笹川 千尋

Upon invasive bacterial infection of colonic epithelium, host cells induce several types of cell death to eliminate pathogens. For instance, necroptosis is a RIPK-dependent lytic cell death that serves as a backup system to fully eliminate intracellular pathogens when apoptosis is inhibited this phenomenon has been termed “cell death crosstalk”. To maintain their replicative niche and multiply within cells, some enteric pathogens prevent epithelial cell death by delivering effectors via the type III secretion system. In this study, we found that Shigella hijacks host cell death crosstalk via a dual mechanism: inhibition of apoptosis by the OspC1 effector and inhibition of necroptosis by the OspD3 effector. Upon infection by Shigella, host cells recognize blockade of caspase-8 apoptosis signaling by OspC1 effector as a key danger signal and trigger necroptosis as a backup form of host defense. To counteract this backup defense, Shigella delivers the OspD3 effector, a protease, to degrade RIPK1 and RIPK3, preventing necroptosis. We believe that blockade of host cell death crosstalk by Shigella is a unique intracellular survival tactic for prolonging the bacterium's replicative niche.

Colibacillosis is one of an economically significant disease in the poultry industry, especially for meat breed chickens. Recently it has become a serious problem for layer especially when the birds start laying and also at the later stage of laying. In Japan, the productivity of field laying hens improved when the Delta crp avian colibacillosis live vaccine ("Gall N tect CBL") was used. The survival rate and egg laying rate increased during almost all of the laying period when compared with the control group. The improvement in productivity was clearly demonstrated by comparing the number of eggs laid per day. The use of an avian colibacillosis live vaccine proved to be cost-effective in laying hens.

Infectious diseases caused by bacteria have significant impacts on global public health. During infection, pathogenic bacteria deliver a variety of virulence factors, called effectors, into host cells. The Shigella effector IpaH9.8 functions as an ubiquitin ligase, ubiquitinating the NF-kappa B essential modulator (NEMO)/IKK-gamma to inhibit host inflammatory responses. IpaH9.8 contains leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) involved in substrate recognition and an E3 ligase domain. To elucidate the structural basis of the function of IpaH9.8, the crystal structure of the LRR domain of Shigella IpaH9.8 was determined and this structure was compared with the known structures of other IpaH family members. This model provides insights into the structural features involved in substrate specificity.

Bacterial pathogens alter host transcriptional programs to promote infection. Shigella OspF is an essential virulence protein with a unique phosphothreonine lyase activity. A new study in The EMBO Journal (Harouz et al,) reveals a novel function of OspF: targeting of heterochromatin protein 1γ (HP1γ) and downregulation of a subset of immune genes. These results illustrate how bacterial pathogens exploit epigenetic modifications to counteract host immune responses. During infection, Shigella injects effector protein OspF to modulate the epigenetic status of specific host genes. This effect involves dual targeting of both histones and the chromatin reader HP1γ.

Fucosylation of intestinal epithelial cells, catalyzed by fucosyltransferase 2 (Fut2), is a major glycosylation mechanism of host-microbiota symbiosis. Commensal bacteria induce epithelial fucosylation, and epithelial fucose is used as a dietary carbohydrate by many of these bacteria. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate the induction of epithelial fucosylation are unknown. Here, we show that type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3) induced intestinal epithelial Fut2 expression and fucosylation in mice. This induction required the cytokines interleukin-22 and lymphotoxin in a commensal bacteria-dependent and -independent manner, respectively. Disruption of intestinal fucosylation led to increased susceptibility to infection by Salmonella typhimurium. Our data reveal a role for ILC3 in shaping the gut microenvironment through the regulation of epithelial glycosylation.

Ubiquitylation is a crucial post-translational protein modification that regulates several cellular processes in eukaryotes, including inflammatory responses, endocytic trafficking and the cell cycle. Importantly, ubiquitylation also has a central role in modulating eukaryotic defence systems; however, accumulating evidence shows that many bacterial pathogens exploit host ubiquitin systems for their own benefit. In this Review, we highlight the ways in which human bacterial pathogens target ubiquitylation to subvert and manipulate host defence systems, with a focus on the role of molecular mimicry and secreted bacterial effector proteins. These strategies enable bacterial pathogens to maximize effector function and obtain nutrients, thereby promoting bacterial proliferation.

