An intracellular target for Helicobacter pylori vacuolating toxin

VacA, the vacuolating cytotoxin of Helicobacter pylori, binds to multimerin 1 on human platelets

Platelets were activated under the infection with H. pylori in human and mice. We investigated the role of VacA, an exotoxin released by H. pylori in this context. Acid-activated VacA, but not heated VacA, induced platelet CD62P expression. However, VacA reacted with none of the alleged VacA receptors present on platelet membranes. We therefore analyzed VacA associated proteins obtained through VacA affinity chromatography, using MALDI-TOF-MS. Multimerin1 was detected in two consecutive experiments, as the binding protein for VacA. Plasmon resonance confirmed their binding, and dot blot analysis revealed that the peptide sequence AA 321-340 of multimerin 1 is the binding site for VacA. In conclusion, we propose a new interaction between multimerin1 and VacA , which may give another insight into H. pylori-induced platelet activations under H. pylori infection.

Intoxication strategy of Helicobacter pylori VacA toxin

VacA toxin from the cancer-inducing bacterium Helicobacter pylori is currently classified as a pore-forming toxin but is also considered a multifunctional toxin, apparently causing many pleiotropic cell effects. However, an increasing body of evidence suggests that VacA could be the prototype of a new class of monofunctional A-B toxins in which the A subunit exhibits pore-forming instead of enzymatic activity. Thus, VacA may use a peculiar mechanism of action, allowing it to intoxicate the human stomach. By combining the action of a cell-binding domain, a specific intracellular trafficking pathway and a novel mitochondrion-targeting sequence, the VacA pore-forming domain is selectively delivered to the inner mitochondrial membrane to efficiently kill target epithelial cells by apoptosis.

Pathogenicity of Helicobacter pylori infection

Numerous Helicobacter pylori virulence factors, including various enzymes (urease, catalase, lipase, phospholipase and proteases), vacuolating cytotoxin (a product of expression of the vacA gene), and the immunogenic protein CagA, encoded by the cagA gene localised in the H. pylori pathogenicity island, are involved in the pathomechanism of infection caused by these organisms. This review presents the current state of knowledge concerning the molecular mechanisms and epidemiology of H. pylori infection, based on the published literature and recent unpublished observations.

Plasma membrane cholesterol modulates cellular vacuolation induced by the Helicobacter pylori vacuolating cytotoxin

The Helicobacter pylori vacuolating cytotoxin (VacA) induces the degenerative vacuolation of mammalian cells both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that plasma membrane cholesterol is essential for vacuolation of mammalian cells by VacA. Vacuole biogenesis in multiple cell lines was completely blocked when cholesterol was extracted selectively from the plasma membrane by using beta-cyclodextrins. Moreover, increasing plasma membrane cholesterol levels strongly potentiated VacA-induced vacuolation. In contrast, inhibiting de novo biosynthesis of cholesterol with lovastatin or compactin had no detectable effect on vacuolation. While depletion of plasma membrane cholesterol has been shown to interfere with both clathrin-mediated endocytosis and caveola-dependent endocytosis, neither of these two internalization pathways was found to be essential for vacuolation of cells by VacA. Depleting plasma membrane cholesterol attenuated the entry of VacA into HeLa cells. In addition, beta-cyclodextrin reagents blocked vacuolation of cells that were either preloaded with VacA or had VacA directly expressed within the cytosol. Collectively, our results suggest that plasma membrane cholesterol is important for both the intoxication mechanism of VacA and subsequent vacuole biogenesis.

High cell sensitivity to Helicobacter pylori VacA toxin depends on a GPI-anchored protein and is not blocked by inhibition of the clathrin-mediated pathway of endocytosis

Helicobacter pylori vacuolating toxin (VacA) causes vacuolation in a variety of cultured cell lines, sensitivity to VacA differing greatly, however, among the different cell types. We found that the high sensitivity of HEp-2 cells to VacA was impaired by treating the cells with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) which removes glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins from the cell surface. Incubation of cells with a cholesterol-sequestering agent, that impairs both structure and function of sphingolipid-cholesterol-rich membrane microdomains ("lipid rafts"), also impaired VacA-induced cell vacuolation. Overexpression into HEp-2 cells of proteins inhibiting clathrin-dependent endocytosis (i.e., a dominant-negative mutant of Eps15, the five tandem Src-homology-3 domains of intersectin, and the K44A dominant-negative mutant of dynamin II) did not affect vacuolation induced by VacA. Nevertheless, F-actin depolymerization, known to block the different types of endocytic mechanisms, strongly impaired VacA vacuolating activity. Taken together, our data suggest that the high cell sensitivity to VacA depends on the presence of one or several GPI-anchored protein(s), intact membrane lipid rafts, and an uptake mechanism via a clathrin-independent endocytic pathway.

