Intimate Adherence by Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Modulates TLR5 Localization and Proinflammatory Host Response in Intestinal Epithelial Cells (original) (raw)

Interactions Between Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and Epithelial Cells

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 1999

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) may be considered a paradigm for a multistage interaction between pathogen and host cell. EPEC strains produce a type IV pilus that is associated with initial adherence to host cells, and these strains possess a type III secretion apparatus that is necessary for transducing signals to host cells. Secretion of three Esp proteins is required for activation of a phosphotyrosine-containing receptor that allows EPEC to bind intimately to host cells via the bacterial outer membrane protein intimin. Intimately attached bacteria rest upon a pedestal composed of host cytoskeletal proteins in an arrangement recognized as the attaching and effacing phenotype. The precise molecular interactions that lead to these dramatic alterations in the host cell cytoskeleton remain to be elucidated.

Bacterial-Epithelial Contact Is a Key Determinant of Host Innate Immune Responses to Enteropathogenic and Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli

PLoS ONE, 2011

Background: Enteropathogenic (EPEC) and Enteroaggregative (EAEC) E. coli have similar, but distinct clinical symptoms and modes of pathogenesis. Nevertheless when they infect the gastrointestinal tract, it is thought that their flagellin causes IL-8 release leading to neutrophil recruitment and gastroenteritis. However, this may not be the whole story as the effect of bacterial adherence to IEC innate response(s) remains unclear. Therefore, we have characterized which bacterial motifs contribute to the innate epithelial response to EPEC and EAEC, using a range of EPEC and EAEC isogenic mutant strains. Methodology: Caco-2 and HEp-2 cell lines were exposed to prototypical EPEC strain E2348/69 or EAEC strain O42, in addition to a range of isogenic mutant strains. E69 [LPS, non-motile, non-adherent, type three secretion system (TTSS) negative, signalling negative] or O42 [non-motile, non-adherent]. IL-8 and CCL20 protein secretion was measured. Bacterial surface structures were assessed by negative staining Transmission Electron Microscopy. The Fluorescent-actin staining test was carried out to determine bacterial adherence. Results: Previous studies have reported a balance between the host pro-inflammatory response and microbial suppression of this response. In our system an overall balance towards the host pro-inflammatory response is seen with the E69 WT and to a greater extent O42 WT, which is in fit with clinical symptoms. On removal of the external EPEC structures flagella, LPS, BFP, EspA and EspC; and EAEC flagella and AAF, the host inflammatory response is reduced. However, removal of E69 lymphostatin increases the host inflammatory response suggesting involvement in the bacterial mediated antiinflammatory response. Conclusion: Epithelial responses were due to combinations of bacterial agonists, with host-bacterial contact a key determinant of these innate responses. Host epithelial recognition was offset by the microbe's ability to down-regulate the inflammatory response. Understanding the complexity of this host-microbial balance will contribute to improved vaccine design for infectious gastroenteritis.

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Disrupts Epithelial Cell Tight Junctions

Infection and Immunity, 2010

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is responsible for inflammatory diarrhea in diverse populations, but its mechanisms of pathogenesis have not been fully elucidated. We have used a previously characterized polarized intestinal T84 cell model to investigate the effects of infection with EAEC strain 042 on tight junction integrity. We find that infection with strain 042 induces a decrease in transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) compared to uninfected controls and to cells infected with commensal E. coli strain HS. When the infection was limited after 3 h by washing and application of gentamicin, we observed that the TER of EAEC-infected monolayers continued to decline, and they remained low even as long as 48 h after the infection. Cells infected with the afimbrial mutant strain 042 aafA exhibited TER measurements similar to those seen in uninfected monolayers, implicating the aggregative adherence fimbriae II (AAF/II) as necessary for barrier dysfunction. Infection wit...

A new understanding of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli as an inflammatory pathogen

Cell Adhesion & Migration, 2012

E nteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is an important cause of endemic and epidemic diarrheal disease worldwide. Although not classically considered an inflammatory pathogen in the style of Shigella and Salmonella species, clinical data from patients suggests that inflammatory responses may play an important role during EAEC disease. However, the specific role of inflammation during EAEC pathogenesis has not been investigated in detail. To better understand how EAEC may induce inflammation, we have focused our attention on the intimate interactions between EAEC and the host epithelium and the subsequent induction of host cell signaling events leading to innate immune responses. Here, we discuss our recent findings on the signaling pathway by which EAEC promotes transepithelial migration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), the role of aggregative adherence fimbriae in triggering this event and the implementation of human intestinal xenografts in immunodeficient mice for studying EAEC pathogenesis in vivo. Our findings suggest that EAEC shares conserved mechanisms of inducing PMN recruitment with other intestinal pathogens, providing new insight into the potential pathological consequences of EAEC-induced inflammation.

