Enterohemolysin Operon of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia Coli
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FEBS 26317 FEBS Letters 524 (2002) 219^224 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Enterohemolysin operon of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichiaprovided by coliElsevier :- Publisher Connector a virulence function of in£ammatory cytokine production from human monocytes Ikue Taneike, Hui-Min Zhang, Noriko Wakisaka-Saito, Tatsuo Yamamotoà Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 757 Ichibanchou, Asahimachidori, Niigata, Japan Received 5 April 2002; revised 14 June 2002; accepted 19 June 2002 First published online 8 July 2002 Edited by Veli-Pekka Lehto Stx [6]. In the case of the outbreak strains in Japan in 1996, Abstract Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is associated with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Although more than 98% of STEC were positive for enterohemolysin most clinical isolates ofSTEC produce hemolysin (called en- [8]. terohemolysin), the precise role ofenterohemolysin in the patho- Enterohemolysin and K-hemolysin (which is produced from genesis ofSTEC infectionsis unknown. Here we demonstrated approximately 50% of E. coli isolates from extraintestinal in- that E. coli carrying the cloned enterohemolysin operon (hlyC, fections [9], or from porcine STEC strains [6]) are members of A, B, D genes) from an STEC human strain induced the pro- the RTX family, associated with the ATP-dependent HlyB/ duction ofinterleukin-1 L (IL-1L) through its mRNA expression HlyD/TolC secretion system through which hemolysin K but not tumor necrosis factor- from human monocytes. No (HlyA) is secreted across the bacterial membranes. Both the L IL-1 release was observed with an enterohemolysin (HlyA)- enterohemolysin and K-hemolysin operons consist of the hlyC, negative, isogenic E. coli strain carrying a mutation in the hlyA, hlyB, and hlyD genes [10^12]. hlyA gene. The data suggest that enterohemolysin, a pore-form- K ing toxin, induces the production ofIL-1 L, which is one of Enterohemolysin and -hemolysin are, however, genetically serum risk markers for HUS. ß 2002 Federation of European and immunologically distinct hemolysins. Enterohemolysin is Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All a cell-associated hemolysin, in contrast to K-hemolysin which rights reserved. is released from bacterial cells [7]. In the case of enterohemo- lysin, hemolysis is observed on blood agar containing washed Key words: Enterohemolysin operon; Hemolysis; but not unwashed sheep erythrocytes, in sharp contrast to Interleukin-1L; Human monocyte; mRNA expression; K-hemolysin, which is detected even on blood agar containing Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli unwashed sheep erythrocytes [6]. In HUS, it has been shown that serum levels of proin£am- matory cytokines such as interleukin-1L (IL-1L) and tumor 1. Introduction necrosis factor-K (TNF-K) are elevated [13^15]. Both IL-1L and TNF-K regulate the expression of the Stx receptor (a Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC; alter- glycolipid globotriosylceramide, Gb3) on the endothelial cell natively called enterohemorrhagic E. coli, EHEC) belonging membrane [16,17]. Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and Stx to serotype O157:H7 was identi¢ed as an emerging bacterial stimulate the production of IL-1L and TNF-K from human pathogen of food-borne infections in the United States in monocytes [17,18]. However, whether enterohemolysin in- 1982 [1]. In Japan, during 1996, explosive outbreaks occurred duces the production of proin£ammatory cytokines has not with more than 17 877 people infected including 12 fatalities yet been investigated. [2]. STEC includes not only serotype O157:H7 (the most prev- In the present study, we investigated if E. coli carrying the alent serotype), but other serotypes (e.g.) O26, O111, O128, cloned enterohemolysin genes elicited proin£ammatory cyto- and O145 have also been implicated in human infections [3,4]. kines from human monocytes. For this, we constructed an Infection is initially associated with abdominal symptoms enterohemolysin-negative (hlyA) derivative from the cloned such as abdominal pain, water diarrhea, and hemorrhagic co- enterohemolysin genes, and evidence was provided that en- litis and also with serious systemic disorders, such as hemo- terohemolysin produces IL-1L, but not TNF-K, from human lytic uremic syndrome (HUS), especially in young children monocytes. [3^5]. STEC, in many cases, also encodes hemolysin (called enterohemolysin [6], or EHEC-hemolysin [7]) in addition to 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Bacterial strains and plasmid *Corresponding author. Fax: (81)-25-227 0762. STEC human strain F60 (serotype O128:H12) was isolated on oc- E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Yamamoto). casions of outbreaks of STEC infections in Japan in 1996. It produces both Stx1 and Stx2, and manifests enterohemolysin activities in a Abbreviations: STEC, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli; Hly, great quantity, compared with other STEC human strains isolated hemolysin; IL-1L, interleukin-1L; TNF-K, tumor necrosis factor-K; from Japan [8]. E. coli HB101 is a hybrid between E. coli K-12 and HUS, hemolytic uremic syndrome; RT-PCR, reverse transcription- E. coli B, lacks restriction ability, and was used as a host of recombi- polymerase chain reaction; Stx, Shiga toxin nant plasmids. 