Project description:Mycetoma is a neglected, chronic granulomatous infection of the subcutaneous tissue, most often caused by the fungal pathogen Madurella mycetomatis. Characteristic of the infection is the formation of grains.
Project description:Mycetoma is a neglected, chronic granulomatous infection of the subcutaneous tissue, most often caused by the fungal pathogen Madurella mycetomatis. Characteristic of the infection is the formation of grains.
Project description:Mycetoma is a neglected, chronic granulomatous infection of the subcutaneous tissue, most often caused by the fungal pathogen Madurella mycetomatis. Characteristic of the infection is the formation of grains. However, knowledge of the function and formation of the grain is limited. To map the processes leading to M. mycetomatis grain formation, we used a Galleria mellonella larvae infection model and time-course transcriptomic profiling. In the infected G. mellonella 88.0% of the RNA sequence reads mapped to G. mellonella, only 0.01% mapped to M. mycetomatis. Differential Gene Expression analysis revealed that 3.498 G. mellonella and 137 M. mycetomatis genes were differentially expressed during infection. Most of the enriched GO terms of both host and pathogen are linked to energy pathways, nucleobase metabolic process, and cation and iron transport. Genes related to iron transport were highly expressed by both G. mellonella (transferrin and ferritin) and M. mycetomatis (SidA, SidD and SidI). A protein-protein interaction network analysis of D. melanogaster homologues genes in M. mycetomatis revealed the expression of the entire siderophore biosynthesis pathway throughout infection. Many host and pathogen genes were differentially expressed during infection. The identification of the importance of iron acquisition during grain formation can be exploited as a potential novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategy for mycetoma.
Project description:Mycetoma is a neglected, chronic granulomatous infection of the subcutaneous tissue, most often caused by the fungal pathogen Madurella mycetomatis. Characteristic of the infection is the formation of grains. However, knowledge of the function and formation of the grain is limited. To map the processes leading to M. mycetomatis grain formation, we used a Galleria mellonella larvae infection model and time-course transcriptomic profiling. In the infected G. mellonella 88.0% of the RNA sequence reads mapped to G. mellonella, only 0.01% mapped to M. mycetomatis. Differential Gene Expression analysis revealed that 3.498 G. mellonella and 137 M. mycetomatis genes were differentially expressed during infection. Most of the enriched GO terms of both host and pathogen are linked to energy pathways, nucleobase metabolic process, and cation and iron transport. Genes related to iron transport were highly expressed by both G. mellonella (transferrin and ferritin) and M. mycetomatis (SidA, SidD and SidI). A protein-protein interaction network analysis of D. melanogaster homologues genes in M. mycetomatis revealed the expression of the entire siderophore biosynthesis pathway throughout infection. Many host and pathogen genes were differentially expressed during infection. The identification of the importance of iron acquisition during grain formation can be exploited as a potential novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategy for mycetoma.
Project description:Mycetoma is a chronic granulomatous infection of the subcutaneous tissue, most often caused by the fungal pathogen Madurella mycetomatis. Characteristic of the infection is the formation of grains. However, knowledge of the function and formation of the grain is limited. To map the processes leading to M. mycetomatis grain formation, we used a Galleria mellonella larvae infection model and transcriptomic profiling. G. mellonella larvae were infected with M. mycetomatis and after 4h, 24h, 72h and 168h post-inoculation, RNA was extracted from larval content and sequenced. Differential Gene Expression analysis revealed that 3,498 G. mellonella and 136 M. mycetomatis genes were differentially expressed during infection. Among these genes, genes related to iron transport were highly expressed by both G. mellonella (transferrin and ferritin) and M. mycetomatis (SidA, SidD and SidI). LC-MS/MS analysis of M. mycetomatis cultured under iron-limiting conditions revealed the presence of SidA and SidD orthologs and concurrent RP-HPLC and LC-MS identified a singly charged, putative siderophore in culture supernatant. M. mycetomatis could also obtain iron from holoferritin. The identification of the importance of iron acquisition during grain formation can be exploited as a potential novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategy for mycetoma.
Project description:Mycetoma is a neglected chronic and granulomatous infection primarily associated with the fungal pathogen Madurella mycetomatis. Infection is characterised by the formation of fungal grains inside the infected tissue which commonly result in severe deformity and disability. Currently the biochemical processes and interactions between host and pathogen which result in grain formation are unknown. Furthermore, the infection process in mammals takes months to fully develop. In order to unravel these processes Galleria mellonella larvae were infected with M. mycetomatis and hyphae and grain formation, survival, fungal burden and proteomic responses of larvae were monitored for 10 days. At 24 h post infection proteins indicative of muscle invasion and humoral immune response activation were enriched in infected larval hemolymph. By 72 h immune related hdd11 was increased 337 fold, heat shock proteins 90 was increased 40 fold and glutathione-S-transferase was increased 25 fold. By 7 days post infection proteins which were associated with grain formation (hdd11 [533 fold], hemocentin [54 fold]) and a range of antimicrobial peptides were enriched. During the 7 day period a variety of proteins were decreased in infected hemolymph (e.g. hexamerin, apolipophorin and cationic peptide CP8). This data also identified 75 M. mycetomatis proteins released into hemolymph during infection. Proteins were also extracted from M. mycetomatis grains taken from larvae infected for 24, 72 and 7 days. These proteins give an insight into the interactions between the larval immune response and M. mycetomatis at the cellular levels during infection. These results identify similarities between the infection processes of M. mycetomatis in G. mellonella larvae and in humans and identify novel proteins from M. mycetomatis which may play a crucial role in grain development.