Project description:Transcriptional profiling of Coxiella burnetii phase I (RSA 493) submitting either to Cold and Heat shock comparing to control untreated Coxiella burnetii phase I (RSA 493) grown at 35°C.
Project description:Coxiella burnetii is a Gram-negative intracellular pathogen that causes the debilitating disease Q fever, which affects both animals and humans. The only available vaccine, Q-Vax, is effective but has a high risk of severe adverse reactions, limiting its use as a countermeasure to contain outbreaks. Therefore, it is essential to identify new drug targets to treat this infection. Macrophage infectivity potentiator (Mip) proteins catalyze the folding of proline-containing proteins through their peptidyl prolyl cis-trans isomerase (PPIase) activity and have been shown to play an important role in the virulence of several pathogenic bacteria but to date its role in C. burnetii pathogenesis has not been investigated. This study demonstrates that CbMip is likely to be an essential protein in C. burnetii. Pipecolic acid derived compounds, SF235 and AN296 demonstrate inhibitory activities against CbMip and these compounds were found to significantly inhibit intracellular replication of C. burnetii in both HeLa and THP-1 cells. Furthermore, SF235 and AN296 were also found to exhibit antibiotic properties against both the virulent (Phase I) and avirulent (Phase II) forms of C. burnetii Nine Mile Strain RSA439 in axenic culture with comparative proteomic demonstrating selective alterations in response to these agents. This study also showed that exposure of C. burnetii to Mip inhibitors resulted in increased sensitivity to oxidative stress. Furthermore, compounds SF235 and AN296 demonstrated protective activity in vivo and significantly improved the survival of Galleria mellonella infected with C. burnetii. These results suggest that unlike in other bacteria, Mip in C. burnetii is required for growth and replication and that inhibitors against CbMip offer potential as novel therapeutics against C. burnetii.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of Coxiella burnetii phase I (RSA 493) submitting either to Cold and Heat shock comparing to control untreated Coxiella burnetii phase I (RSA 493) grown at 35°C. Four experiments : Cold shock 30 min Vs 35°C; Cold shock 60 min Vs 35°C; Heat shock 30 min Vs 35°C; Heat shock 60 min Vs 35°C 3 biological replicates, independently grown and harvested. Four replicate per array.
Project description:A comparison was made between the THP-1(Human monocytic leukemia cells - TIB-202; ATCC) transcriptional responses of; (i) uninfected versus Coxiella burnetii NMII infected and (ii) uninfected versus Coxiella burnetii NMII infected THP-1 cells transiently treated with bacteriostatic levels (10μg/ml) of chloramphenicol (CAM). Briefly, infections were initiated and cultured in parallel with uninfected cells. At 48 hours post infection (hpi), media containing CAM (10μg/ml) was added to one set of cells (uninfected and infected THP-1 cells) and culturing was continued. The other set of cells were mock treated with normal media. Total RNA was isolated at 72 hpi from all conditions. Microarrays were performed for both condition sets and the results from each of the two microarrays were compared to define the host genes modulated by de novo C. burnetii NMII protein synthesis.