The Mla Pathway Is Critical for Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Resistance to Outer Membrane Permeabilization and Host Innate Immune Clearance
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JMolMed DOI 10.1007/s00109-017-1579-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Mla pathway is critical for Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistance to outer membrane permeabilization and host innate immune clearance 1,2 1 3 1 Jason Munguia & Doris L. LaRock & Hannah Tsunemoto & Joshua Olson & 1 3 1,4,5 Ingrid Cornax & Joseph Pogliano & Victor Nizet Received: 30 November 2016 /Revised: 14 August 2017 /Accepted: 14 August 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract burden, and reduced lung damage when compared to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important opportunistic path- wild-type strain. This study highlights the potential in thera- ogen that has become a serious problem due to increased rates peutically targeting the VacJ/Mla pathway in sensitizing of antibiotic resistance. Due to this along with a dearth in P. aeruginosa to killing by the host innate immune response. novel antibiotic development, especially against Gram- negative pathogens, new therapeutic strategies are needed to Key messages prevent a post-antibiotic era. Here, we describe the importance • The Mla pathway regulates outer membrane dynamics in of the vacJ/Mla pathway in resisting bactericidal actions of the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA). host innate immune response. P. aeruginosa tn5 transposon • Disruption of Mla pathway gene vacJ sensitizes PA to host mutants in genes from the VacJ/Mla pathway showed in- cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide LL-37. creased susceptibility to killing by the host cathelicidin anti- • Loss of vacJ expression renders PA more sensitive to human microbial peptide, LL-37, when compared to the wild-type whole blood and serum killing. parent strain. The P. aeruginosa vacJ− mutant demonstrated • Loss of vacJ expression reduces PA survival and virulence in increased membrane permeability upon damage as well as amurinelunginfectionmodel. sensitivity to killing in the presence of the detergent sodium • The Mla pathway merits exploration as a pharmacologic dodecyl sulfate and the divalent cation chelator EDTA. When target to sensitize PA to host innate immunity. exposed to human whole blood and serum complement, the vacJ− mutant was killed more rapidly when compared to the Keywords Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Mla pathway . Innate wild-type parent strain and complemented mutant. Finally, in immunity . Antimicrobial peptide . Cathelicidin . Pneumonia an in vivo mouse lung infection model, infection with the vacJ− mutant resulted in reduced mortality, lower bacterial Introduction * Victor Nizet Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous Gram-negative fac- [email protected] ultative anaerobic bacterium that inhabits both soil and aqueous environments. A leading opportunistic human pathogen, 1 Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La P. aeruginosa,ishighlyadaptableandintrinsicallyabletoresist Jolla, CA, USA diverse antibiotic classes posing a tremendous challenge to 2 Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California San medical management [1]. P. aeruginosa preferentially colo- Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA nizes immunocompromised patients thereby causing many 3 Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, nosocomial infections including ventilator-associated pneumo- La Jolla, CA, USA nia, urinary tract infections, bacteremia, and infections of sur- 4 Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, gical sites or burn wounds [1, 2]. Individuals with cystic fibro- University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA sis are at extreme risk of chronic pulmonary infection with 5 Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, CA, USA P. aeruginosa, with 47.5% of patients being colonized [3]. J Mol Med P. aeruginosa can also cause community-acquired infections In this study, we explored for the first time the role(s) of the including keratitis, otitis externa, and skin and soft tissue infec- Mla pathway in P. aeruginosa resistance to host innate im- tions. Therapeutic options aredwindlingduetoadecreasein mune defenses and animal virulence. Though failing to show novel antibiotic development as well as an emergence of highly agrowthdefectinstandardbacteriologicalandtissueculture multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa strains, placing the pathogen media conditions, P. a erugino sa Mla pathway mutants on the Centers for Disease Control list of Bserious threats^ [4]. showed increased susceptibility to human cathelicidin antimi- The discovery of new targets and alternate strategies for crobial peptide LL-37 associated with increased membrane treating P. aeruginosa infections is imperative. permeability. Compared