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Induction of IL-12p40 and type 1 immunity by Toxoplasma gondii in the absence of the TLR-MyD88 signaling cascade.

ABSTRACT: Toxoplasma gondii is an orally acquired pathogen that induces strong IFN-γ based immunity conferring protection but that can also be the cause of immunopathology. The response in mice is driven in part by well-characterized MyD88-dependent signaling pathways. Here we focus on induction of less well understood immune responses that do not involve this Toll-like receptor (TLR)/IL-1 family receptor adaptor molecule, in particular as they occur in the intestinal mucosa. Using eYFP-IL-12p40 reporter mice on an MyD88-/- background, we identified dendritic cells, macrophages, and neutrophils as cellular sources of MyD88-independent IL-12 after peroral T. gondii infection. Infection-induced IL-12 was lower in the absence of MyD88, but was still clearly above noninfected levels. Overall, this carried through to the IFN-γ response, which while generally decreased was still remarkably robust in the absence of MyD88. In the latter mice, IL-12 was strictly required to induce type I immunity. Type 1 and type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC), CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells each contributed to the IFN-γ pool. We report that ILC3 were expanded in infected MyD88-/- mice relative to their MyD88+/+ counterparts, suggesting a compensatory response triggered by loss of MyD88. Furthermore, bacterial flagellin and Toxoplasma specific CD4+ T cell populations in the lamina propria expanded in response to infection in both WT and KO mice. Finally, we show that My88-independent IL-12 and T cell mediated IFN-γ production require the presence of the intestinal microbiota. Our results identify MyD88-independent intestinal immune pathways induced by T. gondii including myeloid cell derived IL-12 production, downstream type I immunity and IFN-γ production by ILC1, ILC3, and T lymphocytes. Collectively, our data reveal an underlying network of immune responses that do not involve signaling through MyD88.

SUBMITTER: Snyder LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8513874 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Toxoplasma gondii is an important intracellular protozoan, which needs to exploit host nutrition for successful parasitism. We previously reported that Casitas B-lineage lymphoma-b (Cbl-b) was screened as a host dependency factor of T. gondii by using lentiviral CRISPR-Cas9-single guide RNA (sgRNA) libraries. Furthermore, the detailed mechanism of Cbl-b being required by T. gondii infection was explored in this study. The proliferation of T. gondii was found to be significantly inhibited in Cbl-b knockdown cell lines, and the Cbl-b expression level increased with prolonged T. gondii infection, while the MyD88 level was significantly decreased in the T. gondii infection group. Toll-like receptor (TLR)/MyD88 is a conserved innate cellular immune signaling pathway against pathogens infection. Cbl-b was found to interact with MyD88 and mediate MyD88 ubiquitination in the fluorescence resonance energy transfer and co-immunoprecipitation experiments. A Cbl-b knockout (KO) C57BL/6J lineage was then constructed and, together with the wild-type (WT) mice, was infected with the same amount of T. gondii tachyzoites of ME49 strain. At 13 days post infection, all the mice in the WT group died, while 80% of the mice in the Cbl-b KO group still survived, even to the end of the experiment. The parasitic burden in the liver, lung, and brain of the Cbl-b KO mice was significantly lower than that of the WT mice (P < 0.05). In Cbl-b KO infected mice, the percentage of B cells was higher, whereas that of macrophages was lower, and the interferon-γ and interleukin-6 levels in the serum were higher than that in the WT infected mice; the difference was significant (P < 0.05). Furthermore, when host cells were infected by T. gondii, host's Cbl-b was found to interact with MyD88 to ubiquitinate MyD88 for ribosome-dependent degradation. Therefore, the host's innate immunity against T. gondii through the TLR/MyD88 pathway was negatively regulated by Cbl-b.IMPORTANCEThis is the first report that a human E3 ubiquitin ligase, Casitas B-lineage lymphoma proto-oncogene B (Cbl-b), functions as a host dependency factor for the intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii and the mechanism for how T. gondii infection inhibits the TLR/MyD88 innate immunity pathway through MyD88 degradation mediated by Cbl-b. This finding is an impactful contribution for understanding the host cell immunity against T. gondii infection.

