The opportunistic intracellular bacterial pathogen Rhodococcus equi elicits type I interferon by engaging cytosolic DNA sensing in macrophages.

ABSTRACT: Rhodococcus equi is a major cause of foal pneumonia and an opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised humans. While alveolar macrophages constitute the primary replicative niche for R. equi, little is known about how intracellular R. equi is sensed by macrophages. Here, we discovered that in addition to previously characterized pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., Tnfa, Il6, Il1b), macrophages infected with R. equi induce a robust type I IFN response, including Ifnb and interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), similar to the evolutionarily related pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Follow up studies using a combination of mammalian and bacterial genetics demonstrated that induction of this type I IFN expression program is largely dependent on the cGAS/STING/TBK1 axis of the cytosolic DNA sensi

SUBMITTER: Vail KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8443056 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature