Dynamin-like guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) are gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-inducible host defense proteins that can associate with cytosol-invading bacterial pathogens. Mouse GBPs promote the lytic destruction of targeted bacteria in the host cell cytosol, but the antimicrobial function of human GBPs and the mechanism by which these proteins associate with cytosolic bacteria are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that human GBP1 is unique among the seven human GBP paralogs in its ability to associate with at least two cytosolic Gram-negative bacteria, Burkholderia thailandensis and Shigella flexneri. Rough lipopolysaccharide (LPS) mutants of S. flexneri colocalize with GBP1 less frequently than wild-type S. flexneri does, suggesting that host recognition of O antigen promotes GBP1 targeting to Gram-negative bacteria. The targeting of GBP1 to cytosolic bacteria, via a unique triple-arginine motif present in its C terminus, promotes the corecruitment of four additional GBP paralogs (GBP2, GBP3, GBP4, and GBP6). GBP1-decorated Shigella organisms replicate but fail to form actin tails, leading to their intracellular aggregation. Consequentially, the wild type but not the triple-arginine GBP1 mutant restricts S. flexneri cell-to-cell spread. Furthermore, human-adapted S. flexneri, through the action of one its secreted effectors, IpaH9.8, is more resistant to GBP1 targeting than the non-human-adapted bacillus B. thailandensis. These studies reveal that human GBP1 uniquely functions as an intracellular “glue trap,” inhibiting the cytosolic movement of normally actin-propelled Gram-negative bacteria. In response to this powerful human defense program, S. flexneri has evolved an effective counterdefense to restrict GBP1 recruitment.

The Gram-negative bacterial cell wall component lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is recognized by the noncanonical inflammasome protein caspase-11 in the cytosol of infected host cells and thereby prompts an inflammatory immune response linked to sepsis. Host guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) promote infection-induced caspase-11 activation in tissue culture models, and yet their in vivo role in LPS-mediated sepsis has remained unexplored. LPS can be released from lysed bacteria as “free” LPS aggregates or actively secreted by live bacteria as a component of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). Here, we report that GBPs control inflammation and sepsis in mice injected with either free LPS or purified OMVs derived from Gram-negative Escherichia coli. In agreement with our observations from in vivo experiments, we demonstrate that macrophages lacking GBP2 expression fail to induce pyroptotic cell death and proinflammatory interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18 secretion when exposed to OMVs. We propose that in order to activate caspase-11 in vivo, GBPs control the processing of bacterium-derived OMVs by macrophages as well as the processing of circulating free LPS by as-yet-undetermined cell types.