1. Alive pathogenic and saprophytic leptospires enter and exit human and mouse macrophages with no intracellular replication
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Ignacio Santecchia, Delphine Bonhomme, Stylianos Papadopoulos, Pedro Escoll, Alexandre Giraud-Gatineau, Maryse Moya-Nilges, Frédérique Vernel-Pauillac, Ivo Gomperts Boneca, Catherine Werts, Biologie et Génétique de la Paroi bactérienne - Biology and Genetics of Bacterial Cell Wall, Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP)-Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (AP-HP)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Microbiologie Intégrative et Moléculaire (UMR6047), Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Biologie des Bactéries intracellulaires - Biology of Intracellular Bacteria, Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Microbiologie Intégrative et Moléculaire (UMR6047), Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Biologie des Spirochètes / Biology of Spirochetes, Plateforme BioImagerie Ultrastructurale – Ultrastructural BioImaging Platform (UTechS UBI), Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP), This work was founded by Institut Pasteur grants PTR2017-66 to CW and PTR2019-310 to Nadia Benaroudj (Institut Pasteur, Unité de Biologie des Spirochètes) for AGG salary. IS has been part of the Pasteur-Paris University (PPU) International PhD program. This program has received funding from the Institut Carnot Pasteur Microbes & Santé, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 665807. IS has additionally benefited from a scholarship 'Fin de thèse de science' number FDT201805005258 granted by 'Fondation pour la recherche médicale (FRM).' This work was supported by Investissement d’Avenir program, Laboratoire d’Excellence 'Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases' (ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID) to IB., ANR-10-LABX-0062,IBEID,Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases(2010), and European Project: 665807,H2020,H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2014,PASTEURDOC(2015)
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Leptospira ,Microbiology (medical) ,Macrophages ,Immunology ,THP1 cell line ,high content confocal microscopy ,Leptospira biflexa ,Microbiology ,[SDV.MP.BAC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and Parasitology/Bacteriology ,[SDV.IMM.II]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Immunology/Innate immunity ,Rats ,Gentamicin assay ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Mice ,Infectious Diseases ,Animals ,Humans ,Cattle ,Leptospirosis ,RAW 246.7 cells ,Leptospira interrogans ,TLRs ,intracellularity - Abstract
Leptospira interrogansare pathogenic bacteria responsible for leptospirosis, a zoonosis impacting 1 million peopleperyear worldwide. Leptospires can infect all vertebrates, but not all hosts develop similar symptoms. Human and cattle may suffer from mild to acute illnesses and are therefore considered as sensitive to leptospirosis. In contrast, mice and rats remain asymptomatic upon infection, although they get chronically colonized in their kidneys. Upon infection, leptospires are stealth pathogens that partially escape the recognition by the host innate immune system. Although leptospires are mainly extracellular bacteria, it was suggested that they could also replicate within macrophages. However, contradictory data in the current literature led us to reevaluate these findings. Using a gentamicin–protection assay coupled to high-content (HC) microscopy, we observed that leptospires were internalizedin vivoupon peritoneal infection of C57BL/6J mice. Additionally, three different serotypes of pathogenicL. interrogansand the saprophyticL. biflexaactively infected both human (PMA differentiated) THP1 and mouse RAW264.7 macrophage cell lines. Next, we assessed the intracellular fate of leptospires using bioluminescent strains, and we observed a drastic reduction in the leptospiral intracellular load between 3 h and 6 h post-infection, suggesting that leptospires do not replicate within these cells. Surprisingly, the classical macrophage microbicidal mechanisms (phagocytosis, autophagy, TLR–mediated ROS, and RNS production) were not responsible for the observed decrease. Finally, we demonstrated that the reduction in the intracellular load was associated with an increase of the bacteria in the supernatant, suggesting that leptospires exit both human and murine macrophages. Overall, our study reevaluated the intracellular fate of leptospires and favors an active entrance followed by a rapid exit, suggesting that leptospires do not have an intracellular lifestyle in macrophages.
- Published
- 2022
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