Jason H. Barker

Proinflammatory immune responses to Gram-negative bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are crucial to innate host defenses but can also contribute to pathology. How host cells sensitively detect structural features of LPS was a mystery for years, especially given that a portion of the molecule essential for its potent proinflammatory properties—lipid A—is buried in the bacterial membrane. Studies of responses to extracellular and vacuolar LPS revealed a crucial role for accessory proteins that specifically bind LPS-rich membranes and extract LPS monomers to generate a complex of LPS, MD-2, and TLR4. These insights provided means to understand better both the remarkable host sensitivity to LPS and the means whereby specific LPS structural features are discerned. More recently, the noncanonical inflammasome, consisting of caspases-4/5 in humans and caspase-11 in mice, has been demonstrated to mediate responses to LPS that has reached the host cytosol. Precisely how LPS gains access to cytosolic caspases—and in what form—is not well characterized, and understanding this process will provide crucial insights into how the noncanonical inflammasome is regulated during infection. Herein, we briefly review what is known about LPS detection by cytosolic caspases-4/5/11, focusing on lessons derived from studies of the better-characterized TLR4 system that might direct future mechanistic questions.

Francisella tularensis is the causative agent of the life-threatening disease tularemia. The Centers for Disease Control considers F. tularensis among the most likely agents of biowarfare due to its high mortality rate, ease of aerosol transmission, and low infectious dose. A fundamental aspect of tularemia pathogenesis is the overwhelming accumulation of neutrophils in the lung that are incapable of bacterial clearance and furthermore injurious to the host tissue, as neutrophilia exacerbates disease and blockade of neutrophil influx into the lungs favors host survival. We hypothesized that the pathologic accretion of neutrophils may be the result of decreased neutrophil death and/or decreased clearance by macrophages.Our lab recently demonstrated that F. tularensis delays neutrophil apoptosis by at least 48 hours to preserve its replicative niche, but the mechanism by which this occurs was poorly defined. Here, we investigate alterations in neutrophil apoptosis and survival signaling at the molecular level and find that, in addition to effects on neutrophil transcription, F. tularensis also modulates protein abundance, activity, and subcellular localization. Specifically, we report that F. tularensis preserves mitochondrial integrity by inhibiting the pro-apoptotic proteins Bid and Bax as well as maintaining expression of the pro-survival factors XIAP and calpastatin. Moreover, we found that infection diminishes the ability of R-roscovitine to induce apoptosis, suggesting bacterial modulation of CDK-mediated survival signaling.Following apoptosis, effete neutrophils are rapidly cleared by macrophages in a process termed efferocytosis to avoid neutrophil progression to secondary necrosis and consequent host tissue damage. We demonstrate for the first time that neutrophils laden with F. tularensis are readily consumed by macrophages and release their infectious cargo into the macrophage cytoplasm. The engulfing cell is unable to eradicate the infection and extensive bacterial replication ensues. Intriguingly, we found that unlike other pathogens, covert infection of macrophages by F. tularensis triggers an inflammatory cytokine response that is highly similar to that of directly infected cells, suggesting that efferocytosis is not an essential virulence mechanism for this bacterium. Together, these studies significantly advance our understanding of fundamental F. tularensis virulence mechanisms and disease pathophysiology as well as shed light on other inflammatory disorders characterized by dysregulated neutrophil turnover and clearance.

