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Felipin KP, Paloschi MV, Silva MDS, Ikenohuchi YJ, Santana HM, Setúbal SDS, Rego CMA, Lopes JA, Boeno CN, Serrath SN, De Medeiros EHRT, Pimentel IF, Oliveira AER, Cupolillo E, Cantanhêde LM, Ferreira RDGM, Zuliani JP. Transcriptomics analysis highlights potential ways in human pathogenesis in Leishmania braziliensis infected with the viral endosymbiont LRV1. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2024; 18:e0012126. [PMID: 38743668 PMCID: PMC11093365 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 04/01/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The parasite Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis is widely distributed in Brazil and is one of the main species associated with human cases of different forms of tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL) such as cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and mucosal leishmaniasis (ML). The mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of TL are still not fully understood, but it is known that factors related to the host and the parasite act in a synergistic and relevant way to direct the response to the infection. In the host, macrophages have a central connection with the parasite and play a fundamental role in the defense of the organism due to their ability to destroy intracellular parasites and present antigens. In the parasite, some intrinsic factors related to the species or even the strain analyzed are fundamental for the outcome of the disease. One of them is the presence of Leishmania RNA Virus 1 (LRV1), an endosymbiont virus that parasitizes some species of Leishmania that triggers a cascade of signals leading to a more severe TL phenotype, such as ML. One of the strategies for understanding factors associated with the immune response generated after Leishmania/host interaction is through the analysis of molecular patterns after infection. Thus, the gene expression profile in human monocyte-derived macrophages obtained from healthy donors infected in vitro with L. braziliensis positive (LbLRV1+) and negative (LbLRV1-) for LRV1 was evaluated. For this, the microarray assay was used and 162 differentially expressed genes were identified in the comparison LbLRV1+ vs. LbLRV1-, 126 upregulated genes for the type I and II interferons (IFN) signaling pathway, oligoadenylate synthase OAS/RNAse L, non-genomic actions of vitamin D3 and RIG-I type receptors, and 36 down-regulated. The top 10 downregulated genes along with the top 10 upregulated genes were considered for analysis. Type I interferon (IFNI)- and OAS-related pathways results were validated by RT-qPCR and Th1/Th2/Th17 cytokines were analyzed by Cytometric Bead Array (CBA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The microarray results validated by RT-qPCR showed differential expression of genes related to IFNI-mediated pathways with overexpression of different genes in cells infected with LbLRV1+ compared to LbLRV1- and to the control. No significant differences were found in cytokine levels between LbLRV1+ vs. LbLRV1- and control. The data suggest the activation of gene signaling pathways associated with the presence of LRV1 has not yet been reported so far. This study demonstrates, for the first time, the activation of the OAS/RNase L signaling pathway and the non-genomic actions of vitamin D3 when comparing infections with LbLRV1+ versus LbLRV1- and the control. This finding emphasizes the role of LRV1 in directing the host's immune response after infection, underlining the importance of identifying LRV1 in patients with TL to assess disease progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kátia Paula Felipin
- Laboratório de Epidemiologia Genética, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Mauro Valentino Paloschi
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Milena Daniela Souza Silva
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Yoda Janaina Ikenohuchi
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Hallison Mota Santana
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Sulamita da Silva Setúbal
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Cristina Matiele Alves Rego
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Jéssica Amaral Lopes
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Charles Nunes Boeno
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Suzanne Nery Serrath
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | | | - Iasmin Ferreira Pimentel
- Laboratório de Epidemiologia Genética, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | | | - Elisa Cupolillo
- Laboratório de Pesquisa em Leishmanioses, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Instituto Nacional de Epidemiologia da Amazônia Ocidental, EpiAmO, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Lilian Motta Cantanhêde
- Laboratório de Pesquisa em Leishmanioses, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Instituto Nacional de Epidemiologia da Amazônia Ocidental, EpiAmO, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Ricardo de Godoi Matos Ferreira
- Laboratório de Epidemiologia Genética, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
- Laboratório de Pesquisa em Leishmanioses, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Instituto Nacional de Epidemiologia da Amazônia Ocidental, EpiAmO, Porto Velho, Brazil
| | - Juliana Pavan Zuliani
- Laboratório de Imunologia Celular Aplicada à Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil
- Departamento de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Rondônia, UNIR, Porto Velho, Brazil
