Dataset Information

MicroRNA expression profile in human macrophages in response to Leishmania major infection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Leishmania (L.) are intracellular protozoan parasites able to survive and replicate in the hostile phagolysosomal environment of infected macrophages. They cause leishmaniasis, a heterogeneous group of worldwide-distributed affections, representing a paradigm of neglected diseases that are mainly embedded in impoverished populations. To establish successful infection and ensure their own survival, Leishmania have developed sophisticated strategies to subvert the host macrophage responses. Despite a wealth of gained crucial information, these strategies still remain poorly understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), an evolutionarily conserved class of endogenous 22-nucleotide non-coding RNAs, are described to participate in the regulation of almost every cellular process investigated so far. They regulate the expression of target genes both at the levels of mRNA stability and translation; changes in their expression have a profound effect on their target transcripts.

Methodology/principal findings

We report in this study a comprehensive analysis of miRNA expression profiles in L. major-infected human primary macrophages of three healthy donors assessed at different time-points post-infection (three to 24 h). We show that expression of 64 out of 365 analyzed miRNAs was consistently deregulated upon infection with the same trends in all donors. Among these, several are known to be induced by TLR-dependent responses. GO enrichment analysis of experimentally validated miRNA-targeted genes revealed that several pathways and molecular functions were disturbed upon parasite infection. Finally, following parasite infection, miR-210 abundance was enhanced in HIF-1?-dependent manner, though it did not contribute to inhibiting anti-apoptotic pathways through pro-apoptotic caspase-3 regulation.

Conclusions/significance

Our data suggest that alteration in miRNA levels likely plays an important role in regulating macrophage functions following L. major infection. These results could contribute to better understanding of the dynamics of gene expression in host cells during leishmaniasis.

SUBMITTER: Lemaire J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3789763 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

MicroRNA expression profile in human macrophages in response to Leishmania major infection.

Lemaire Julien J Mkannez Ghada G Guerfali Fatma Z FZ Gustin Cindy C Attia Hanène H Sghaier Rabiaa M RM Dellagi Koussay K Laouini Dhafer D Renard Patricia P

PLoS neglected tropical diseases 20131003 10

<h4>Background</h4>Leishmania (L.) are intracellular protozoan parasites able to survive and replicate in the hostile phagolysosomal environment of infected macrophages. They cause leishmaniasis, a heterogeneous group of worldwide-distributed affections, representing a paradigm of neglected diseases that are mainly embedded in impoverished populations. To establish successful infection and ensure their own survival, Leishmania have developed sophisticated strategies to subvert the host macrophag ...[more]

