Effects of static magnetic fields on the enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.

This study reports the effects of exposing cells of the prototypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strain E2348/69 to static magnetic fields (SMF) of varying intensities to observe their capacity to autoaggregate and the effect on cell adherence. The results showed that bacteria exposure over the course of 5 min to an intensity of 53 mT reduced autoaggregation by 28%. However, with intensities of up to 100 mT with the same exposure time, bacteria autoaggregation was reduced by approximately 50%; and after 30 min at the same intensity, it was indistinguishable from that observed in a non-autoaggregative strain. Furthermore, it was observed that SMF treatment also modified the typical localized adherence pattern of EPEC E2348/69. The observed effects are not related to bacteria damage. The above was confirmed because, after a 107 mT SMF treatment over the course of 30 min, cell viability and membrane permeability were the same to that observed in untreated controls. The obtained results suggest that the SMF effect on the E2348/69 EPEC strain alters the expression of the bundle-forming pilus (BFP), due to the fact that the same strain without the EPEC adherence factor plasmid that encodes the BFP operon was unable to autoaggregate. Electron microscopic analyses revealed structural differences between cells exposed to SMF with respect to untreated controls. In conclusion, the SMF treatment of 107 mT for 30 min reduced EPEC E2348/69 autoaggregation and modified its adherence pattern, with both events likely being associated with changes in BFP expression. Bioelectromagnetics. 38:570-578, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Indispensable functions of ABL and PDGF receptor kinases in epithelial adherence of attaching/effacing pathogens under physiological conditions.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and Citrobacter rodentium are attaching-and-effacing (A/E) pathogens that cause intestinal inflammation and diarrhea. The bacteria adhere to the intestinal epithelium, destroy microvilli, and induce actin-filled membranous pedestals but do not invade the mucosa. Adherence leads to activation of several host cell kinases, including FYN, n-SRC, YES, ABL, and ARG, phosphorylation of the bacterial translocated intimin receptor, and actin polymerization and pedestal formation in cultured cells. However, marked functional redundancy appears to exist between kinases, and their physiological importance in A/E pathogen infections has remained unclear. To address this question, we employed a novel dynamic in vitro infection model that mimics transient and short-term interactions in the intestinal tract. Screening of a kinase inhibitor library and RNA interference experiments in vitro revealed that ABL and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor (PDGFR) kinases, as well as p38 MAP kinase, have unique, indispensable roles in early attachment of EPEC to epithelial cells under dynamic infection conditions. Studies with mutant EPEC showed that the attachment functions of ABL and PDGFR were independent of the intimin receptor but required bacterial bundle-forming pili. Furthermore, inhibition of ABL and PDGFR with imatinib protected against infection of mice with modest loads of C. rodentium, whereas the kinases were dispensable for high inocula or late after infection. These results indicate that ABL and PDGFR have indispensable roles in early A/E pathogen attachment to intestinal epithelial cells and for in vivo infection with limiting inocula but are not required for late intimate bacterial attachment or high inoculum infections.

The type II secretion system and its ubiquitous lipoprotein substrate, SslE, are required for biofilm formation and virulence of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) is a major cause of diarrhea in infants in developing countries. We have identified a functional type II secretion system (T2SS) in EPEC that is homologous to the pathway responsible for the secretion of heat-labile enterotoxin by enterotoxigenic E. coli. The wild-type EPEC T2SS was able to secrete a heat-labile enterotoxin reporter, but an isogenic T2SS mutant could not. We showed that the major substrate of the T2SS in EPEC is SslE, an outer membrane lipoprotein (formerly known as YghJ), and that a functional T2SS is essential for biofilm formation by EPEC. T2SS and SslE mutants were arrested at the microcolony stage of biofilm formation, suggesting that the T2SS is involved in the development of mature biofilms and that SslE is a dominant effector of biofilm development. Moreover, the T2SS was required for virulence, as infection of rabbits with a rabbit-specific EPEC strain carrying a mutation in either the T2SS or SslE resulted in significantly reduced intestinal colonization and milder disease.