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Bonhomme D, Santecchia I, Escoll P, Papadopoulos S, Vernel-Pauillac F, Boneca IG, Werts C. Leptospiral lipopolysaccharide dampens inflammation through upregulation of autophagy adaptor p62 and NRF2 signaling in macrophages. Microbes Infect 2024; 26:105274. [PMID: 38081475 DOI: 10.1016/j.micinf.2023.105274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Revised: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023]
Abstract
Leptospira interrogans are pathogenic bacteria responsible for leptospirosis, a worldwide zoonosis. All vertebrates can be infected, and some species like humans are susceptible to the disease whereas rodents such as mice are resistant and become asymptomatic renal carriers. Leptospires are stealth bacteria that are known to escape several immune recognition pathways and resist killing mechanisms. We recently published that leptospires may survive intracellularly in and exit macrophages, avoiding xenophagy, a pathogen-targeting form of autophagy. Interestingly, the latter is one of the antimicrobial mechanisms often highjacked by bacteria to evade the host immune response. In this study we explored whether leptospires subvert the key molecular players of autophagy to facilitate infection. We showed in macrophages that leptospires triggered a specific accumulation of autophagy-adaptor p62 in puncta-like structures, without altering autophagic flux. We demonstrated that Leptospira-induced p62 accumulation is a passive mechanism depending on the leptospiral virulence factor LPS signaling via TLR4/TLR2. p62 is a central pleiotropic protein, also mediating cell stress and death, via the translocation of transcription factors. We demonstrated that Leptospira-driven accumulation of p62 induced the translocation of transcription factor NRF2, a key player in the anti-oxidant response. However, NRF2 translocation upon Leptospira infection did not result as expected in antioxydant response, but dampened the production of inflammatory mediators such as iNOS/NO, TNF and IL6. Overall, these findings highlight a novel passive bacterial mechanism linked to LPS and p62/NRF2 signaling that decreases inflammation and contributes to the stealthiness of leptospires.
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Affiliation(s)
- Delphine Bonhomme
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR6047, INSERM U1306, Unité de Biologie et Génétique de la Paroi Bactérienne, Paris, France
| | - Ignacio Santecchia
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR6047, INSERM U1306, Unité de Biologie et Génétique de la Paroi Bactérienne, Paris, France
| | - Pedro Escoll
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR6047, Unité Biologie des Bactéries Intracellulaires, Paris, France
| | - Stylianos Papadopoulos
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR6047, INSERM U1306, Unité de Biologie et Génétique de la Paroi Bactérienne, Paris, France
| | - Frédérique Vernel-Pauillac
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR6047, INSERM U1306, Unité de Biologie et Génétique de la Paroi Bactérienne, Paris, France
| | - Ivo G Boneca
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR6047, INSERM U1306, Unité de Biologie et Génétique de la Paroi Bactérienne, Paris, France
| | - Catherine Werts
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR6047, INSERM U1306, Unité de Biologie et Génétique de la Paroi Bactérienne, Paris, France.
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Alishvandi M, Bahrami S, Rashidi S, Hatam G. Isoenzyme characterization of Leishmania infantum toward checking the antioxidant activity of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. BMC Infect Dis 2024; 24:208. [PMID: 38360592 PMCID: PMC10870465 DOI: 10.1186/s12879-024-09069-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/17/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Leishmania infantum is the major causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis in Mediterranean regions. Isoenzyme electrophoresis (IE), as a biochemical technique, is applied in the characterization of Leishmania species. The current study attempted to investigate the isoenzyme patterns of logarithmic and stationary promastigotes and axenic amastigotes (amastigote-like) of L. infantum using IE. The antioxidant activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) was also checked in the aforementioned forms. METHOD After L. infantum cultivation and obtaining logarithmic and stationary promastigotes, axenic amastigotes were achieved by incubation of stationary promastigotes at 37 °C for 48 h. The lysate samples were prepared and examined for six enzymatic systems including glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), nucleoside hydrolase 1 (NH1), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), glucose-phosphate isomerase (GPI), malic enzyme (ME), and phosphoglucomutase (PGM). Additionally, the antioxidant activity of SOD and GPX was measured. RESULTS GPI, MDH, NH1, and G6PD enzymatic systems represented different patterns in logarithmic and stationary promastigotes and axenic amastigotes of L. infantum. PGM and ME showed similar patterns in the aforementioned forms of parasite. The highest level of SOD activity was determined in the axenic amastigote form and GPX activity was not detected in different forms of L. infantum. CONCLUSION The characterization of leishmanial-isoenzyme patterns and the measurement of antioxidant activity of crucial antioxidant enzymes, including SOD and GPX, might reveal more information in the biology, pathogenicity, and metabolic pathways of Leishmania parasites and consequently drive to designing novel therapeutic strategies in leishmaniasis treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mostafa Alishvandi
- ¹Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | | | - Sajad Rashidi
- Molecular and Medicine Research Center, Khomein University of Medical Sciences, Khomein, Iran.
- Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Khomein University of Medical Sciences, Khomein, Iran.
| | - Gholamreza Hatam
- Basic Sciences in Infectious Diseases Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
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de Araújo SA, Silva CMP, Costa CS, Ferreira CSC, Ribeiro HS, da Silva Lima A, Quintino da Rocha C, Calabrese KDS, Abreu-Silva AL, Almeida-Souza F. Leishmanicidal and immunomodulatory activity of Terminalia catappa in Leishmania amazonensisin vitro infection. Heliyon 2024; 10:e24622. [PMID: 38312642 PMCID: PMC10835263 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2023] [Revised: 12/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2024] [Indexed: 02/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniases are infectious-parasitic diseases that impact public health around the world. Antileishmanial drugs presented toxicity and increase in parasitic resistance. Studies with natural products show an alternative to this effect, and several metabolites have demonstrated potential in the treatment of various diseases. Terminalia catappa is a plant species with promising pharmaceutical properties. The objective of this work was to evaluate the therapeutic potential of extracts and fractions of T. catappa on Leishmania amazonensis and investigate the immunomodulatory mechanisms associated with its action. In anti-Leishmania assays, the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited activity against promastigotes (IC50 86.07 ± 1.09 μg/mL) and low cytotoxicity (CC50 517.70 ± 1.68 μg/mL). The ethyl acetate fraction also inhibited the intracellular parasite (IC50 25.74 ± 1.08 μg/mL) with a selectivity index of 20.11. Treatment with T. catappa ethyl acetate fraction did not alter nitrite production by peritoneal macrophages stimulated with L. amazonensis, although there was a decrease in unstimulated macrophages treated at 50 μg/mL (p = 0.0048). The T. catappa ethyl acetate fraction at 100 μg/mL increased TNF-α levels (p = 0.0238) and downregulated HO-1 (p = 0.0030) and ferritin (p = 0.0002) gene expression in L. amazonensis-stimulated macrophages. Additionally, the total flavonoid and ellagic acid content for ethyl acetate fraction was 13.41 ± 1.86 mg QE/g and 79.25 mg/g, respectively. In conclusion, the T. catappa ethyl acetate fraction showed leishmanicidal activity against different forms of L. amazonensis and displayed immunomodulatory mechanisms, including TNF-α production and expression of pro and antioxidant genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Alves de Araújo
- Rede Nordeste de Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, 65080-805, Brazil
| | | | | | | | | | - Aldilene da Silva Lima
- Laboratório de Química dos Produtos Naturais, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, 65080-805, São Luís, MA, Brazil
| | - Cláudia Quintino da Rocha
- Laboratório de Química dos Produtos Naturais, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, 65080-805, São Luís, MA, Brazil
| | - Kátia da Silva Calabrese
- Laboratório de Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, 21041-250, Brazil
| | - Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva
- Rede Nordeste de Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, 65080-805, Brazil
- Universidade Estadual do Maranhão, São Luís, 65055-310, Brazil
- Pós-graduação em Ciência Animal, Universidade Estadual do Maranhão, São Luís, 65055-310, Brazil
| | - Fernando Almeida-Souza
- Universidade Estadual do Maranhão, São Luís, 65055-310, Brazil
- Laboratório de Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, 21041-250, Brazil
- Pós-graduação em Ciência Animal, Universidade Estadual do Maranhão, São Luís, 65055-310, Brazil
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Baert L, Rudy S, Pellisson M, Doll T, Rocchetti R, Kaiser M, Mäser P, Müller M. Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human macrophages as an infection model for Leishmania donovani. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2024; 18:e0011559. [PMID: 38166146 PMCID: PMC10786377 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 01/04/2024] Open
Abstract
The parasite Leishmania donovani is one of the species causing visceral leishmaniasis in humans, a deadly infection claiming up to 40,000 lives each year. The current drugs for leishmaniasis treatment have severe drawbacks and there is an urgent need to find new anti-leishmanial compounds. However, the search for drug candidates is complicated by the intracellular lifestyle of Leishmania. Here, we investigate the use of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS)-derived macrophages (iMACs) as host cells for L. donovani. iMACs obtained through embryoid body differentiation were infected with L. donovani promastigotes, and high-content imaging techniques were used to optimize the iMACs seeding density and multiplicity of infection, allowing us to reach infection rates up to 70% five days after infection. IC50 values obtained for miltefosine and amphotericin B using the infected iMACs or mouse peritoneal macrophages as host cells were comparable and in agreement with the literature, showing the potential of iMACs as an infection model for drug screening.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lore Baert
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (SwissTPH), Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Serena Rudy
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Mélanie Pellisson
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Thierry Doll
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Romina Rocchetti
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (SwissTPH), Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Marcel Kaiser
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (SwissTPH), Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Pascal Mäser
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (SwissTPH), Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Müller
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland
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Fernandes JCR, Gonçalves ANA, Floeter-Winter LM, Nakaya HI, Muxel SM. Comparative transcriptomic analysis of long noncoding RNAs in Leishmania-infected human macrophages. Front Genet 2023; 13:1051568. [PMID: 36685903 PMCID: PMC9845402 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.1051568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