Recognition of intracellular pathogenic bacteria by members of the nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat containing (NLR) family triggers immune responses against bacterial infection. A major response induced by several Gram-negative bacteria is the activation of caspase-1 via the Nlrc4 inflammasome. Upon activation, caspase-1 regulates the processing of proIL-1β and proIL-18 leading to the release of mature IL-1β and IL-18, and induction of pyroptosis. The activation of the Nlrc4 inflammasome requires the presence of an intact type III or IV secretion system that mediates the translocation of small amounts of flagellin or PrgJ-like rod proteins into the host cytosol to induce Nlrc4 activation. Using the Salmonella system, it was shown that Naip2 and Naip5 link flagellin and the rod protein PrgJ, respectively, to Nlrc4. Furthermore, phosphorylation of Nlrc4 at Ser533 by Pkcδ was found to be critical for the activation of the Nlrc4 inflammasome. Here, we show that Naip2 recognizes the Shigella T3SS inner rod protein MxiI and induces Nlrc4 inflammasome activation. The expression of MxiI in primary macrophages was sufficient to induce pyroptosis and IL-1β release, whic

Ubc13 is a ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme that plays a key role in the nuclear factor-kappa B signal transduction pathway in human diseases. The Shigella flexneri effector OspI affects inflammatory responses by catalyzing the deamidation of a specific glutamine residue at position 100 in Ubc13 during infection. This modification prevents the activation of the TNF (tumor necrosis factor) receptor-associated factor 6, leading to modulation of the diacylglycerol-CBM (CARD-Bcl10-Malt1) complex-TNF receptor-associated factor 6-nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway. To elucidate the structural basis of OspI function, we determined the crystal structures of the catalytically inert OspI C62A mutant and its complex with Ubc13 at resolutions of 3.0 and 2.96 angstrom, respectively. The structure of the OspI-Ubc13 complex revealed that the interacting surfaces between OspI and Ubc13 are a hydrophobic surface and a complementary charged surface. Furthermore, we predict that the complementary charged surface of OspI plays a key role in substrate specificity determination. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Host cell death is an intrinsic immune defense mechanism in response to microbial infection. However, bacterial pathogens use many strategies to manipulate the host cell death and survival pathways to enhance their replication and survival. This manipulation is quite intricate, with pathogens often suppressing cell death to allow replication and then promoting it for dissemination. Frequently, these effects are exerted through modulation of the mitochondrial pro-death, NF-kappa B-dependent pro-survival, and inflammasome-dependent host cell death pathways during infection. Understanding the molecular details by which bacterial pathogens manipulate cell death pathways will provide insight into new therapeutic approaches to control infection.

Although the intestinal epithelium is equipped with multiple defense systems that sense bacterial components, transmit alarms to the immune system, clear the bacteria, and renew the injured epithelial lining, mucosal bacterial pathogens are capable of efficiently colonizing the intestinal epithelium, because they have evolved systems that modulate the inflammatory and immune responses of the host and exploit the harmful environments as replicative niches. In this review we highlight current topics concerning Shigella's tactics that interfere with the innate immune systems.

The intestinal epithelium undergoes a rapid turnover in addition to rapid exfoliation in response to bacterial infection, thus acting as an intrinsic defense against microbial intruders. It has long been questioned how mucosal pathogens can circumvent the intestinal defense systems. Our recent discovery of a bacterial ploy used by Shigella provided us with fresh insight. Shigella delivers OspE via the type III secretion system during multiplication within epithelial cells. This effector protein reinforces epithelial adherence to the basement membrane by interacting with integrin-linked kinase (ILK), a unique intracellular Ser/Thr kinase that links the cell-adhesion receptors, integrin, and growth factors to the actin cytoskeleton. The interaction between OspE and ILK increased formation of focal adhesions (FAs) and surface levels of beta 1-integrin, while suppressing phosphorylation of FAK and paxillin, thus suppressing rapid turnover of FAs, reducing cell motility and promoting cell adhesion to extracellular matrix. The impact of this OspE-ILK interplay was demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo by infecting polarized epithelial cell monolayers and guinea pig colons with Shigella possessing or lacking the ospE gene. The findings thus establish a new class of virulence-associated factors, and provide new insight into the functioning of the intestinal barrier and bacterial strategies for circumventing it.

Autophagy is a pivotal bulk degradation system that eliminates undesirable molecules, damaged organelles, and misfolded protein aggregates in response to diverse stimuli, including infection. Autophagy acts to limit intracellular microbial growth but intracellular pathogens have evolved strategies to subvert host autophagic responses for their survival. We found that Listeria monocytogenes ActA, a surface protein required for actin polymerization and actin-based bacterial motility, plays a pivotal role in evading autophagy, but in a manner independent of bacterial motility. We show that L. monocytogenes exploits the biomimetic property of ActA to camouflage itself with host proteins comprised of Ena/VASP and the Arp2/3 complex, thereby escaping recognition by autophagy (Fig. 1).

Autophagy has recently been described as an intrinsic host defense system for recognizing and eliminating intracellular-invading bacterial pathogens. Some cytoplasmic-invading bacteria are trapped through the process of autophagy and are ultimately degraded within autolysosomal compartments. However, others exhibit highly evolved maneuvers for circumventing autophagic recognition and are capable of surviving and replicating within the cytoplasm. In this chapter, we describe bacterial infectious systems using group A Streptococcus, Shigella flexneri, and Listeria monocytogenes as examples of the interplay between bacteria and autophagy; in addition, methods for investigating bacterial activities related to the recognition of bacteria by the autophagic machinery or the escape of bacteria from autophagy are introduced.