Tight Junction Disruption Induced by Type 3 Secretion System Effectors Injected by Enteropathogenic and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 2016

The intestinal epithelium consists of a single cell layer, which is a critical selectively permeable barrier to both absorb nutrients and avoid the entry of potentially harmful entities, including microorganisms. Epithelial cells are held together by the apical junctional complexes, consisting of adherens junctions, and tight junctions (TJs), and by underlying desmosomes. TJs lay in the apical domain of epithelial cells and are mainly composed by transmembrane proteins such as occludin, claudins, JAMs, and tricellulin, that are associated with the cytoplasmic plaque formed by proteins from the MAGUK family, such as ZO-1/2/3, connecting TJ to the actin cytoskeleton, and cingulin and paracingulin connecting TJ to the microtubule network. Extracellular bacteria such as EPEC and EHEC living in the intestinal lumen inject effectors proteins directly from the bacterial cytoplasm to the host cell cytoplasm, where they play a relevant role in the manipulation of the eukaryotic cell functions by modifying or blocking cell signaling pathways. TJ integrity depends on various cell functions such as actin cytoskeleton, microtubule network for vesicular trafficking, membrane integrity, inflammation, and cell survival. EPEC and EHEC effectors target most of these functions. Effectors encoded inside or outside of locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) disrupt the TJ strands. EPEC and EHEC exploit the TJ dynamics to open this structure, for causing diarrhea. EPEC and EHEC secrete effectors that mimic host proteins to manipulate the signaling pathways, including those related to TJ dynamics. In this review, we focus on the known mechanisms exploited by EPEC and EHEC effectors for causing TJ disruption.

Adherence of Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Strains to Epithelial Cells

Infection and Immunity, 2005

An important early step in the colonization of the human gastrointestinal tract by bacteria is the adhesion of the organism to the host surface. Although adhesion is essential to maintain members of the normal microflora in the intestine, it is also the critical early phase in all diarrheal infections caused by pathogenic Escherichia coli strains. It is important, therefore, to fully understand the mechanisms underlying E. coli adhesion and in that way to be able to develop methods of maintaining the intestinal normal microflora and to prevent pathogenic E. coli from initiating an infectious process. Great progress has been made in recent years in the identification of the adherence factors of different diarrheagenic E. coli strains (Table 1). These protein structures are associated with the bacterial surface and can be subdivided into fimbrial and nonfimbrial adhesins (Fig. 1). In this minireview, we will discuss recent advances in the identification and characterization of previously known and novel adhesion factors from the six major categories of diarrheagenic E. coli strains: enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC), and diffusely adhering E. coli (DAEC).

Contribution of Efa1/LifA to the adherence of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli to epithelial cells

Microbial Pathogenesis, 2003

Enteropathogenic E. coli(EPEC) is an important diarrhoeal pathogen that induces characteristic lesions on the host intestine termed attaching and effacing (A/E) lesions. In this study we have examined the contribution of a large gene, efa1, which is present in all A/E pathogens, to the adherence phenotype of EPEC. An efa-derivative of EPEC JPN15 was constructed and this mutant was significantly less adherent to epithelial cells than the parent strain. The JPN15 efa-derivative was FAS-positive, produced EspA filaments and showed comparable levels of EspA secretion to JPN15. In addition, polyclonal antibodies raised to Efa1 partially inhibited the adherence of JPN15 to cultured epithelial cells. In further work, we showed that human and rabbit hosts infected with an A/E pathogen produced antibodies to Efa1 and we observed that the truncated form of efa1 present in EHEC O157:H7 was specific to that serotype. Generally efa1 was present in its entirety in the genomes of other A/E pathogens. Overall our data suggest that Efa1 has host cell binding activity, at least in tissue culture, and that it is produced during infection. These findings suggest that Efa1 may play a direct role in the pathogenesis of infections caused by A/E pathogens.

Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli target the epithelial barrier

Gut Microbes, 2010

the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD, including Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis) is well established. However, the mechanisms by which bacteria lead to intestinal injury in IBD remain unclear and are the focus of current research. Using adherentinvasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) strain LF82, which is linked to Crohn disease, we recently demonstrated the ability of these intestinal microbes to disrupt the integrity of epithelial cells in an in vitro cell model. This disruption provides the bacteria a capacity to penetrate into and beyond the epithelial monolayer, replicate in cells, disseminate within the host, and induce a chronic immune response. These findings provide a link between microbes related to IBD, disruption of the intestinal epithelial cell barrier, and disease pathogenesis.