The noncanonical inflammasome is critical for cytosolic sensing of Gram-negative pathogens. Here, we show that bacterial infection induces caspy2 activation in zebrafish fibroblasts, which mediates pyroptosis via a caspase-5-like activity. Zebrafish caspy2 binds directly to lipopolysaccharide via the N-terminal pyrin death domain, resulting in caspy2 oligomerization, which is critical for pyroptosis. Furthermore, we show that caspy2 is highly expressed in the zebrafish gut and is activated during infection. Knockdown of caspy2 expression impairs the ability of zebrafish to restrict bacterial invasion in vivo, and protects larvae from lethal sepsis. Collectively, our results identify a crucial event in the evolution of pattern recognition into the death domain superfamily-mediated intracellular lipopolysaccharide-sensing pathway in innate immunity.

Edwardsiella tarda is an important pathogenic bacterium that can replicate in macrophages. However, how the intramacrophage infection process affects the virulence of this bacterium is essentially unknown. Here, we show that E. tarda replicates and induces a caspase-1-dependent cell pyroptosis in a murine macrophage model. Via pyroptosis, intracellular E. tarda escapes to the extracellular milieu, forming a unique bacterial population. Being different from the bacteria cultured alone, this unique population possesses a reprogrammed transcriptional profile, particularly with upregulated type III secretion system (T3SS)/T6SS cluster genes. Subsequent studies revealed that the macrophage-released population gains enhanced infectivity for host epithelial cells and increases resistance to multiple host defenses and hence displays significantly promoted virulence in vivo. Further studies indicated that T3SS is essentially required for the macrophage infection process, while T6SS contributes to infection-induced bacterial virulence. Altogether, this work demonstrates that E. tarda can utilize macrophages as a niche for virulence priming and for spreading infection, suggesting a positive role for intramacrophage infection in bacterial pathogenesis. IMPORTANCEMany pathogens can replicate in macrophages, which is crucial for their pathogenesis. To survive in the macrophage cell, pathogens are likely to require fitness genes to counteract multiple host-killing mechanisms. Here, Edwardsiella tarda is proved to exit from macrophages during infection. This macrophage-released population displays a reprogrammed transcriptional profile with significantly upregulated type III secretion system (T3SS)/T6SS-related genes. Furthermore, both enhanced infectivity in epithelial cells and activated resistance to complex host defenses were conferred on this macrophage-primed population, which consequently promoted the full virulence of E. tarda in vivo. Our work provides evidence that E. tarda can utilize macrophages as a niche for virulence priming and for spreading infection, highlighting the importance of the intramacrophage infection cycle for the pathogenesis of E. tarda.

Wernicke’s area is one of the most important language regions and has been widely studied in both basic research and clinical neurology. However, its exact anatomy has been controversial. In this study, we proposed to address the anatomy of Wernicke’s area by investigating different connectivity profiles. First, the posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), traditionally called “Wernicke’s area”, was parcellated into three component subregions with diffusion MRI. Then, whole-brain anatomical connectivity, resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) analyses were used to establish the anatomical, resting-state and task-related coactivation network of each subregion to identify which subregions participated in the language network. In addition, behavioral domain analysis, meta-analyses of semantics, execution speech, and phonology and intraoperative electrical stimulation were used to determine which subregions were involved in language processing. Anatomical connectivity, RSFC and MACM analyses consistently identified that the two anterior subregions in the posterior STG primarily participated in the language network, whereas the most posterior subregion in the temporoparietal junction area primarily participated in the default mode network. Moreover, the behavioral domain analyses, meta-analyses of semantics, execution speech and phonology and intraoperative electrical stimulation mapping also confirmed that only the two anterior subregions were involved in language processing, whereas the most posterior subregion primarily participated in social cognition. Our findings revealed a convergent posterior anatomical border for Wernicke’s area and indicated that the brain’s functional subregions can be identified on the basis of its specific structural and functional connectivity patterns.

We selected the conserved sequence in the stalk region of influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) trimmer, the long alpha helix (LAH), as the vaccine candidate sequence, and inserted it into the major immunodominant region (MIR) of hepatitis B virus core protein (HBc), and, by using the E. coli expression system, we prepared a recombinant protein vaccine LAH-HBc in the form of virus-like particles (VLP). Intranasal immunization of mice with this LAH-HBc VLP plus cholera toxin B subunit with 0.2% of cholera toxin (CTB*) adjuvant could effectively elicit humoral and cellular immune responses and protect mice against a lethal challenge of homologous influenza viruses (A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (PR8) (H1N1)). In addition, passage of the immune sera containing specific antibodies to naïve mice rendered them resistant against a lethal homologous challenge. Immunization with LAH-HBc VLP vaccine plus CTB* adjuvant could also fully protect mice against a lethal challenge of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus or the avian H9N2 virus and could partially protect mice against a lethal challenge of the avian H5N1 influenza virus. This study demonstrated that the LAH-HBc VLP vaccine based on a conserved sequence of the HA trimmer stalk region is a promising candidate vaccine for developing a universal influenza vaccine against multiple influenza viruses infections.

Development of serum-free suspension cell culture processes is very important for influenza vaccine production. Previously, we developed a MDCK suspension cell line in a serum-free medium. In the present study, the growth kinetics of suspension MDCK cells and influenza virus production in the serum-free medium were investigated, in comparison with those of adherent MDCK cells in both serum-containing and serum-free medium. It was found that the serum-free medium supported the stable subculture and growth of both adherent and suspension cells. In batch culture, for both cell lines, the growth kinetics in the serum-free medium was comparable with those in the serum-containing medium and a commercialized serum-free medium. In the serum-free medium, peak viable cell density (VCD), haemagglutinin (HA) and median tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) titers of the two cell lines reached 4.51×106 cells/mL, 2.94Log10(HAU/50 μL) and 8.49Log10(virions/mL), and 5.97×106 cells/mL, 3.88Log10(HAU/50 μL), and 10.34Log10(virions/mL), respectively. While virus yield of adherent cells in the serum-free medium was similar to that in the serum-containing medium, suspension culture in the serum-free medium showed a higher virus yield than adherent cells in the serum-containing medium and suspension cells in the commercialized serum-free medium. However, the percentage of infectious viruses was lower for suspension culture in the serum-free medium. These results demonstrate the great potential of this suspension MDCK cell line in serum-free medium for influenza vaccine production and further improvements are warranted.

Mixed infections of Nicotiana benthamiana plants byCucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Tobacco necrosis virus (TNV) exhibit a synergistic interaction and result in symptom enhancement. Accumulation of CMV(+) RNA as well as capsid protein (CP) in mixed infection was considerably higher than that of singly-infected plants. There was also a slight increase in TNV(+) RNA and CP levels in doubly infected plants. Synergistic infection by CMV-and TNV-induced higher increase in the levels of malonyldialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and more decline in the activities of catalase than singly infected ones. Both peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activities increased rapidly for the first 10 days post inoculation (dpi) in doubly-infected plants and then declined, whereas the enzyme activities continued to increase after 10 dpi in singly infected plants and had higher enzyme activities in the late stages than that of co-infected plants. These results suggest that synergistic infection by CMV and TNV produced severes oxidative stress in N. benthamiana plants and the synergy between the two viruses was mutual.

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