Francisella tularensis is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular bacterium and the etiologic agent of the zoonosis tularemia. Inhalation of as few as 10 organisms can cause a severe pneumonic disease with a mortality rate reported to be around 30-60% in untreated cases. Due to its highly infectious nature, high mortality rate, and ease of aerosolization, the Centers for Disease Control considers F. tularensis a Tier 1 select agent and potential bioweapon. This organism is capable of producing a severe infection as it gains entry into a number of different host cell types and modulates numerous key innate immune responses. It is noteworthy that neutrophils contribute to tissue destruction and disease severity, as exemplified by studies demonstrating that blocking neutrophil recruitment into infected tissues leads to reduced bacterial load and an overall increase in host survival. Therefore, we hypothesized that neutrophil function is dysregulated in the context of tularemia, a result of modification of neutrophil antimicrobial mechanisms by F. tularensis.Previously, we demonstrated that F. tularensis prolongs human neutrophil lifespan by interfering with the intrinsic, extrinsic, and phagocytosis-induced apoptotic pathways. How this prolongation occurs is incompletely defined; however, our published data suggest secreted or extracellular factors function in this process. The major aims of the studies outline in this thesis were aimed at investigating the effectors produced by F. tularensis that function in the inhibition of human neutrophil apoptosis and the survival signaling within these immune cells that may lead to their prolonged lifespan. Moreover, we examined the related, less virulent strain, F. novicida, to determine the extent to which this organism shares the ability to modulate neutrophil apoptosis like F. tularensis.Herein, we report that F. tularensis activates multiple survival signaling pathways in neutrophils. In addition, we provide insight into the properties of the extracellular, antiapoptotic factors produced by F. tularensis, and furthermore, describe the identification of Francisella-derived lipoproteins as functional antiapoptotic effectors acting specifically via TLR2/1. Lastly, we report the novel finding that F. novicida manipulates apoptosis and extends neutrophil lifespan by utilizing a similar, yet distinct mechanism as F. tularensis.

In humans and other mammals, recognition of endotoxins—abundant surface lipopolysaccharides (LPS) of Gram-negative bacteria—provides a potent stimulus for induction of inflammation and mobilization of host defenses. The structurally unique lipid A region of LPS is the principal determinant of this pro-inflammatory activity. This region of LPS is normally buried within the bacterial outer membrane and aggregates of purified LPS, making even more remarkable its picomolar potency and the ability of discrete variations in lipid A structure to markedly alter the pro-inflammatory activity of LPS. Two recognition systems—MD-2/TLR4 and “LPS-sensing” cytosolic caspases—together confer LPS responsiveness at the host cell surface, within endosomes, and at sites physically accessible to the cytosol. Understanding how the lipid A of LPS is delivered and recognized at these diverse sites is crucial to understanding how the magnitude and character of the inflammatory responses are regulated.

Francisella tularensis infects several cell types including neutrophils, and aberrant neutrophil accumulation contributes to tissue destruction during tularaemia. We demonstrated previously that F. tularensis strains Schu S4 and live vaccine strain markedly delay human neutrophil apoptosis and thereby prolong cell lifespan, but the bacterial factors that mediate this aspect of virulence are undefined. Herein, we demonstrate that bacterial conditioned medium (CM) can delay apoptosis in the absence of direct infection. Biochemical analyses show that CM contained F. tularensis surface factors as well as outer membrane components. Our previous studies excluded roles for lipopolysaccharide and capsule in apoptosis inhibition, and current studies of [¹⁴C] acetate‐labelled bacteria argue against a role for other bacterial lipids in this process. At the same time, studies of isogenic mutants indicate that TolC and virulence factors whose expression requires FevR or MglA were also dispensable, demonstrating that apoptosis inhibition does not require Type I or Type VI secretion. Instead, we identified bacterial lipoproteins (BLPs) as active factors in CM. Additional studies of isolated BLPs demonstrated dose‐dependent neutrophil apoptosis inhibition via a TLR2‐dependent mechanism that is significantly influenced by a common polymorphism, rs5743618, in human TLR1. These data provide fundamental new insight into pathogen manipulation of neutrophil lifespan and BLP function.

Caspases of the non-canonical inflammasome (caspases -4, -5, and -11) directly bind endotoxin (LOS/LPS) and can be activated in the absence of any co-factors. Models of LPS-induced caspase activation have postulated that 1:1 binding of endotoxin monomers to caspase trigger caspase oligomerization and activation, analogous to that established for endotoxin-induced activation of MD-2/TLR4. However, using metabolically radiolabeled LOS and LPS, we now show high affinity and selective binding of caspase-4 to high molecular mass aggregates of purified endotoxin and to endotoxin-rich outer membrane vesicles without formation of 1:1 endotoxin:caspase complexes. Thus, our findings demonstrate markedly different endotoxin recognition properties of caspase-4 from that of MD-2/TLR4 and strongly suggest that activation of caspase-4 (and presumably caspase-5 and caspase-11) are mediated by interactions with activating endotoxin-rich membrane interfaces rather than by endotoxin monomers.

