Project description:Respiratory epithelium interact with our microbiome as well as environmental bacteria, and are critical in maintaining homeostasis in face of disruption such as injury or infection. Here we investigate the impact of a filamentous bacteriophage on responses of these cells to bacterial stimulus.
Project description:Epithelial cells are the first point of contact for bacteria entering the respiratory tract. Streptococcus pneumoniae is an obligatory human pathobiont of the nasal mucosa, carried asymptomatically but also the cause of severe pneumoniae. The role of the epithelium in maintaining homeostatic interactions or mounting an inflammatory response to invasive S. pneumoniae is currently poorly understood. However, studies have shown that chromatin modifications, at the histone level, induced by bacterial pathogens interfere with the host transcriptional program and promote infection. In this study, we demonstrate that S. pneumoniae actively induces di-methylation of histone H3 on lysine 4 (H3K4me2), which persists for at least 9 days upon clearance of bacteria with antibiotics. We show that infection establishes a unique epigenetic program affecting the transcriptional response of epithelial cells, rendering them more permissive upon secondary infection. Our results establish H3K4me2 as a unique modification induced by infection, distinct from H3K4me3, which localizes to enhancer regions genome-wide. Therefore, this study reveals evidence that bacterial infection leaves a memory in epithelial cells after bacterial clearance, in an epigenomic mark, thereby altering cellular responses for subsequent infections.
Project description:Pathogens that cause respiratory diseases in poultry are very complicated, and co-infections with multiple pathogens are prevalent. The H9N2 strain of avian influenza virus (AIV) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) are common poultry pathogens that limit the development of the poultry industry. This study aimed to clarify the interaction between these two pathogens and their pathogenic mechanism using a mouse model. Co-infection with H9N2 AIV and E. coli significantly increased the mortality rate of mice compared to single viral or bacterial infections. It also led to the development of more severe lung lesions compared to single viral or bacterial infections. Co-infection further causes a storm of cytokines, which aggravates the host’s disease by regulating the STAT/SOCS and ERK1/2 pathways. Moreover, co-infection mutually benefited the virus and the bacteria by increasing their multiplication rates. Importantly, nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) expression was also significantly enhanced by the co-infection. It played a key role in the rapid proliferation of E. coli in the presence of the coinfecting H9N2 virus. Therefore, our study underscores the role of NOS2 as a determinant for bacteria growth and illustrates its importance as an additional mechanism that enhances influenza virus-bacteria synergy. It further provides a scientific basis for investigating the synergistic infection mechanism between viruses and bacteria.
Project description:By studying differently expressed immune genes with gene expression profiling in immune competent children researchers have been able to distinguish between children with asymptomatic viral infection and those with symptomatic viral infection as well as patients with bacterial infection. In this study we asked if gene expression profiling is feasible as a diagnostic tool in febrile neutropenia. We included children under treatment for a malignancy presenting with febrile neutropenia. Clinical data regarding the infectious episode was prospectively collected and children grouped based on microbiological agent detected into virus, bacteria, co-infection and unknown aetiology. Fourty three episodes had sufficient RNA for RNA-sequencing, 15 with respiratory tract virus, 22 with unknown etiology, 4 with co-infection and 2 with bacteria. No pathogen specific host-innate immune expression profile was seen in the group with virus, bacteria nor unknown aetiology probably due to the low white blood cell account (WBC). In the co-infection group with higher WBC but lower absolute neutrophil count (ANC) compared to the other groups, a downregulated innate response were detected. We conclude that gene expression profiling in children presenting with neutropenic fever is not a feasible diagnostic tool for febrile neutropenia in children with cancer due the low WBC.:
Project description:Bovine respiratory epithelial cells have different susceptibility to bovine
respiratory syncytial virus infection. The cells derived from the lower
respiratory tract were significantly more susceptible to the virus than those
derived from the upper respiratory tract. Pre-infection with virus of lower
respiratory tract with increased adherence of P. multocida; this was not the
case for upper tract. However, the molecular mechanisms of enhanced
bacterial adherence are not completely understood. To investigate whether
virus infection regulates the cellular adherence receptor on bovine trachea-,
bronchus- and lung-epithelial cells, we performed proteomic analyses.
Project description:The classical bordetellae (Bordetella pertussis, B. parapertussis, and B. bronchiseptica) are obligate aerobes that use only oxygen as their terminal electron acceptor for electron transport-coupled oxidative phosphorylation. Therefore, access to oxygen is critical for these bacteria to survive. To better understand how B. bronchiseptica changes its gene regulation when faced with different levels of oxygen, we grew liquid cultures of B. bronchiseptica RB50 in ambient air, 5% oxygen, and 2% oxygen. We also measured how the presence of 5% carbon dioxide affected gene expression in these bacteria, since they are respiratory pathogens and therefore get exposed to higher carbon dioxide levels during infection than are found in ambient air.
Project description:We studied how Fusobacterium nucleatum infection under hypoxia regulated the epigenome and transcriptome of colon cancer cells. The six datasets that are described in this study are labeled as follows: (a) Normoxia - No Bacteria (NN), (b) Normoxia - infection with Fnn (NF), (c) Normoxia - infection with E. coli (NE), (d) Hypoxia - No Bacteria (HN), (e) Hypoxia - infection with Fnn (HF), and (f) Hypoxia - infection with E. coli (HE).
Project description:A pressing clinical challenge is identifying the etiologic basis of acute respiratory illness. Without reliable diagnostics, the uncertainty associated with this clinical entity leads to a significant, inappropriate use of antibacterials. Use of host peripheral blood gene expression data to classify individuals with bacterial infection, viral infection, or non-infection represents a complementary diagnostic approach. Patients with respiratory tract infection along with ill, non-infected controls were enrolled through the emergency department or undergraduate student health services. Whole blood was obtained to generate gene expression profiles. These profiles were then used to generate signatures of bacterial acute respiratory infection, viral acute respiratory infection, and non-infectious illness. 273 subjects were ascertained for this analysis. This included 88 patients with non-infectious illness, 115 with viral acute respiratory infection, and 70 with bacterial acute respiratory infection. Samples were obtained at the time of enrollment, which was at initial clinical presentation. Total RNA was extracted from human blood using the PAXgene Blood RNA Kit. Microarray data were generated using the GeneChip Human Genome U133A 2.0 Array. Microarrays were generated in two microarray batches with seven overlapping samples giving rise to 280 total microarray experiments.