Project description:BackgroundVisceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a vector borne zoonotic disease endemic in humans and dogs in Brazil. Due to the increased risk of human infection secondary to the presence of infected dogs, public health measures in Brazil mandate testing and culling of infected dogs. Despite this important relationship between human and canine infection, little is known about what makes the dog reservoir progress to clinical illness, significantly tied to infectiousness to sand flies. Dogs in endemic areas of Brazil are exposed to many tick-borne pathogens, which are likely to alter the immune environment and thus control of L. infantum.ResultsA cross-sectional study of 223 dogs from an area of Natal, in the Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, were studied to determine the association between comorbid tick-borne disease and Leishmania infection in this endemic area. The risk of Leishmania seropositivity was 1.68× greater in dogs with tick-borne disease seropositivity compared to those without (Adjusted RR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.09-2.61, P = 0.019). A longitudinal study of 214 hunting dogs in the USA was conducted to determine the causal relationship between infection with tick-borne diseases and progression of VL. Hunting dogs were evaluated three times across a full tick season to detect incident infection with tick-borne diseases. A logistic regression model with generalized estimating equations to estimate the parameters was used to determine how exposure to tick-borne disease altered VL progression over these three time points when controlling for other variables. Dogs infected with three or more tick-borne diseases were 11× more likely to be associated with progression to clinical VL than dogs with no tick-borne disease (Adjusted RR: 11.64, 95% CI: 1.22-110.99, P = 0.03). Dogs with exposure to both Leishmania spp. and tick-borne diseases were five times more likely to die during the study period (RR: 4.85, 95% CI: 1.65-14.24, P = 0.0051).ConclusionsComorbid tick-borne diseases dramatically increased the likelihood that a dog had clinical L. infantum infection, making them more likely to transmit infection to sand flies and people. As an important consequence, reduction of tick-borne disease exposure through topical or oral insecticides may be an important way to reduce progression and transmissibility of Leishmania infection from the canine reservoir to people.

Project description:It has long been a quest in ruminants to understand how two very similar mycobacterial species, Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) and Mycobacterium avium ssp. avium (MAA) lead to either a chronic persistent infection or a rapid-transient infection, respectively. Here, we hypothesized that when the host immune response is activated by MAP or MAA, the outcome of the infection depends on the early activation of signaling molecules and host temporal gene expression. To test our hypothesis, ligated jejuno-ileal loops including Peyer's patches in neonatal calves were inoculated with PBS, MAP, or MAA. A temporal analysis of the host transcriptome profile was conducted at several times post-infection (0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 hours). When comparing the transcriptional responses of calves infected with the MAA versus MAP, discordant patterns of mucosal expression were clearly evident, and the numbers of unique transcripts altered were moderately less for MAA-infected tissue than were mucosal tissues infected with the MAP. To interpret these complex data, changes in the gene expression were further analyzed by dynamic Bayesian analysis. Bayesian network modeling identified mechanistic genes, gene-to-gene relationships, pathways and Gene Ontologies (GO) biological processes that are involved in specific cell activation during infection. MAP and MAA had significant different pathway perturbation at 0.5 and 12 hours post inoculation. Inverse processes were observed between MAP and MAA response for epithelial cell proliferation, negative regulation of chemotaxis, cell-cell adhesion mediated by integrin and regulation of cytokine-mediated signaling. MAP inoculated tissue had significantly lower expression of phagocytosis receptors such as mannose receptor and complement receptors. This study reveals that perturbation of genes and cellular pathways during MAP infection resulted in host evasion by mucosal membrane barrier weakening to access entry in the ileum, inhibition of Ca signaling associated with decreased phagosome-lysosome fusion as well as phagocytosis inhibition, bias toward Th2 cell immune response accompanied by cell recruitment, cell proliferation and cell differentiation; leading to persistent infection. Contrarily, MAA infection was related to cellular responses associated with activation of molecular pathways that release chemicals and cytokines involved with containment of infection and a strong bias toward Th1 immune response, resulting in a transient infection.