It is well established that infection with Leishmania alters the host cell's transcriptome. Since mammalian cells have multiple mechanisms to control gene expression, different molecules, such as noncoding RNAs, can be involved in this process. MicroRNAs have been extensively studied upon Leishmania infection, but whether long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are also altered in macrophages is still unexplored. We performed RNA-seq from THP-1-derived macrophages infected with Leishmania amazonensis (La), L. braziliensis (Lb), and L. infantum (Li), investigating a previously unappreciated fraction of macrophage transcriptome. We found that more than 24% of the total annotated transcripts and 30% of differentially expressed (DE) RNAs in Leishmania-infected macrophage correspond to lncRNAs. LncRNAs and protein coding RNAs with altered expression are similar among macrophages infected with the Leishmania species. Still, some species-specific alterations could occur due to distinct pathophysiology in which Li infection led to a more significant number of exclusively DE RNAs. The most represented classes among DE lncRNAs were intergenic and antisense lncRNAs. We also found enrichment for immune response-related pathways in the DE protein coding RNAs, as well as putative targets of the lncRNAs. We performed a coexpression analysis to explore potential cis regulation of coding and antisense noncoding transcripts. We identified that antisense lncRNAs are similarly regulated as its neighbor protein coding genes, such as the BAALC/BAALC-AS1, BAALC/BAALC-AS2, HIF1A/HIF1A-AS1, HIF1A/HIF1A-AS3 and IRF1/IRF1-AS1 pairs, which can occur as a species-specific modulation. These findings are a novelty in the field because, to date, no study has focused on analyzing lncRNAs in Leishmania-infected macrophage. Our results suggest that lncRNAs may account for a novel mechanism by which Leishmania can control macrophage function. Further research must validate putative lncRNA targets and provide additional prospects in lncRNA function during Leishmania infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliane C. R. Fernandes
- Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil,Instituto de Medicina Tropical da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | - Lucile M. Floeter-Winter
- Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | - Sandra M. Muxel
- Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil,*Correspondence: Sandra M. Muxel,
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7
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Bouabid C, Rabhi S, Thedinga K, Barel G, Tnani H, Rabhi I, Benkahla A, Herwig R, Guizani-Tabbane L. Host M-CSF induced gene expression drives changes in susceptible and resistant mice-derived BMdMs upon Leishmania major infection. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1111072. [PMID: 37187743 PMCID: PMC10175952 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1111072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniases are a group of diseases with different clinical manifestations. Macrophage-Leishmania interactions are central to the course of the infection. The outcome of the disease depends not only on the pathogenicity and virulence of the parasite, but also on the activation state, the genetic background, and the underlying complex interaction networks operative in the host macrophages. Mouse models, with mice strains having contrasting behavior in response to parasite infection, have been very helpful in exploring the mechanisms underlying differences in disease progression. We here analyzed previously generated dynamic transcriptome data obtained from Leishmania major (L. major) infected bone marrow derived macrophages (BMdMs) from resistant and susceptible mouse. We first identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the M-CSF differentiated macrophages derived from the two hosts, and found a differential basal transcriptome profile independent of Leishmania infection. These host signatures, in which 75% of the genes are directly or indirectly related to the immune system, may account for the differences in the immune response to infection between the two strains. To gain further insights into the underlying biological processes induced by L. major infection driven by the M-CSF DEGs, we mapped the time-resolved expression profiles onto a large protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and performed network propagation to identify modules of interacting proteins that agglomerate infection response signals for each strain. This analysis revealed profound differences in the resulting responses networks related to immune signaling and metabolism that were validated by qRT-PCR time series experiments leading to plausible and provable hypotheses for the differences in disease pathophysiology. In summary, we demonstrate that the host's gene expression background determines to a large degree its response to L. major infection, and that the gene expression analysis combined with network propagation is an effective approach to help identifying dynamically altered mouse strain-specific networks that hold mechanistic information about these contrasting responses to infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cyrine Bouabid
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules (PMBB), Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, Université de Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Sameh Rabhi
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules (PMBB), Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Kristina Thedinga
- Department Computational Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
| | - Gal Barel
- Department Computational Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
| | - Hedia Tnani
- Laboratory de BioInformatic, BioMathematic and BioStatistic (BIMS), Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Imen Rabhi
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules (PMBB), Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- Higher Institute of Biotechnology at Sidi-Thabet (ISBST), Biotechnopole Sidi-Thabet- University of Manouba, Sidi-Thabet, Tunisia
| | - Alia Benkahla
- Laboratory de BioInformatic, BioMathematic and BioStatistic (BIMS), Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Ralf Herwig
- Department Computational Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
| | - Lamia Guizani-Tabbane
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules (PMBB), Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- *Correspondence: Lamia Guizani-Tabbane,
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