PMID: 24098824

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Project description:Leishmaniasis is an anthropo-zoonotic disease caused by various Leishmania species. The clinical manifestations of the disease vary according to the species and host characteristics. Leishmania infection leads to subversion/modulation of the host's innate immune response and cellular metabolic pathways. In the last years, it has been shown that many host cell gene expression and signaling pathways are targeted by Leishmania to subvert host defenses (e.g., oxidative damage, immune activation, antigen presentation, apoptosis) and allow parasite survival and replication. However, the molecular mechanisms triggered by the parasite are not fully elucidated. The role of miRNA has recently been evaluated in human or murine macrophages infected with Leishmania (Leishmania) major, L. (L.) donovani or L. (L.) amazonensis. However, no literature exists regarding miRNA dysregulation in host cells infected with L. (L.) infantum or L. (Viannia) species. Since we previously showed that L. (L.) infantum infection induced unfolded protein response (UPR) in macrophages, we focused on miR-346, which has been shown to be induced by the UPR-activated transcription factor sXBP1 and has a potential role in the modulation of the immune response. Macrophages differentiated from U937 and/or THP-1 human monocytic cells were infected with four L. (L.) infantum strain/clinical isolates and one L. (V.) sp. clinical isolate. A significant upregulation of miR-346 (p < 0.05) was observed in infections with all the Leishmania species tested. Moreover, RFX1 (a miR-346 predicted target gene) was found to be significantly downregulated (p < 0.05) after 48h infection, and miR-346 was found to have a role in this downregulation. The induction of miR-346 in macrophages infected with L. (L.) infantum and L. (V.) sp., reported here for the first time, could play a role in regulating macrophage functions since several MHC- or interferon-associated genes are among the targets of this miRNA. Hence, miR-346 could be considered an attractive anti-Leishmania drug target.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Leishmania (L) are intracellular protozoan parasites that are able to survive and replicate within the harsh and potentially hostile phagolysosomal environment of mammalian mononuclear phagocytes. A complex interplay then takes place between the macrophage (MPhi) striving to eliminate the pathogen and the parasite struggling for its own survival. To investigate this host-parasite conflict at the transcriptional level, in the context of monocyte-derived human MPhis (MDM) infection by L. major metacyclic promastigotes, the quantitative technique of serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was used. RESULTS: After extracting mRNA from resting human MPhis, Leishmania-infected human MPhis and L. major parasites, three SAGE libraries were constructed and sequenced generating up to 28,173; 57,514 and 33,906 tags respectively (corresponding to 12,946; 23,442 and 9,530 unique tags). Using computational data analysis and direct comparison to 357,888 publicly available experimental human tags, the parasite and the host cell transcriptomes were then simultaneously characterized from the mixed cellular extract, confidently discriminating host from parasite transcripts. This procedure led us to reliably assign 3,814 tags to MPhis' and 3,666 tags to L. major parasites transcripts. We focused on these, showing significant changes in their expression that are likely to be relevant to the pathogenesis of parasite infection: (i) human MPhis genes, belonging to key immune response proteins (e.g., IFNgamma pathway, S100 and chemokine families) and (ii) a group of Leishmania genes showing a preferential expression at the parasite's intra-cellular developing stage. CONCLUSION: Dual SAGE transcriptome analysis provided a useful, powerful and accurate approach to discriminating genes of human or parasitic origin in Leishmania-infected human MPhis. The findings presented in this work suggest that the Leishmania parasite modulates key transcripts in human MPhis that may be beneficial for its establishment and survival. Furthermore, these results provide an overview of gene expression at two developmental stages of the parasite, namely metacyclic promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes and indicate a broad difference between their transcriptomic profiles. Finally, our reported set of expressed genes will be useful in future rounds of data mining and gene annotation.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Leishmania (L.) species are the causative agent of leishmaniasis. Due to the lack of efficient vaccine candidates, drug therapies are the only option to deal with cutaneous leishmaniasis. Unfortunately, chemotherapeutic interventions show high toxicity in addition to an increased risk of dissemination of drug-resistant parasites. An appropriate laboratory animal based model is still missing which allows testing of new drug strategies in the context of human immune cells in vivo. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Humanized mice were infected subcutaneously with stationary phase promastigote L. major into the footpad. The human immune response against the pathogen and the parasite host interactions were analyzed. In addition we proved the versatility of this new model to conduct drug research studies by the inclusion of orally given Miltefosine. We show that inflammatory human macrophages get infected with Leishmania parasites at the site of infection. Furthermore, a Leishmania-specific human-derived T cell response is initiated. However, the human immune system is not able to prevent systemic infection. Thus, we treated the mice with Miltefosine to reduce the parasitic load. Notably, this chemotherapy resulted in a reduction of the parasite load in distinct organs. Comparable to some Miltefosine treated patients, humanized mice developed severe side effects, which are not detectable in the classical murine model of experimental leishmaniasis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study describes for the first time L. major infection in humanized mice, characterizes the disease development, the induction of human adaptive and innate immune response including cytokine production and the efficiency of Miltefosine treatment in these animals. In summary, humanized mice might be beneficial for future preclinical chemotherapeutic studies in systemic (visceral) leishmaniasis allowing the investigation of human immune response, side effects of the drug due to cytokine production of activated humane immune cells and the efficiency of the treatment to eliminate also not replicating ("hiding") parasites.

Project description:Leishmania (L.) are obligated intracellular protozoan parasites that develop electively in macrophages. These cells that are acting as a safe shelter for the pathogens but also as their ultimate killer, making them the alpha and the omega during leishmaniasis diseases. Macrophages are able to secrete a remarkably diverse set of regulators known to influence the physiological functions and differentiation of neighboring cells to trigger an adaptive immune response of protective Th1-type cells, whereas parasites have developed a wide range of mechanisms to circumvent the hostâs immune responses. Most of our understanding of this host-parasite conflict, in the context of macrophage invasion by L. major metacyclic promastigotes, has been gleaned from studies investigating the macrophage responses at late and unique time points after infection. To investigate the dynamics of this duel, we have analyzed the transciptomic profile of monocyte-derived human macrophages at different time points during the first 24h upon in vitro infection using high throughput microarray platform. The gene expression profile of 17,838 genes showed high expression variability between the three human donors at different time points post infection. Cross comparison between the three donors allowed the identification of a common set of expressed genes coding for inflammatory and chemotactic molecules, transcription factors, apoptosis inhibition, glucose synthesis and heme metabolism. The findings presented in this work suggest that transcriptome dynamics of macrophages early during the first 24h post infection enable to identify novel key pathways deregulated upon L. major invasion. Our reported set of expressed genes will be useful in future rounds of data mining and functional analyses. In total 27 samples from three different donors were analyzed. For each donor, samples at 0h, 3h, 6h, 12h and 24h of culture were used as controls. For each donor, samples of cells infected with metacyclic Leishmania major parasites at 3h, 6h, 12h and 24h post-infection were analyzed.

Project description:To investigate the regulatory mechanisms governing the malignant signature of different gliomas we analyzed microRNA expression profiles in human tumor samples of world health organization (WHO) grade I (benign tumors), II (low grade tumors) and IV (high grade tumors) and from primary cultures obtained from tumor samples of grade II and IV. Patients This study included tumor samples histologically verified as astrocytic gliomas obtained from patients who had undergone craniotomy for microsurgical tumor removal. According to the revised WHO classification, tumors were diagnosed as: grade I or pilocytic astrocytomas; grade II or diffuse fibrillary astrocytomas; grade IV or glioblastoma multiforme. Primary cell cultures from grade II and grade IV gliomas were also obtained and miRNA expression in these cultures were analyzed RNA extraction Total RNA, including small RNA, was isolated from tissue samples using the mirVanaTM miRNA Isolation Kit (Ambion) following the standard protocol. The quantity and quality of the purified RNA was evaluated by spectrophotometric analysis and electrophoresis on denaturing gel of acrylamide. Multiplex Real-Time Quantitative Reverse-Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) The miRNAs were first converted to cDNA using Multiplex RT for TaqMan Array Human MicroRNA Panel. The RT Master mix included 100 mM each of dNTPs , 50 U/ml MultiScrabe reverse transcriptase (Applied Biosystems), 20 U/µl RNase inhibitor (Applied Biosystems) and 10X RT Buffer. The 10 µl reactions, including 7 µl of RT master mix, 2 µl of purified microRNA and 1 µl of Multiplex RT Human primer pool (Applied Biosystem), were incubated in ice for 5 min and then in a thermal cycler for 30 min at 16°C, 30 min at 42°C, 5 min at 85°C, and then hold at 4°C. miRNA levels were normalized to the expression of small nucleolar RNAs, RNU44, RNU48 and RNU6B. All reverse transcriptase reactions, including no-template controls and RT controls, were run in duplicate. Real-time PCR was performed using a standard TaqMan PCR kit procedure on an “Real Time Fast 7900 HT” PCR System (Applied Biosystems). The 100 µl PCR included 50 µl RT product (before diluited 1:60) and 50 µl TaqMan Universal PCR Master Mix (2X) (Applied Biosystems). The total volume were loaded into Card TaqMan Low Density Array Human MicroRNA Panel (Applied Biosystem) including a total of 384 human microRNAs publicated on databases www.sanger.ac.uk. The reaction cards was runned at 50°C for 2 min and 95°C for 10 min, followed by 40 cycles of 97°C for 30s and 59,7°C for 1 min. All reactions were run in triplicate. Analysis of data was performed using the SDS 2.3 software using the 2-∆∆Ct (relative quantitative) method . The ∆Ct of every miRNA was determined in relation to the endogenous control RNA U6 that was invariably expressed in all samples. The ∆∆Ct value was determined in relation to the calibrator, namely the normal brain tissue. Resulting data were grouped according to the tumor grading e selectioned using a cut-off value of 3. Results were expressed as “fold change” over normal brain tissue. We analyzed two samples of grade I, two samples of grade II, two samples of grade IV gliomas. Four samples form norma brain were used as norma control. Primary cell cultures form grade II and grade IV samples were used for the analysis. All reverse transcriptase reactions, including no-template controls and RT controls, were run in triplicate.

Dataset Information

MicroRNA expression profile in human macrophages in response to Leishmania major infection.

Background

Methodology/principal findings

Conclusions/significance

Publications

MicroRNA expression profile in human macrophages in response to Leishmania major infection.

Similar Datasets

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