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Abstract Background Staphylococcus aureus is the major cause of hospital-acquired and community-acquired pneumonia. Host defense to S.aureus infection is largely mediated by the innate immune system. γδ T cells play an important role in innate immunity to many infectious diseases. However, less is known about the role of these cells during S.aureus-induced pneumonia. In this study, we examined the response and the role of γδ T cells to pulmonary S.aureus infection. Results Mice infected with S. aureus intranasally showed rapid γδ T cells accumulation in the lung. Deficiency of γδ T cells led to attenuated bacterial clearance and less tissue damage in lung compared with WT mice. Moreover, TCR-δ−/− mice exhibited impaired neutrophil recruitment and reduced cytokine production at the site of infection. The γδ T cells in response to pulmonary S. aureus infection mainly secreted IL-17 and γδ T cells deficiency reduced IL-17 production, which might regulate the production of neutrophil-inducing cytokine/chemokine in the S. aureus-infected lungs. Conclusions Accumulation of γδ T cells in the lungs to S. aureus infection is beneficial for bacteria clearance and also contributes to the tissue damage. These cells were the primary source of IL-17, which might influence the recruitment of neutrophils at the early stage of infection.

Ehrlichia chaffeensis is an obligately intracellular bacterium that resides and multiplies within cytoplasmic vacuoles of phagocytes. The Ehrlichia-containing vacuole (ECV) does not fuse with lysosomes, an essential condition for Ehrlichia to survive inside phagocytes, but the mechanism of inhibiting the fusion of the phagosome with lysosomes is not clear. Understanding the ECV molecular composition may decipher the mechanism by which Ehrlichia inhibits phagosome-lysosome fusion. In this study, we obtained highly purified ECVs from E. chaffeensis-infected DH82 cells by sucrose density gradient centrifugation and analyzed their composition by mass spectrometry-based proteomics. The ECV composition was compared with that of phagolysosomes containing latex beads. Lysosomal proteins such as cathepsin D, cathepsin S, and lysosomal acid phosphatase were not detected in E. chaffeensis phagosome preparations. Some small GTPases, involved in membrane dynamics and phagocytic trafficking, were detected in ECVs. A notable finding was that Rab7, a late endosomal marker, was consistently detected in E. chaffeensis phagosomes by mass spectrometry. Confocal microscopy confirmed that E. chaffeensis phagosomes contained Rab7 and were acidified at approximately pH 5.2, suggesting that the E. chaffeensis vacuole was an acidified late endosomal compartment. Our results also demonstrated by mass spectrometry and immunofluorescence analysis that Ehrlichia morulae were not associated with the autophagic pathway. Ehrlichia chaffeensis did not inhibit phagosomes containing latex beads from fusing with lysosomes in infected cells. We concluded that the E. chaffeensis vacuole was a late endosome and E. chaffeensis might inhibit phagosome-lysosome fusion by modifying its vacuolar membrane composition, rather than by regulating the expression of host genes involved in trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: Immunodominance is an important feature of antiviral, antitumor, and antibacterial cellular immune responses, but it is not well demonstrated in the immune responses against Helicobacter pylori. Antigen-specific CD4+ T cells protect mice against infection with H pylori. We investigated the immunodominant CD4+ T-cell response to neuraminyllactose-binding hemagglutinin (HpaA), which is a conserved, H pylori–specific colonization factor that is being investigated as an antigen for vaccination strategies. Methods: HpaA-specific CD4+ T cells were expanded with autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells that had been incubated with recombinant HpaA and characterized using overlapping synthetic peptides. We compared the percentage of CD4+ T cells with specificity for HpaA88–100, restricted to HLA-DRB1*1501, among 59 H pylori–infected subjects with different gastric diseases. Results: We identified and characterized several immunodominant CD4+ T-cell epitopes derived from HpaA. The immunodominant CD4+ T-cell responses specific to HpaA88–100 were observed in most H pylori–infected individuals who expressed HLA-DRB1*1501 and were significantly more abundant in patients with less severe diseases (P < .05). Conclusions: The HLA-DRB1*1501–restricted immunodominant CD4+ T-cell response to HpaA88–100 is associated with reduced risk of severe gastric diseases. Further study of these and other immunodominant CD4+ T-cell responses to H pylori will provide insight into mechanisms of protective immunity and aid in vaccine design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: CD8+ T cells that produce