Bacterial protein toxins alter eukaryotic cellular processes and enable bacteria to successfully colonize their hosts. In recent years, there has been increased recognition that many bacterial toxins are multifunctional proteins that can have pleiotropic effects on mammalian cells and tissues. In this review, we examine a multifunctional toxin (VacA) that is produced by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. The actions of H. pylori VacA represent a paradigm for how bacterial secreted toxins contribute to colonization and virulence in multiple ways.

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Background & Aims The Helicobacter pylori toxin vacuolating cytotoxin (VacA) promotes gastric colonization and its presence (VacA+) is associated with more-severe disease. The exact mechanisms by which VacA contributes to infection are unclear. We previously found that limited exposure to VacA induces autophagy of gastric cells, which eliminates the toxin; we investigated whether autophagy serves as a defense mechanism against H pylori infection. Methods We investigated the effect of VacA on autophagy in human gastric epithelial cells (AGS) and primary gastric cells from mice. Expression of p62, a marker of autophagy, was also assessed in gastric tissues from patients infected with toxigenic (VacA+) or nontoxigenic strains. We analyzed the effect of VacA on autophagy in peripheral blood monocytes obtained from subjects with different genotypes of ATG16L1, which regulates autophagy. We performed genotyping for ATG16L1 in two cohorts of infected and uninfected subjects. Results Prolonged exposure of AGS and mouse gastric cells to VacA disrupted induction of autophagy in response to the toxin, because the cells lacked cathepsin-D in autophagosomes. Loss of autophagy resulted in the accumulation of p62 and reactive oxygen species. Gastric biopsies samples from patients infected with VacA+, but not nontoxigenic strains of H pylori, had increased levels of p62. Peripheral blood monocytes isolated from individuals with polymorphisms in ATG16L1 that increase susceptibility to Crohn's disease had reduced induction of autophagy in response to VacA+ compared to cells from individuals that did not have these polymorphisms. The presence of the ATG16L1 Crohn’s disease risk variant increased susceptibility to H pylori infection in 2 separate cohorts. Conclusions Autophagy protects against infection with H pylori; the toxin VacA disrupts autophagy to promote infection, which could contribute to inflammation and eventual carcinogenesis.

Host cell responses to

Helicobacter pylori-initiated chronic gastritis is characterized by the cag pathogenicity island-dependent upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines, which is largely mediated by the transcription factor nuclear factor (NF)-jB. However, the cag pathogenicity island-encoded proteins and cellular signalling molecules that are involved in H. pylori-induced NF-jB activation and inflammatory response remain unclear. Here, we show that H. pylori virulence factor CagA and host protein transforming growth factor-b-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) are essential for H. pylori-induced activation of NF-jB. CagA physically associates with TAK1 and enhances its activity and TAK1-induced NF-jB activation through the tumour necrosis factor receptorassociated factor 6-mediated, Lys 63-linked ubiquitination of TAK1. These findings show that polyubiquitination of TAK1 regulates the activation of NF-jB, which in turn is used by H. pylori CagA for the H. pylori-induced inflammatory response.

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Diphtheria toxin (DTA) uses NAD + as an ADP-ribose donor to catalyze the ADP-ribosylation of eukaryotic elongation factor 2. This inhibits protein biosynthesis and ultimately leads to cell death. In the absence of its physiological acceptor, DTA catalyzes the slow hydrolysis of NAD + to ADPribose and nicotinamide, a reaction that can be exploited to measure kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) of isotopically labeled NAD + s. Competitive KIEs were measured by the radiolabel method for NAD + molecules labeled at the following positions: 1-15 N = 1.030 ± 0.004, 1′-14 C = 1.034 ± 0.004, (1-15 N,1′-14 C) = 1.062 ± 0.010, 1′-3 H = 1.200 ± 0.005, 2′-3 H = 1.142 ± 0.005, 4′-3 H = 0.990 ± 0.002, 5′-3 H = 1.032 ± 0.004, 4′-18 O = 0.986 ± 0.003. The ring oxygen, 4′-18 O, KIE was also measured by whole molecule mass spectrometry (0.991 ± 0.003) and found to be within experimental error of that measured by the radiolabel technique, giving an overall average of 0.988 ± 0.003. The transition state structure of NAD + hydrolysis was determined using a structure interpolation method to generate trial transition state structures and bond-energy/bond-order vibrational analysis to predict the KIEs of the trial structures. The predicted KIEs matched the experimental ones for a concerted, highly oxocarbenium ion-like transition state. The residual bond order to the leaving group was 0.02 (bond length = 2.65 Å), while the bond order to the approaching nucleophile was 0.03 (2.46 Å). This is an A N D N mechanism, with both leaving group and nucleophilic participation in the reaction coordinate. Fitting the transition state structure into the active site cleft of the X-ray crystallographic structure of DTA highlighted the mechanisms of enzymatic stabilization of the transition state. Desolvation of the nicotinamide ring, stabilization of the oxocarbenium ion by apposition of the side chain carboxylate of Glu148 with the anomeric carbon of the ribosyl moiety, and the placement of the substrate phosphate near the positively charged side chain of His21 are all consistent with the transition state features from KIE analysis.

Aerobic respiration in bacteria, Archaea, and mitochondria is performed by oxygen reductase members of the heme-copper oxidoreductase superfamily. These enzymes are redox-driven proton pumps which conserve part of the free energy released from oxygen reduction to generate a proton motive force. The oxygen reductases can be divided into three main families based on evolutionary and structural analyses (A-, B- and C-families), with the B- and C-families evolving after the A-family. The A-family utilizes two proton input channels to transfer protons for pumping and chemistry, whereas the B- and C-families require only one. Generally, the B- and C-families also have higher apparent oxygen affinities than the A-family. Here we use whole cell proton pumping measurements to demonstrate differential proton pumping efficiencies between representatives of the A-, B-, and C-oxygen reductase families. The A-family has a coupling stoichiometry of 1 H + /e - , whereas the B- and C-families have coupling stoichiometries of 0.5 H + /e - . The differential proton pumping stoichiometries, along with differences in the structures of the proton-conducting channels, place critical constraints on models of the mechanism of proton pumping. Most significantly, it is proposed that the adaptation of aerobic respiration to low oxygen environments resulted in a concomitant reduction in energy conservation efficiency, with important physiological and ecological consequences.