Project description:Typhoid fever, caused primarily by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), is a life-threatening systemic disease responsible for significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. 3-5% of individuals infected with S. Typhi become chronic carriers due to bacterial persistence in the gallbladder. We have demonstrated that Salmonella forms biofilms on gallstones to establish gallbladder carriage. However, an in-depth molecular understanding of chronic carriage in the gallbladder, from the perspective of both the pathogen and host, is poorly defined. To examine the dynamics of the gallbladder in response to Salmonella infection, we performed transcriptional profiling in the mouse gallbladder at early (7 day) and chronic (21 day) time points. RNA-Seq revealed a shift from a Th1 pro-inflammatory response at 7 days post infection (DPI) towards an anti-inflammatory Th2 response by 21 DPI, characterized by increased levels of immunoglobulins and the Th2 master transcriptional regulator, GATA3. Additionally, bioinformatic analysis predicted the upstream regulation of characteristic Th2 markers including IL-4 and Stat6. Immunohistochemistry and FACS analysis confirmed a significant increase in lymphocytes, including T and B cells, at 21 DPI in mice with gallstones. Interestingly, Salmonella-specific CD4 T-cells were ten-fold higher in the gallbladder of mice with gallstones at 21 DPI. We speculate that the biofilm state allows Salmonella to resist the initial onslaught of the Th1 inflammatory response, while yet undefined events influence a switch in the host immunity towards a more permissive Type 2 response, enabling the establishment of chronic infection.
Project description:Background: Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A are the agents of enteric (typhoid) fever; both can establish chronic carriage in the gallbladder. Chronic Salmonella carriers are typically asymptomatic, intermittently shedding bacteria in the feces, and contributing to disease transmission. Detecting chronic carriers is of public health relevance in areas where enteric fever is endemic, but there are no routinely used methods for prospectively identifying those carrying Salmonella in their gallbladder. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we aimed to identify biomarkers of Salmonella carriage using metabolite profiling. We performed metabolite profiling on plasma from Nepali patients undergoing cholecystectomy with confirmed S. Typhi or S. Paratyphi A gallbladder carriage (and non-carriage controls) using two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-TOFMS) and supervised pattern recognition modeling. We were able to significantly discriminate Salmonella carriage samples from non-carriage control samples. We were also able to detect differential signatures between S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A carriers. We additionally compared carriage metabolite profiles with profiles generated during acute infection; these data revealed substantial heterogeneity between metabolites associated with acute enteric fever and chronic carriage. Lastly, we found that Salmonella carriers could be significantly distinguished from non-carriage controls using only five metabolites, indicating the potential of these metabolites as diagnostic markers for detecting chronic Salmonella carriers. Conclusions/Significance: Our novel approach has highlighted the potential of using metabolomics to search for diagnostic markers of chronic Salmonella carriage. We suggest further epidemiological investigations of these potential biomarkers in alternative endemic enteric fever settings.
Project description:Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), a human-restricted pathogen, enters the host through the gut to cause typhoid fever. Recent calculations of the typhoid fever burden estimated that more than 20 million new typhoid fever cases occur in low and middle-income countries, resulting in 129,000-223,000 deaths yearly. Interestingly, upon the resolution of acute disease, 1%-5% of patients become asymptomatic chronic carriers of S. Typhi. Chronically infected hosts are not only critical reservoirs of infection that transmit the disease to naive individuals but are also predisposed to developing gallbladder carcinoma (GBC). Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms involved in the early interactions between gallbladder epithelial cells and S. Typhi remain largely unknown. Based on our previous studies showing that very closely related S. Typhi strains elicit distinct innate immune responses, we hypothesized that host molecular pathways activated by S. Typhi strains derived from acutely and chronically infected patients will differ. To test this hypothesis, we used a novel human organoid-derived polarized gallbladder monolayer (HODGM) model, and 13 S. Typhi strains derived from acutely (n=6) and chronically (n=7) infected patients. We found that S. Typhi strains derived from acutely and chronically infected patients differentially regulate mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and S6 transcription factors. This differential regulation impacts, at least in part, the cytokine signaling pathway involved in the production of TNF- and IL-6 and is likely to play a critical role in inducing chronic S. Typhi infection in the gallbladder.
Project description:Human genetic diversity can reveal critical factors in host-pathogen interactions. This is especially useful for human-restricted pathogens like Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), the cause of Typhoid fever. One key dynamic during infection is competition for nutrients: host cells attempt to restrict intracellular replication by depriving bacteria of key nutrients or delivering toxic metabolites in a process called nutritional immunity. Here, a cellular genome-wide association study of intracellular replication by S. Typhi in nearly a thousand cell lines from around the world—and extensive follow-up using intracellular S. Typhi transcriptomics and manipulation of magnesium concentrations—demonstrates that the divalent cation channel mucolipin-2 (MCOLN2) restricts S. Typhi intracellular replication through magnesium deprivation. Our results reveal natural diversity in Mg2+ limitation as a key component of nutritional immunity against S. Typhi.