Francisella tularensis, the Gram-negative bacterium that causes tularemia, produces a high molecular weight capsule that is immunologically distinct from Francisella lipopolysaccharide but contains the same O-antigen tetrasaccharide. To pursue the possibility that the capsule of Francisella live vaccine strain (LVS) has a structurally unique lipid anchor, we have metabolically labeled Francisella with [¹⁴C]acetate to facilitate highly sensitive compositional analysis of capsule-associated lipids. Capsule was purified by two independent methods and yielded similar results. Autoradiographic and immunologic analysis confirmed that this purified material was largely devoid of low molecular weight LPS and of the copious amounts of free lipid A that the Francisellae accumulate. Chemical hydrolysis yielded [¹⁴C]-labeled free fatty acids characteristic of Francisella lipid A but with a different molar ratio of 3-OH C18:0 to 3-OH C16:0 and different composition of non-hydroxylated fatty acids (mainly C14:0 rather than C16:0) than that of free Francisella lipid A. Mild acid hydrolysis to induce selective cleavage of KDO-lipid A linkage yielded a [¹⁴C]-labeled product that partitioned during Bligh/Dyer extraction and migrated during thin-layer chromatography like lipid A. These findings suggest that the O-antigen capsule of Francisella contains a covalently linked and structurally distinct lipid A species. The presence of a discrete lipid A-like molecule associated with capsule raises the possibility that Francisella selectively exploits lipid A structural heterogeneity to regulate synthesis, transport, and stable bacterial surface association of the O-antigen capsular layer.

The infectious metacyclic promastigotes ofLeishmaniaprotozoa establish infection in a mammalian host after they are deposited into the dermis by a sand fly vector. SeveralLeishmaniavirulence factors promote infection, including the glycosylphosphatidylinositol membrane-anchored major surface protease (MSP). MetacyclicLeishmania infantum chagasipromastigotes were treated with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MβCD), a sterol-chelating reagent, causing a 3-fold reduction in total cellular sterols as well as enhancing MSP release without affecting parasite viabilityin vitro. MβCD-treated promastigotes were more susceptible to complement-mediated lysis than untreated controls and reduced the parasite load 3-fold when inoculated into BALB/c mice. Paradoxically, MβCD-treated promastigotes caused a higher initialin vitroinfection rate in human or murine macrophages than untreated controls, although their intracellular multiplication was hindered upon infection establishment. There was a corresponding larger amount of covalently bound C3b than iC3b on the parasite surfaces of MβCD-treated promastigotes exposed to healthy human serumin vitro, as well as loss of MSP, a protease that enhances C3b cleavage to iC3b. Mass spectrometry showed that MβCD promotes the release of proteins into the extracellular medium, including both MSP and MSP-like protein (MLP), from virulent metacyclic promastigotes. These data support the hypothesis that plasma membrane sterols are important for the virulence ofLeishmaniaprotozoa at least in part through retention of membrane virulence proteins.

A hallmark of Francisella tularensis, a highly virulent Gram-negative bacterium, is an unusual LPS that possesses both structural heterogeneity and characteristics that may contribute to innate immune evasion. However, none of the methods yet employed has been sufficient to determine the overall LPS composition of Francisella. We now demonstrate that metabolic labeling of francisellae with [¹⁴C]acetate, combined with fractionation of [¹⁴C]acetate-labeled lipids by ethanol precipitation rather than hot phenol–water extraction, permits a more sensitive and quantitative appraisal of overall compositional heterogeneity in lipid A and LPS. The majority of lipid A of different francisellae strains grown in diverse bacteriologic media and within human phagocytes accumulated as very hydrophobic species, including free lipid A, with 14C]acetate greatly facilitates assessment of the effect of genotypic and/or environmental variables on the synthesis and accumulation of lipid A and LPS by Francisella, including during growth within the cytosol of infected host cells.