Mutational analysis of the Helicobacter pylori vacuolating toxin amino terminus: identification of amino acids essential for cellular vacuolation

The functional importance of the amino terminus of the Helicobacter pylori vacuolating cytotoxin (VacA) was investigated by analyzing the relative levels of vacuolation of HeLa cells transfected with plasmids encoding wild-type and mutant forms of the toxin. Notably, VacA's intracellular activity was found to be sensitive to small truncations and internal deletions at the toxin's amino terminus. Moreover, alanine-scanning mutagenesis revealed the first VacA point mutations (at proline 9 or glycine 14) that completely abolish the toxin's intracellular activity.

Morphologic differentiation of HL-60 cells is associated with appearance of RPTPbeta and induction of Helicobacter pylori VacA sensitivity

Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) induces differentiation of human leukemic HL-60 cells into cells with macrophage-like characteristics and enhances the susceptibility of HL-60 cells to the Helicobacter pylori VacA toxin (de Bernard, M., Moschioni., M., Papini, E., Telford, J. L., Rappuoli, R., and Montecucco, C. (1998) FEBS Lett. 436, 218-222). We examined the mechanism by which HL-60 cells acquire sensitivity to VacA, in particular, looking for expression of RPTPbeta, a VacA-binding protein postulated to be the VacA receptor (Yahiro, K., Niidome, T., Kimura, M., Hatakeyama, T., Aoyagi, H., Kurazono, H., Imagawa, K., Wada, A., Moss, J., and Hirayama, T. (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 36693-36699). PMA induced expression of RPTPbeta mRNA and protein as determined by RNase protection assay and indirect immunofluorescence studies, respectively. Vitamin D(3) and interferon-gamma, which stimulate differentiation of HL-60 cells into monocyte-like cells, also induced VacA sensitivity and expression of RPTPbeta mRNA, whereas 1. 2% Me(2)SO and retinoic acid, which stimulated the maturation of HL-60 into granulocyte-like cells, did not. RPTPbeta antisense oligonucleotide inhibited induction of VacA sensitivity and expression of RPTPbeta. Double immunostaining studies also indicated that newly expressed RPTPbeta colocalized with VacA in PMA-treated HL-60 cells. In agreement with these data, BHK-21 cells, which are insensitive to VacA, when transfected with the RPTPbeta cDNA, acquired VacA sensitivity. All data are consistent with the conclusion that acquisition of VacA sensitivity by PMA-treated HL-60 cells results from induction of RPTPbeta, a protein that functions as the VacA receptor.

Identification of the minimal intracellular vacuolating domain of the Helicobacter pylori vacuolating toxin

Helicobacter pylori secretes a cytotoxin (VacA) that induces the formation of large vacuoles originating from late endocytic vesicles in sensitive mammalian cells. Although evidence is accumulating that VacA is an A-B toxin, distinct A and B fragments have not been identified. To localize the putative catalytic A-fragment, we transfected HeLa cells with plasmids encoding truncated forms of VacA fused to green fluorescence protein. By analyzing truncated VacA fragments for intracellular vacuolating activity, we reduced the minimal functional domain to the amino-terminal 422 residues of VacA, which is less than one-half of the full-length protein (953 amino acids). VacA is frequently isolated as a proteolytically nicked protein of two fragments that remain noncovalently associated and retain vacuolating activity. Neither the amino-terminal 311 residue fragment (p33) nor the carboxyl-terminal 642 residue fragment (p70) of proteolytically nicked VacA are able to induce cellular vacuolation by themselves. However, co-transfection of HeLa cells with separate plasmids expressing both p33 and p70 resulted in vacuolated cells. Further analysis revealed that a minimal fragment comprising just residues 312-478 functionally complemented p33. Collectively, our results suggest a novel molecular architecture for VacA, with cytosolic localization of both fragments of nicked toxin required to mediate intracellular vacuolating activity.