Project description:Global expression profiles of Salmonella typhi grown in the supernatant of infection and within human macrophages at 0h, 2h, 8h and 24h were obtained. Stringent analytical methods were used to compare Salmonella typhi cDNAs and revealed that known virulence factors, such as the SPI-1 and SPI-2 encoded type III secretion systems, were found to be expressed as predicted during infection by Salmonella. Intracellular Typhi expressed many genes encoding antimicrobial peptides, used the glyoxylate bypass for fatty acid utilization, and, did not induce the SOS response or the oxidative stress response. Genes coding for the flagellar apparatus, chemotaxis and the iron transport system were down-regulated in vivo. The combined use of SCOTS and microarray is an effective way to determine global bacterial gene expression profiling in the context of host infection, without the need of increasing the multiplicity of infection beyond what is seen in nature. Keywords: Time course
Project description:Sequencing of RNA of selected Salmonella Typhi strains from typhoid-endemic regions of Asia and Africahttp://www.sanger.ac.uk/resources/downloads/bacteria/salmonella.htmlThese data are part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/
Project description:Macrophages provide a crucial environment for Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) to multiply during typhoid fever, yet our understanding of how human macrophages and S. Typhi interact remains limited. In this study, we delve into the dynamics of S. Typhi replication within human macrophages and the resulting heterogeneous transcriptomic responses of macrophages during infection. Our study reveals key factors that influence macrophage diversity, uncovering distinct immune and metabolic pathways associated with different stages of S. Typhi intracellular replication in macrophages. Of note, we found that macrophages harboring replicating S. Typhi are skewed towards an M1 pro-inflammatory state, whereas macrophages containing non-replicating S. Typhi exhibit neither a distinct M1 pro-inflammatory nor M2 anti-inflammatory state. Additionally, macrophages with replicating S. Typhi were characterized by the increased expression of genes associated with STAT3 phosphorylation and the activation of the STAT3 transcription factor. Our results shed light on transcriptomic pathways involved in the susceptibility of human macrophages to intracellular S. Typhi replication, thereby providing crucial insight into host phenotypes that restrict and support S. Typhi infection.
Project description:Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica contains more than 2,600 serovars of which four are of major medical relevance for humans. While the typhoidal serovars (Typhi and Paratyphi A) are human-restricted and cause enteric fever, non-typhoidal Salmonella serovars (Typhimurium and Enteritidis) have a broad host range and predominantly cause gastroenteritis. In this study, we compared the core proteomes of Salmonella Typhi, Paratyphi A, Typhimurium and Enteritidis using contemporary proteomics. Five isolates, covering different geographical origins, and one reference strain per serovar were grown in vitro to the exponential phase. Protein levels of orthologous proteins between serovars were compared and subjected to gene ontology term enrichment and inferred regulatory interactions. Differential expression of the core proteomes of the typhoidal serovars appears mainly related to cell surface components and, for the non-typhoidal serovars, to pathogenicity. Our findings may guide future development of novel diagnostics and vaccines, and understanding of disease progression.
Project description:Infection with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi in humans causes the systemic, life-threatening disease typhoid fever. In the laboratory, typhoid fever can be modeled through the inoculation of susceptible mice with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The ensuing disease is characterized by systemic dissemination and colonization of many organs, including the liver, spleen and gallbladder. Using this murine model, we previously characterized the interactions between Salmonella Typhimurium and host cells in the gallbladder and showed that this pathogen can successfully invade gallbladder epithelial cells and proliferate. Additionally, we showed that Salmonella Typhimurium can use bile phospholipids to grow at high rates. These abilities are likely important for quick colonization of the gallbladder during typhoid fever and further pathogen dissemination through fecal shedding. To further characterize the interactions between Salmonella and the gallbladder environment we compared the transcriptome of Salmonella cultures grown in LB or physiological murine bile. Our data showed that many genes involved in bacterial central metabolism are affected by bile, with the citric acid cycle being repressed and alternative respiratory systems being activated. Additionally, our study revealed a new aspect of Salmonella interactions with bile through the identification of phoP as a bile-responsive gene. Repression of phoP expression does not involve PhoPQ sensing of a bile component. Due to its critical role in Salmonella virulence, further studies in this area will likely reveal aspects of the interaction between Salmonella and bile that are relevant to disease.