Enhancement of nonspecific resistance against microbial infections with special reference to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection by chemically synthesized lipid A-subunit analogs

Activity of monosaccharide lipid A analogues in human monocytic cells as agonists or antagonists of bacterial lipopolysaccharide

The lipid A portion of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plays a central role in the production of endotoxic mediators. Different responses between human and murine macrophages to lipid A-like structures have been indicated. We investigated a series of structurally related monosaccharide lipid A analogues for their potency to activate human macrophage U937 cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells for production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 compared with their potency to activate murine macrophage RAW264.7 cells. Two of the analogues were found to have sufficient potency to activate the human cells as well as the murine cells. These analogues comprise D-glucosamine, phosphoryl groups, and acyl groups of defined carbon chain lengths (C(14) and C(12)) in a ratio of 1:1:3. This ratio of molecular constituents is proportional to that of the complete disaccharide structure of lipid A (2:2:6). Other analogues with two or four C(14) acyl groups and with three acyl groups but including a C(10) or a C(16) acyl group, which are active to murine cells, showed no LPS-agonistic activity, but did show LPS-antagonistic activity, to human cells. An LPS-antagonistic analogue in the murine cells also showed antagonistic activity in human cells. These results reveal that lipid A analogues recognized as being LPS agonists by human macrophages have common structural features in monosaccharide and disaccharide structures which are more strict than those required for recognition by murine macrophages and that broad lipid A-like structures are recognized as being LPS antagonists by human cells but are recognized by murine cells as being either LPS agonists or antagonists.

Multistep regulation mechanisms for tolerance induction to lipopolysaccharide lethality in the tumor-necrosis-factor-alpha-mediated pathway. Application of non-toxic monosaccharide lipid A analogues for elucidation of mechanisms

Lipid A is the active principle of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Synthetic lipid A analogues with monosaccharide backbones, GLA-60, GLA-69 and GLA-58, which exhibit potent, weak and scarce agonistic activities of LPS, respectively, induced tolerance against LPS lethality in galactosamine-(GalN)-sensitized mice while none of them were pyrogenic in rabbits. The tolerance-inducing mechanisms were investigated focusing on the regulation of tumor-necrosis-factor-alpha(TNF-alpha)-mediated lethal pathway of LPS. Induction of serum TNF-alpha in LPS-challenged mice was suppressed by prior administration of these analogues as well as LPS. Prior treatment of murine macrophages with the substances suppressed LPS-stimulated TNF-alpha production in the culture supernatant and TNF-alpha mRNA expression in the cells as well. Lethal toxicity of TNF-alpha in GalN-sensitized mice was effectively suppressed by prior treatment with LPS, GLA-60 and GLA-69 but not by GLA-58. This protective effect was suggested to be mediated by endogenous TNF-alpha, which was induced by prior treatment with the effective substances, because either neutralization of endogenously induced TNF-alpha activity with an antibody or deletion of its induction by using LPS-resistant C3H/HeJ mice reduced the protective effect, and a detectable amount of TNF-alpha was produced by stimulating macrophages with the effective substances but not with GLA-58. These results indicated that multiple regulation steps (one is prior to and the others are following TNF-alpha production) are participating in the tolerance induction by LPS and some lipid A analogues and that GLA-58 is a characteristic compound which induces the tolerance by only blocking the step prior to TNF-alpha production.

Non-specific resistance induced by a low-toxic lipid A analogue, DT-5461, in murine salmonellosis

The ability of DT-5461, a chemically synthetic low-toxic lipid A analogue, to activate anti-Salmonella activity in C3H/HeN mice was examined. Previous intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of DT-5461 (100 micrograms or more/mouse) significantly hindered the bacterial growth in the peritoneal cavities of the mice after the i.p. infection with Salmonella typhimurium LT2 strain. The effect was the maximum when DT-5461 was given 6 h before the challenge. The injection of DT-5461 6 h in advance could also confer protection against the infection. Bactericidal activity enhancement was also seen in mice that had been injected with a small amount of recombinant murine IFN-gamma (10(3) U per mouse) and non-effective dose (10 micrograms) of DT-5461 together 6 h before the challenge. Bactericidal effect enhancement was seen in mice that had been injected with IFN-gamma at 6 h and DT-5461 at 3 h before the challenge, while it could be hardly seen in mice injected with them in a reversed order. The i.p. injection of DT-5461 recruits the exudate cells into the peritoneal cavities, and the phagocytic and bactericidal abilities of the macrophages in the exudate cells are apparently elevated. The mechanisms of non-specific resistance enhancement induced by DT-5461 were discussed.