Project description:BackgroundToxoplasma gondii is a globally distributed protozoan parasite that establishes life-long asymptomatic infection in humans, often emerging as a life-threatening opportunistic pathogen during immunodeficiency. As an intracellular microbe, Toxoplasma establishes an intimate relationship with its host cell from the outset of infection. Macrophages are targets of infection and they are important in early innate immunity and possibly parasite dissemination throughout the host. Here, we employ an RNA-sequencing approach to identify host and parasite transcriptional responses during infection of mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM). We incorporated into our analysis infection with the high virulence Type I RH strain and the low virulence Type II strain PTG. Because the well-known TLR-MyD88 signaling axis is likely of less importance in humans, we examined transcriptional responses in both MyD88+/+ and MyD88-/- BMDM. Long noncoding (lnc) RNA molecules are emerging as key regulators in infection and immunity, and were, therefore, included in our analysis.ResultsWe found significantly more host genes were differentially expressed in response to the highly virulent RH strain rather than with the less virulent PTG strain (335 versus 74 protein coding genes for RH and PTG, respectively). Enriched in these protein coding genes were subsets associated with the immune response as well as cell adhesion and migration. We identified 249 and 83 non-coding RNAs as differentially expressed during infection with RH and PTG strains, respectively. Although the majority of these are of unknown function, one conserved lncRNA termed mir17hg encodes the mir17 microRNA gene cluster that has been implicated in down-regulating host cell apoptosis during T. gondii infection. Only a minimal number of transcripts were differentially expressed between MyD88 knockout and wild type cells. However, several immune genes were among the differences. While transcripts for parasite secretory proteins were amongst the most highly expressed T. gondii genes during infection, no differentially expressed parasite genes were identified when comparing infection in MyD88 knockout and wild type host BMDM.ConclusionsThe large dataset presented here lays the groundwork for continued studies on both the MyD88-independent immune response and the function of lncRNAs during Toxoplasma gondii infection.

Project description:CD8(+) T cells play an essential role in the protection against both acute as well as chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection. Although the role of IL-15 has been reported to be important for the development of long-term CD8(+) T cell immunity against the pathogen, the simultaneous roles played by both IL-15 and related gamma-chain family cytokine IL-7 in the generation of this response during acute phase of infection has not been described. We demonstrate that while lack of IL-7 or IL-15 alone has minimal impact on splenic CD8(+) T cell maturation or effector function development during acute Toxoplasmosis, absence of both IL-7 and IL-15 only in the context of infection severely down-regulates the development of a potent CD8(+) T cell response. This impairment is characterized by reduction in CD44 expression, IFN-gamma production, proliferation and cytotoxicity. However, attenuated maturation and decreased effector functions in these mice are essentially downstream consequences of reduced number of antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells. Interestingly, the absence of both cytokines did not impair initial CD8(+) T cell generation but affected their survival and differentiation into memory phenotype IL-7Ralpha(hi) cells. Significantly lack of both cytokines severely affected expression of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic protein, but minimally affected proliferation. The overarching role played by these cytokines in eliciting a potent CD8(+) T cell immunity against T. gondii infection is further evidenced by poor survival and high parasite burden in anti IL-7 treated IL-15(-/-) mice. These studies demonstrate that the two cytokines, IL-7 and IL-15, are exclusively important for the development of protective CD8(+) T cell immune response against T. gondii. To the best of our knowledge this synergism between IL-7 and IL-15 in generating an optimal CD8(+) T cell immunity against intracellular parasite or any other infectious disease model has not been previously reported.

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Induction of IL-12p40 and type 1 immunity by Toxoplasma gondii in the absence of the TLR-MyD88 signaling cascade.

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