Bartonella quintana lipopolysaccharide is a natural antagonist of Toll-like receptor 4.

Bartonella quintana is a gram-negative microorganism that causes trench fever and chronic bacteremia. B. quintana lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was unable to induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines in human monocytes. Interestingly, B. quintana LPS is a potent antagonist of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), as it inhibited both mRNA transcription and the release of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta), and IL-6 by Escherichia coli LPS in human monocytes, at ratios ranging from 1,000:1 to 10:1 (B. quintana LPS to E. coli LPS). Likewise, B. quintana LPS blocked the interaction of E. coli LPS with TLR4 in transfected cell lines. The extent of the inhibitory effect of B. quintana LPS was demonstrated in microarray studies, which showed downregulation of practically all genes induced by LPS in monocytes. Because of the role of TLR4 in inflammation, B. quintana LPS may prove useful as a potent anti-TLR4 agent with therapeutic potential in both infections and autoimmune inflammation.

Hemin-binding surface protein from Bartonella quintana.

Bartonella quintana, the agent of trench fever and a cause of endocarditis and bacillary angiomatosis in humans, has the highest reported in vitro hemin requirement for any bacterium. We determined that eight membrane-associated proteins from B. quintana bind hemin and that a approximately 25-kDa protein (HbpA) was the dominant hemin-binding protein. Like many outer membrane proteins, HbpA partitions to the detergent phase of a Triton X-114 extract of the cell and is heat modifiable, displaying an apparent molecular mass shift from approximately 25 to 30 kDa when solubilized at 100 degrees C. Immunoblots of purified outer and inner membranes and immunoelectron microscopy with whole cells show that HbpA is strictly located in the outer membrane and surface exposed, respectively. The N-terminal sequence of mature HbpA was determined and used to clone the HbpA-encoding gene (hbpA) from a lambda genomic library. The hbpA gene is 816 bp in length, encoding a predicted immature protein of approximately 29.3 kDa and a mature protein of 27.1 kDa. A Fur box homolog with 53% identity to the Escherichia coli Fur consensus is located upstream of hbpA and may be involved in regulating expression. BLAST searches indicate that the closest homologs to HbpA include the Bartonella henselae phage-associated membrane protein, Pap31 (58.4% identity), and the OMP31 porin from Brucella melitensis (31.7% identity). High-stringency Southern blots indicate that all five pathogenic Bartonella spp. possess hbpA homologs. Recombinant HbpA can bind hemin in vitro; however, it does not confer a hemin-binding phenotype upon E. coli. Intact B. quintana treated with purified anti-HbpA Fab fragments show a significant (P < 0.004) dose-dependent decrease in hemin binding relative to controls, suggesting that HbpA plays an active role in hemin acquisition and therefore pathogenesis. HbpA is the first potential virulence determinant characterized from B. quintana.