity island 12 (SPI-12) of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a 15-kb region that encompasses genes STM2230 to STM2245 and encodes a remnant phage known to contribute to bacterial virulence. In mouse infection experiments and replication assays in macrophages, we demonstrated a role for four genes in SPI-12 for bacterial survival in the host. STM2239, a potential Q antiterminator, showed a prominent contribution to bacterial fitness. Transcriptional reporter experiments, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), and immunoblotting demonstrated that the virulence regulator SsrB and STM2239 contribute to transcriptional activation of genes in SPI-12. SsrB was found to indirectly regulate this locus by transcriptional read-through from the sspH2 (STM2241) promoter. Chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that STM2239 copurified with the promoter regulating STM2237, suggesting that STM2239 may function as an antiterminator to activate adjacent genes. These results demonstrate that bacteriophage genes may be adapted by pathogenic bacteria to improve fitness in the host.

Muramyl Dipeptide-Based Postbiotics Mitigate Obesity-Induced Insulin Resistance via IRF4.

Intestinal dysbiosis contributes to obesity and insulin resistance, but intervening with antibiotics, prebiotics, or probiotics can be limited by specificity or sustained changes in microbial composition. Postbiotics include bacterial components such as lipopolysaccharides, which have been shown to promote insulin resistance during metabolic endotoxemia. We found that bacterial cell wall-derived muramyl dipeptide (MDP) is an insulin-sensitizing postbiotic that requires NOD2. Injecting MDP lowered adipose inflammation and reduced glucose intolerance in obese mice without causing weight loss or altering the composition of the microbiome. MDP reduced hepatic insulin resistance during obesity and low-level endotoxemia. NOD1-activating muropeptides worsened glucose tolerance. IRF4 distinguished opposing glycemic responses to different types of peptidoglycan and was required for MDP/NOD2-induced insulin sensitization and lower metabolic tissue inflammation during obesity and endotoxemia. IRF4 was dispensable for exacerbated glucose intolerance via NOD1. Mifamurtide, an MDP-based drug with orphan drug status, was an insulin sensitizer at clinically relevant doses in obese mice.

Salmonella evades D-amino acid oxidase to promote infection in neutrophils.

UNLABELLED: Neutrophils engulf and kill bacteria using oxidative and nonoxidative mechanisms. Despite robust antimicrobial activity, neutrophils are impaired in directing Salmonella clearance and harbor viable intracellular bacteria during early stages of infection that can subsequently escape to more-permissive cell types. The mechanisms accounting for this immune impairment are not understood. We report that Salmonella limits exposure to oxidative damage elicited by D-amino acid oxidase (DAO) in neutrophils by expressing an ABC importer specific for D-alanine, a DAO substrate found in peptidoglycan stem peptides. A Salmonella dalS mutant defective for D-alanine import was more susceptible to killing by DAO through exposure to greater oxidative stress during infection. This fitness defect was reversed by selective depletion of neutrophils or by inhibition of DAO in vivo with a small-molecule inhibitor. DalS-mediated subversion of neutrophil DAO is a novel host-pathogen interaction that enhances Salmonella survival during systemic infection. IMPORTANCE: Neutrophils engulf Salmonella during early stages of infection, but bacterial killing is incomplete. Very little is known about how Salmonella survives in neutrophils to gain access to other cell types during infection. In this study, we show that D-amino acid oxidase (DAO) in neutrophils consumes D-alanine and that importing this substrate protects Salmonella from oxidative killing by neutrophil DAO. Loss of this importer results in increased bacterial killing in vitro, in neutrophils, and in a mouse model of infection, all phenotypes that are lost upon inhibition of DAO. These findings add mechanistic insight into a novel host-pathogen interaction that has consequences on infection outcome.