N-acetyllactosamine-induced retraction of bundle-forming pili regulates virulence-associated gene expression in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) are a major cause of infant morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoea in developing countries. The pathogenesis of EPEC is dependent on a coordinated multi-step process culminating in the intimate adherence of the organisms to the host's intestinal mucosa. During the initial stages of the EPEC colonization process, the fimbrial adhesin, bundle-forming pili (BFP), plays an integral role. We previously reported that the major BFP structural subunit, bundlin, displays lectin-like properties, which enables BFP to initially tether EPEC to N-acetyllactosamine (LacNAc) glycan receptors on host cell surfaces. We also reported that incubating EPEC with synthetic LacNAc-bearing neoglycoconjugates not only inhibits their adherence to host cells, but also induces BFP retraction and subsequent degradation of the bundlin subunits. Herein, we demonstrate that the periplasmic serine protease, DegP, is required for degrading bundlin during this process. We also show that DegP appears to act as a bundlin chaperone during BFP assembly and that LacNAc-BSA-induced BFP retraction is followed by transcriptional upregulation of the BFP operon and downregulation of the locus of enterocyte effacement operons in EPEC.

The Cpx envelope stress response both facilitates and inhibits elaboration of the enteropathogenic Escherichia coli bundle-forming pilus.

The Cpx envelope stress response is induced by the misfolding of periplasmic proteins and restores envelope homeostasis by upregulating several periplasmic protein folding and degrading factors. The Cpx response also regulates the expression of a variety of envelope-spanning protein complexes, including flagella, secretion systems and pili, which play an important role in pathogenesis. In a previous study, we inactivated the Cpx response in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), a causative agent of infant diarrhoea, and observed decreased expression of its major adhesin, the bundle-forming pilus (BFP). Here, we examined the mechanism underlying this BFP expression defect, and found that this phenotype can be attributed to insufficient expression of periplasmic folding factors, such as DsbA, DegP and CpxP. Hence, a low level of Cpx pathway activity promotes BFP synthesis by upregulating factors important for folding of BFP component proteins. Conversely, we found that full induction of the Cpx response inhibits BFP expression, mainly by repressing transcription of the bfp gene cluster. In combination with a previous report examining EPEC type III secretion, our results demonstrate that the Cpx response co-ordinates the repression of cell-surface structures during periods of envelope stress.

Enterohaemorrhagic and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Tir proteins trigger a common Nck-independent actin assembly pathway.

The Tir proteins of enterohaemorrhagic and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EHEC and EPEC respectively) are each translocated into the host plasma membrane where they promote F-actin pedestals in epithelial cells beneath adherent bacteria, but the two proteins act by different means. The canonical EPEC Tir becomes phosphorylated on tyrosine residue 474 (Y474) to recruit the host adaptor protein Nck, and also stimulates an inefficient, Nck-independent pathway utilizing tyrosine residue 454 (Y454). In contrast, the canonical EHEC Tir lacks Y474 and instead utilizes residues 452-463 to recruit EspF(U), an EHEC-specific effector that stimulates robust Nck-independent actin assembly. EHEC Tir Y458 and EPEC Tir Y454 are both part of an asparagine-proline-tyrosine (NPY) sequence. We report that each of the EHEC Tir NPY residues is required for EspF(U) recruitment and pedestal formation, and each of the EPEC Tir NPY residues is critical for inefficient, Nck-independent pedestal formation. Introduction of EspF(U) into EPEC dramatically enhanced Nck-independent actin assembly by EPEC Tir in a manner dependent on NPY(454). These results suggest that EPEC and EHEC Tir trigger a common Nck-independent actin assembly pathway and are both derived from an ancestral Tir molecule that utilized NPY to stimulate low-level pedestal formation.