Project description:BackgroundMycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis is a common intracellular pathogen that infects patients with HIV/AIDS and cause lung infection in patients with underlying lung pathology. M.avium preferably infects macrophages and uses diverse mechanisms to alter phagosome maturation. Once in the macrophage, the pathogen can alter the host cellular defenses by secreting proteins into the cytosol of host cells, but despite considerable research, only a few secreted effector proteins have been identified. We hypothesized that the environmental cues inside the phagosome can trigger bacterial protein secretion. To identify M. avium secretome within the phagosome, we utilized a previously established in vitro system that mimics the metal ion concentrations and pH of the M. avium phagosome.ResultsM. avium was exposed to phagosome metal concentrations for different time points and exported proteins were profiled and analyzed against bacterial proteins secreted in the culture medium. Mass spectrometric analysis of the secreted proteome identified several proteins, of which 46 were unique to bacteria incubated in the metal mixture. Ten of potential effectors were selected and secretion of these proteins was monitored within M. avium infected mononuclear phagocytic cells using the beta-lactamase FRET-based reporter system. In addition, pull-down assay was performed for secreted calmodulin-like protein MAV_1356 protein to evaluate for eukaryotic target. All examined M. avium proteins were secreted into the macrophage cytosol, and gene expression analysis suggested that the metal environment likely stimulates secretion of pre-made proteins. Further investigation of bacterial secreted MAV_1356 protein, lead to the observation that the MAV_1356 interacts with the host proteins Annexin A1 and Protein S100-A8.ConclusionsWe established an in vitro system for the study if proteins secreted intracellularly, and revealed that the metal mixture mimicking the concentration of metals in the phagosome environment, triggers protein secretion.

Project description:Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection is established following the ingestion of bacteria, their penetration of the intestinal mucosa and subsequent events of the host-parasite interaction. These bacteria invade M cells, macrophages and are capable of resisting host defenses and multiply to reach very high numbers intracellular. Mycobactrium avium subsp. avium (MAA) is an antigenically and genetically similar organisms but is relatively nonpathogenic for cattle. MAA organisms appear to infect cattle, but unlike cattle infected with MAP, cattle infected with MAA typically mount an effective systemic immune response, form caseous granuloma, and eliminate the infection. This study was designed to understand the similarities and differences in the host responses during MAP and MAA infection. Neonatal calves were infected (ligated ileal loops) with PBS, MAP, or avirulent MAA following which samples were collected at 30 min, 1h, 2h, 4h, 8h, or 12h. Post-infection, RNA was collected, processed, and then hybridized to custom bovine gene expression arrays, each of which represented 13,258 transcripts spotted in duplicate. Arrays were normalized by scaling against the average reference intensity value (i.e., average across all arrays), normalized by global mean, and then log transformed before statistical analyses were performed. Pairwise comparisons of averaged signal values and Student’s t test were performed using GeneSifter software (VizX Labs, Seattle, WA). A fold-change of at least 1.5-fold and a p value of 0.05 or less was required for a difference in signal to be considered statistically significant. When comparing the transcriptional responses of calves infected with the MAA versus MAP, unique patterns of expression were clearly visible. In general, numbers of transcripts altered in response to infection were much greater for MAA-infected animals than for those infected with the MAP. No genes were significantly up-regulated in MAP-infected animals at the earliest time point tested (30 min), and only modest numbers of genes were increased in expression over the experimental time course. On the other hand, up-regulated transcripts were detected by 30 min in MAA-infected animals and peaked by 2 hr. Differences in the numbers of down-regulated genes between MAP-infected and MAA-infected animals (compared to PBS-infected controls) were less pronounced. At the earliest time points, MAP-infected calves had a greater number of down-regulated genes than did animals infected with MAA. This trend was reversed at 8 and 12 hr post-infection. Keywords: Gene expression profiling by microarray

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IFNγR1 deficiency presenting with visceral leishmaniasis and Mycobacterium Avium infections mimicking HLH.

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