Project description:Macrophages are cells of the innate immune system with the ability to phagocytose and induce a global pattern of responses that depend on several signalling pathways. We have determined the biosignature of murine bone marrow-derived macrophages and human blood monocytes using transcriptomics and proteomics approaches. We identified a common pattern of genes transcriptionally regulated that overall indicate that the response to B. burgdorferi involves the interaction of spirochetal antigens with several inflammatory pathways corresponding to primary (triggered by pattern recognition receptors) and secondary (induced by proinflammatory cytokines) responses. We also show that the Toll-like receptor family member, CD180 is downregulated by the stimulation of macrophages, but not monocytes, with the spirochete. Silencing Cd180 results in increased phagocytosis while tempering the production of the proinflammatory cytokine, TNF. Cd180-silenced cells produced increased levels of Itgam and surface CD11b, suggesting that the regulation of CD180 by the spirochete initiates a cascade that increases the CR3-mediated phagocytosis of the bacterium while repressing the consequent inflammatory response.
Project description:Macrophages are cells of the innate immune system with the ability to phagocytose and induce a global pattern of responses that depend on several signalling pathways. We have determined the biosignature of murine bone marrow-derived macrophages and human blood monocytes using transcriptomics and proteomics approaches. We identified a common pattern of genes transcriptionally regulated that overall indicate that the response to B. burgdorferi involves the interaction of spirochetal antigens with several inflammatory pathways corresponding to primary (triggered by pattern recognition receptors) and secondary (induced by proinflammatory cytokines) responses. We also show that the Toll-like receptor family member, CD180 is downregulated by the stimulation of macrophages, but not monocytes, with the spirochete. Silencing Cd180 results in increased phagocytosis while tempering the production of the proinflammatory cytokine, TNF. Cd180-silenced cells produced increased levels of Itgam and surface CD11b, suggesting that the regulation of CD180 by the spirochete initiates a cascade that increases the CR3-mediated phagocytosis of the bacterium while repressing the consequent inflammatory response.
Project description:The Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi drives a range of acute and chronic maladies in humans and other incidental hosts infected with the pathogen. However, the primary vertebrate reservoir, Peromyscus leucopus appears spared from any symptomology following infection. This has led to a common hypothesis that P. leucopus and B. burgdorferi exist symbiotically: P. leucopus restrain their immune response against the microbe and enable the enzootic cycle while B. burgdorferi avoids causing damage to the host. While aspects of this hypothesis have been tested, the exact interactions that occur between P. leucopus and B. burgdorferi during infection remain largely unknown. Here we utilized an inbred colony of P. leucopus in order to compare B. burgdorferi (B31) fitness in these rodents to the traditional B. burgdorferi murine models—C57BL/6J and C3H/HeN Mus musculus, which develop signs of inflammation akin to human disease. We find that in contrast to our expectations, B. burgdorferi were able to reach much higher burdens in M. musculus, and that the overall kinetics of infection differed between the two rodent species. Surprisingly, we also found that P. leucopus remained infectious to larval Ixodes scapularis for a far shorter period than either M. musculus strain. In line with these observations, we found that P. leucopus does launch a modest but sustained inflammatory response against B. burgdorferi in the skin, which we hypothesize leads to reduced bacterial viability and infectivity in these hosts. These observations provide new insight into the nature of reservoir species and the B. burgdorferi enzootic cycle.