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The intracellular bacterium Rickettsia rickettsii exerts an inhibitory effect on the apoptosis of tick cells.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Rickettsia rickettsii is a tick-borne obligate intracellular bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a life-threatening illness. To obtain an insight into the vector-pathogen interactions, we assessed the effects of infection with R. rickettsii on the proteome cells of the tick embryonic cell line BME26.

Methods

The proteome of BME26 cells was determined by label-free high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Also evaluated were the effects of infection on the activity of caspase-3, assessed by the hydrolysis of a synthetic fluorogenic substrate in enzymatic assays, and on the exposition of phosphatidyserine, evaluated by live-cell fluorescence microscopy after labeling with annexin-V. Finally, the effects of activation or inhibition of caspase-3 activity on the growth of R. rickettsii in BME26 cells was determined.

Results

Tick proteins of different functional classes were modulated in a time-dependent manner by R. rickettsii infection. Regarding proteins involved in apoptosis, certain negative regulators were downregulated at the initial phase of the infection (6 h) but upregulated in the middle of the exponential phase of the bacterial growth (48 h). Microorganisms are known to be able to inhibit apoptosis of the host cell to ensure their survival and proliferation. We therefore evaluated the effects of infection on classic features of apoptotic cells and observed DNA fragmentation exclusively in noninfected cells. Moreover, both caspase-3 activity and phosphatidylserine exposition were lower in infected than in noninfected cells. Importantly, while the activation of caspase-3 exerted a detrimental effect on rickettsial proliferation, its inhibition increased bacterial growth.

Conclusions

Taken together, these results show that R. rickettsii modulates the proteome and exerts an inhibitory effect on apoptosis in tick cellsthat seems to be important to ensure cell colonization.

SUBMITTER: Martins LA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7706286 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Different types of cell death, including apoptosis, play an important role in the immune defense of arthropods, as infected cells are eliminated, preventing the dissemination of the infectious agent throughout the animal body. The apoptosis can be triggered by two main pathways: the intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway and the extrinsic or death receptor pathway. Both culminate in the activation of the effector caspases, such as caspase-3, resulting, for instance in DNA fragmentation and exposition of markers on the surface of the apoptotic cell, allowing its recognition and elimination by phagocytic cells. To ensure survival and proliferation, microorganisms can inhibit apoptosis of the host cell. The differential proteome of a tick cell line (BME26) in response to an experimental infection with Rickettsia rickettsii, causative agent of the severe Rocky Mountain spotted fever, showed that pro-apoptotic proteins are downregulated in the beginning of infection (6 h) and upregulated in a later time-point (48 h). We therefore evaluated the effects of infection on classic features of apoptotic cells: the spontaneous fragmentation of gDNA and the activity of caspase-3 and the exposition of phosphatidylserine in BME26 cells after induction with staurosporine, a classic activator of apoptosis. The spontaneous fragmentation of DNA was observed exclusively in non-infected cells. In addition, the activity of caspase-3 and the exposition of phosphatidylserine is lower in infected than in non-infected cells. Caspase-3 activity is also lower in infected IBU/ASE-16 cells, an embryonic tick cell line of one primary vector of R. rickettsii in Brazil, Amblyomma sculptum. Importantly, while the activation of caspase-3 exerted a detrimental effect on rickettsial proliferation in BME26 cells, the enzyme inhibition increased bacterial growth. Together, our results suggest that R. rickettsii controls the apoptosis in tick cells, which seems to be important to ensure the colonization of the vector cell. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the modulation of the apoptosis in a tick cell line upon the infection with a species of the genus Rickettsia.