The “enhanced intracellular survival” (eis) gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is involved in the intracellular survival of M. smegmatis. However, its exact effects on host cell function remain elusive. We herein report that Mtb Eis plays essential roles in modulating macrophage autophagy, inflammatory responses, and cell death via a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent pathway. Macrophages infected with an Mtb eis-deletion mutant H37Rv (Mtb-Δeis) displayed markedly increased accumulation of massive autophagic vacuoles and formation of autophagosomes in vitro and in vivo. Infection of macrophages with Mtb-Δeis increased the production of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 over the levels produced by infection with wild-type or complemented strains. Elevated ROS generation in macrophages infected with Mtb-Δeis (for which NADPH oxidase and mitochondria were largely responsible) rendered the cells highly sensitive to autophagy activation and cytokine production. Despite considerable activation of autophagy and proinflammatory responses, macrophages infected with Mtb-Δeis underwent caspase-independent cell death. This cell death was significantly inhibited by blockade of autophagy and c-Jun N-terminal kinase-ROS signaling, suggesting that excessive autophagy and oxidative stress are detrimental to cell survival. Finally, artificial over-expression of Eis or pretreatment with recombinant Eis abrogated production of both ROS and proinflammatory cytokines, which depends on the N-acetyltransferase domain of the Eis protein. Collectively, these data indicate that Mtb Eis suppresses host innate immune defenses by modulating autophagy, inflammation, and cell death in a redox-dependent manner.
Recent insights into the mechanisms by which Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiologic agent of human tuberculosis, is recognized by cytosolic nucleotide sensors have opened new avenues for rational vaccine design. The only licensed anti-tuberculosis vaccine, Mycobacterium bovis BCG, provides limited protection. A feature of BCG is the partial deletion of the ESX-1 type VII secretion system, which governs phagosomal rupture and cytosolic pattern recognition, key intracellular phenotypes linked to increased immune signaling. Here, by heterologously expressing the esx-1 region of Mycobacterium marinum in BCG, we engineered a low-virulence, ESX-1-proficient, recombinant BCG (BCG::ESX-1) that induces the cGas/STING/TBK1/IRF-3/type I interferon axis and enhances AIM2 and NLRP3 inflammasome activity, resulting in both higher proportions of CD8 T cell effectors against mycobacterial antigens shared with BCG and polyfunctional CD4 Th1 cells specific to ESX-1 antigens. Importantly, independent mouse vaccination models show that BCG::ESX-1 confers superior protection relative to parental BCG against challenges with highly virulent M. tuberculosis.
Interferon (IFN)-γ release assays have limited sensitivity and cannot differentiate between active tuberculosis (TB) disease and latent TB infection (LTBI). Numerous cytokines and regulator factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis and control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Additional cytokines and chemokines associated with M. tuberculosis infection may improve the performance of IFN-γ release assays. We developed a real-time RT-PCR TaqMan assay for targeting levels of eight human targets [IFN-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, IL-2R, IL-4, IL-10, CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11] and evaluated the assay with three different study groups. Results showed that the sensitivity of TNF-α, IL-2R, and CXCL10 in the active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) group was 96.43%, 96.43%, and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity of IL-2R and CXCL10 in the latent tuberculosis infection group was 86.36% and 81.82%, respectively. Statistical results showed that TNF-α and CXCL9 were the best individual markers for differentiating between the PTB, LTBI, and non-TB groups. For optimal sensitivity and differentiation of M. tuberculosis infection status, the simultaneous detection of multiple targets was attempted. The combination of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2R, and the combination of TNF-α, IL-2R, CXCL9, and CXCL10 showed the best performance for detecting active PTB (both 100% positivity) and LTBI (86.36% and 81.82% positivity, respectively). These results imply that the combination of suitable markers is useful in efficiently diagnosing TB and differentiating M. tuberculosis infection status.
Accumulating evidence indicates that latency-associated Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-specific antigens from the dormancy survival regulator regulon (DosR) may be promising novel vaccine target antigens for the development of an improved tuberculosis vaccine. After transcriptional profiling of DosR-related genes in the hyper-virulent Beijing Mtb strain K and the reference Mtb strain H37Rv, we selected Rv3131, a hypothetical nitroreductase, as a vaccine antigen and evaluated its vaccine efficacy against Mtb K. Mtb K exhibited stable and constitutive up-regulation of rv3131 relative to Mtb H37Rv under three different growth conditions (at least 2-fold induction) including exponential growth in normal culture conditions, hypoxia, and inside macrophages. Mice immunised with Rv3131 formulated in GLA-SE, a well-defined TLR4 adjuvant, displayed enhanced Rv3131-specific IFN-γ and serum IgG2c responses along with effector/memory T cell expansion and remarkable generation of Rv3131-specific multifunctional CD4+ T cells co-producing TNF-α, IFN-γ and IL-2 in both spleen and lung. Following challenge with Mtb K, the Rv3131/GLA-SE-immunised group exhibited a significant reduction in bacterial number and less extensive lung inflammation accompanied by the obvious persistence of Rv3131-specific multifunctional CD4+ T cells. These results suggest that Rv3131 could be an excellent candidate for potential use in a multi-antigenic Mtb subunit vaccine, especially against Mtb Beijing strains.
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