interleukin (IL)-17 (Tc17 cells) promote inflammation and have been identified in tumors. We investigated their role in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. Methods: We used flow cytometry analyses to determine levels and phenotype of Tc17 cells in blood and tumor samples from 103 patients with gastric cancer. We performed multivariate analysis to identify factors associated with overall survival using the Cox proportional hazards model. CD8+ T cells and monocytes were isolated and cocultured in an assay for induction of Tc17 cells. Tumor cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) were isolated and used in assays of Tc17 cell function. Results: Tc17 cells with distinct cytokine and functional profiles were found in gastric tumor samples from patients. The percentage of Tc17 cells increased with tumor progression and was associated with overall survival time. Tumor-activated monocytes secreted IL-6, IL-1β, and IL-23, which promoted development of Tc17 cell populations. Supernatants from cultured Tc17 cells induced production of the chemokine CXCL12 by tumor cells; this promoted CXCR4-dependent migration of MDSCs and impaired functions of anti-tumor CD8+ cytotoxic T cells via a cell contact–dependent mechanism. Conclusions: Percentages of Tc17 cells in gastric tumors are associated with survival times of patients. These cells promote chemotaxis of MDSCs, which might promote tumor progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicobacter pylori evade immune responses and achieve persistent colonization in the stomach. However, the mechanism by which H. pylori infections persist is not clear. In this study, we showed that MIR30B is upregulated during H. pylori infection of an AGS cell line and human gastric tissues. Upregulation of MIR30B benefited bacterial replication by compromising the process of autophagy during the H. pylori infection. As a potential mechanistic explanation for this observation, we demonstrate that MIR30B directly targets ATG12 and BECN1, which are important proteins involved in autophagy. These results suggest that compromise of autophagy by MIR30B allows intracellular H. pylori to evade autophagic clearance, thereby contributing to the persistence of H. pylori infections.

Aim: To assess the variability of adhesin gene hpaA between different Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) strains with PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)., Methods: Twelve different H pylori strains were chosen to amplify the 710-bp segments of gene hpaA. These strains were NCTC11637, SS1; Chongqing clinical isolates CCS9801, CCS9802, CCS9803, CCS9806, CCS9809, CCS9810, CCS9813, which were gained from patients of gastritis; Mongolia gerbil adapted H pylori strains (abbreviation MG), which were gained from the following steps: gastric mucosal specimens of Mongolia gerbils infected by clinical isolate CCS9803 were cultured and detected, the positive H pylori strains were named as the first generation of Mongolia gerbil adapted H pylori strains (abbreviation MG1) and then were subcultured with healthy Mongolia gerbil to generate MG2, in turn to gain the ninth generation (abbreviation MG9). All hpaA segments, obtained from 12 different H pylori strains, were digested by HhaI and HaeIII individually and analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis., Results: In all 12 strains, the 710-bp PCR products were successfully amplified and products were cloned to pMD18-T vector respectively, then the recombinant plasmids were digested simultaneously with NcoI and XhoI to recover the small fragments. The objective fragments from 12 different H pylori strains digested with Hae III could be seen as 4 types of bands and 5 types with Hha I. According to the hpaA RFLP patterns, the 12 H pylori strains could be divided into 5 groups: group I, NCTC11637 and SS1; group II, CCS9809, which RFLP type digested with HaeIII was the same as strains of group I, but HhaI RFLP showed difference compared with the other groups; group III, CCS9810; group IV, CCS9803; group V: CCS9801, CCS9802, CCS9806, CCS9813, MG1, MG3 and MG9. The sequence data of 12 hpaA segments were analyzed by DNAsis software and it was observed that: (1) The homologies of base pair and amino acid sequence between strains NCTC11637, SS1, CCS9809 were 99.6% and 98.9%, respectively; (2) The homology of base pair and amino acid sequence between CCS9803 and CCS9810 was 97.7% and 99.1%; (3) That of the rest strains, CCS9801, CCS9802, CCS9806, CCS9813, MG1, MG3, MG9 reached 99.4% and 98.4%; (4) The base pair homologies between all hpaA fragments of different sources were higher than 94.6%, therefore the correspondence of deduced amino acid sequence was higher than 96.8% between each other., Conclusion: The gene hpaA from different H pylori strains revealed variation, and this might provide an effective method for molecular epidemiological survey of H pylori.