0014-5793 / 02 / $22.00 ß 2002 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0014-5793(02)03027-2 FEBS 26317 19-7-02 Cyaan Magenta Geel Zwart 220 I. Taneike et al./FEBS Letters 524 (2002) 219^224 The recombinant plasmid pACH1 (24.5 kbp in size) carried the 2.6. Cytokine mRNA assay entire enterohemolysin operon (hlyC, hlyA, hlyB, hlyD genes) which To detect mRNA, after incubation, total cellular RNA of the originated in the enterohemolysin-positive plasmid pO128-60 (120 kbp monocytes was extracted using acid guanidinium thiocyanate/phe- in size) of STEC strain F60 [8]. The GenBank accession number for nol/chloroform. The amount of RNA was assessed with a RiboGreen the gene sequence of this enterohemolysin operon is AB032930. The RNA quantitation kit (Molecular Probes, Inc., The Netherlands). determined sequence covers the 7 869-nucleotide sequence of the en- A reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was terohemolysin operon region, including the entire enterohemolysin performed as described previously [21]. Primers for IL-1L (5P-AAA- genes (hlyC, hlyA, hlyB, hlyD) (7 127 bp; Fig. 1), the 477-nucleo- CAGATGAAGTGCTCCTTCCAGG and 5P-TGGAGAACACCA- tide-upstream region from the hlyC gene, and the 265-nucleotide- CTTGTTGCTCCA, generating a 391-bp product), TNF-K (5P- downstream region to the hlyD gene. GGACGTGGAGCTGGCCGAGGAG and 5P-CACCAGCTGGT- TATCTCTCAGCTC, generating a 352-bp product), and glyceralde- 2.2. Construction of a mutant hlyA gene hyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) (5P-GGGAGCCAAA- For mutagenesis of the hlyA gene, the pACH1 plasmid DNA carry- AGGGTCATCATCTC and 5P-CCATGCCAGTGAGCTTCCCG- ing the entire enterohemolysin operon was cut with SplI, whose site TTC, generating a 353-bp product) were kindly provided by Dr. was located 81 bp downstream to the initiation codon ATG within Yasuhiro Natori (International Medical Center of Japan, Tokyo, Ja- hlyA. The generated single stranded ends were polymerized and the pan) [22,23]. Negative controls were performed by omitting RNA two resultant double-stranded ends of the linear pACH1 DNA were from cDNA synthesis and speci¢c PCR ampli¢cation. Cycling con- ligated using a DNA blunting kit (Takara Shuzo Co., Shiga, Japan). ditions were denaturation for 45 s at 94‡C, annealing for 45 s at 55‡C, The plasmid (pACHT1) thus obtained was subjected to sequence and polymerization for 45 s at 72‡C (35 cycles). Ampli¢ed PCR prod- analysis for the whole mutant enterohemolysin operon region, as de- ucts were analyzed by gel electrophoresis with 2% agarose and stained scribed above. pACHT1 was used in experiments on hemolysis and with ethidium bromide. PX174 RF DNA/HaeIII fragments (Life cytokine production. Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD, USA) were used as molecular size standards. 2.3. Media and bacterial growth 2.7. Data analysis For bacterial growth, tryptic soy agar (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, MI, USA) was used as solid media. We used antibiotics (20 Wgof Data were presented as mean þ S.D. of triplicate experiments, and U chloramphenicol per ml) to maintain the recombinant plasmids during evaluated by Mann^Whitney’s -test. cultivation. Luria^Bertani (LB) broth (Difco) was used as liquid media which was inoculated and incubated at 37‡C for 12^18 h with agitation. In 3. Results some experiments, RPMI 1640 medium (ICN Biomedicals, Aurora, OH, USA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco BRL, Grand Island, NY, USA) was also employed. When bacteria were 3.1. Construction of pACHT1 carrying the mutant hlyA gene þ grown in the liquid media, antibiotics were not added. In the case The enterohemolysin recombinant plasmid pACH1 car- of E. coli HB101 carrying pACH1 or pACHT1, after incubation, a ried the unique SplI site within the hlyA gene (Fig. 1). portion of the liquid culture was streaked on tryptic soy agar and the pACH1 DNA was cut with SplI and ¢lled in with DNA poly- colonies developed were examined for the presence of the recombinant merase, and the plasmid pACHT1 carrying the mutant hlyA plasmid (chloramphenicol-resistant) with the replica plating method. All of the colonies examined were resistant to chloramphenicol gene was constructed. The mutant hlyA gene carried the (20 Wg/ml). CGTACGTACG sequence (4-base GTAC insertion) instead of the CGTACG sequence (SplI site), resulting in a frame 2.4. Hemolysis assay shift from the 31st codon and a new stop codon at the posi- For hemolysis assay on agar plates, bacteria were streaked on tryp- tion of the 42nd codon (Fig. 1). The deduced amino acid tic soy agar supplemented with 5% fresh, washed, de¢brinated sheep sequence of the mutant hlyA gene is only 41 amino acids erythrocytes and 10 mM CaCl2 [6].