to wild-type parent strain, an isogenic Gram-negative bacteria such as P.aeruginosa are protected P.aeruginosa vacJ− mutant showed increased susceptibility to by their outer membrane (OM), which is highly impermeable LL-37 and the cationic peptide antibiotics colistin and poly- to toxic compounds such as detergents, bile salts, and antibi- myxin B, along with decreased survival in human whole otics [5]. This OM is composed of an asymmetric bilayer blood and serum containing active complement; wild-type containing lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on the outer leaflet and resistance to these factors was restored by complementation phospholipids (PLs) on the inner leaflet. Perturbation of the of the vacJ− mutant with the wild-type gene with a transposon OM can lead to accumulation of PLs on the outer leaflet, insertion. The P. aeruginosa vacJ− mutant showed decreased which can make the bacteria vulnerable to further OM dam- virulence in a murine in vivo pneumonia model, as measured age. The Mla system is involved in maintaining OM lipid by lower bacterial burden in the lungs and blood, diminished asymmetry and is composed of seven proteins that are distrib- lung injury and inflammation, and reduced mortality. uted across the cell envelope [6, 7]. VacJ (also known as Together, our results show the importance of the Mla pathway MlaA) and other components of the Mla pathway have been in P. aeruginosa resistance to the bactericidal activities of the shown to play a role in intracellular spread of Shigella flexneri innate immune system. [8, 9], for survival of Haemophilus influenzae during lung infections and in serum [10, 11], resistance to surfactants in Escherichia coli [6, 12, 13]andPseudomonas putida [14], Materials and methods antibiotic resistance in P. aeruginosa [15, 16]and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium [17], and has a Bacterial strains and reagents possible role in the creation of outer membrane vesicles [18]. VacJ has also been explored as a possible vaccine target P. aeruginosa PAO1 [38] along with corresponding transpo- in Pasteurella multocida [19]. Genes encoding components of son Tn5 IS50L mutants [39]disruptingthegenesencoding the Mla pathway, including VacJ, are upregulated in response mlaA (vacJ)andmlaC-F were generously provided by to colistin, and mutations in the pathway have been observed Professor Colin Manoil (University of Washington, Seattle, in colistin-resistant mutants [20–22]. WA). Strains were propagated in Luria broth (LB) medium Among the critical frontline effectors of host innate im- (Hardy Diagnostics) or on LB agar (LA) plates at 37 °C. For mune defense are endogenous cationic antimicrobial peptides infection studies, bacteria were grown to mid-log phase (AMPs), which are produced by epithelial cells and circulat- (OD600 nm =0.4)beforedilutingtoexperimentalinoculum. ing or tissue-resident leukocytes, and are known to provide Complementation was performed as previously described protection against invasive bacterial infections [23, 24]. [40]. Briefly, P. aeruginosa vacJ gene and its upstream region Cathelicidins are a family of mammalian AMPs with broad- were cloned into pUC18T-mini-Tn7T-hph using primers spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and PA2800-miniTn7t-F (TGCTGCAAAGCCTGCACGGA Gram-positive bacteria, as well as certain fungi, viruses, and TCCACTAGTGAGCTCATGC), PA2800-miniTn7t-R protozoan parasites [25]. The human cathelicidin AMP, LL- (GAGGTGGAGGACGACTTCTAACCAGATAAGTG 37, is an alpha-helical, amphipathic, and anionic peptide that AAATCTAGTTCAAAAC), miniTn7t-PA2800-F integrates and destabilizes bacterial cell membranes causing (GCATGAGCTCACTAGTGGATCCGTGCAGGCTT bacterial death [26]. LL-37 also has important immunomodu- TGCAGCA), and miniTn7T-PA2800-R (GTTTGGAA latory roles in the proper regulation of cytokine release, che- CTAGATTTCACTTATCTGGTTAGAAGTCGTCCTCCA motaxis, and antigen presentation (reviewed in [27]). Animals CCTC). PA2800-miniTn7t-F and -R primers were used to deficient in cathelicidin are hyper-susceptible to bacterial in- amplify the pUC18T-mini-Tn7T-hph PCR product with por- fection in multiple organs including the skin [28], lung [29, tions of the vacJ gene, while primers miniTn7t-F and -R were 30], gut [31, 32], brain [33], kidney [34], and eye [35]. A used to amplify the vacJ gene with a portion of pUC18T-mini- bacterial pathogen producing significant clinical disease in Tn7T-hph.PCRproductswerecombined1:1and the human host must maintain some level of functional resis- electroporated into E. coli TOP10 cells, and transformants tance to endogenous AMPs including cathelicidin in order for selected on LB agar plates containing 100 μg/mL infection to persist [36, 37]. Hygromycin B (Life Technologies). qPCR of wild-type, JMolMed vacJ mutant, and complemented strains was performed on Whole blood and serum killing RNA isolated using RNeasy mini kit (Qiagen) and following primers: PAO1_PA2800_qPCR_F (GCGTACGTCGTCCA Heparinized blood was collected