Project description:Humans and microorganisms, both symbiotic and pathogenic, have evolved means to communicate through the dissemination of biological signals. In addition to small molecules and proteins, mobile small RNAs (sRNAs) have recently emerged as signal molecules that mediate inter-species crosstalk by functional RNA interference (RNAi). However, the trafficking of sRNAs between humans and microorganisms, as well as the resulting biological consequences, remains unexplored. Here, we report that human cells secrete exosomes to deliver sRNAs into bacteria and induce bacterial gene silencing. The unprecedented RNAi in bacteria is accomplished primarily through translational repression without mRNA degradation, for which the participation of human AGO2 proteins co-transferred with sRNAs is essential. Exosome-mediated bacterial RNAi was further applied to fight superbug infection by targeting drug-resistance genes in a mouse model. Our discovery of this unique exosome-mediated sRNA delivery and gene silencing in bacteria paves the way to understanding and manipulating the cross-kingdom communication between human hosts and intestinal microbiota, as well as between humans and pathogenic bacteria.
Project description:Spinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to persistent functional deficits due to severe neuron and glial loss, and to limited axonal regeneration after injury. Here we show that the transplantation of human dental stem cells into the completely transected adult rat spinal cord resulted in a significant recovery of hindlimb locomotor functions. These stem cells exhibited three major neuro-regenerative activities. First, they inhibited the SCI-induced apoptosis of neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes, improving the preservation of neuronal filaments and myelin sheaths. Second, they promoted the regeneration of transected axons by directly inhibiting multiple axon growth inhibitors, including chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and myelin-associated glycoprotein, by paracrine mechanisms. Third, they replaced lost cells by differentiating into mature oligodendrocytes under the extreme conditions of SCI. Our data demonstrate that tooth-derived stem cells may provide novel therapeutic benefits for treating SCI through both cell-autonomous and paracrine neuro-regenerative activities. Human dental stem cells were isolated from exfoliated deciduous teeth extracted for clinical purposes were collected at Nagoya University School of Medicine, under approved guidelines set by Nagoya University (H-73, 2003). The ethics committee of Nagoya University approved the experimental protocols (permission number 8-2). Mesenchymal stem cells of human Bone marrow line were obtained from Lonza. Total RNAs were isolated and quantified by spectrophotometer. RNA integrity was checked on 1% agarose gels. RT reactions were carried out with Superscript III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen) using 1 μg of total RNA in a 50 μl total reaction volume. Microarray experiments were carried out using a CodeLink™ Human Whole Genome Bioarray (Applied Microarrays, Inc. Tempe, AZ) at Filgen, Inc. (Nagoya, Japan). The arrays were scanned using a GenePix4000B Array Scanner (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA), and the data was analyzed by using MicroArray Data Analysis Tool Ver3.2 (Filgen, Inc.).