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- Gideonsson, Pär, 1982-
(författare)
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Helicobacter pylori : molecular insights into regulation of adhesion properties
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Helicobacter pylori infects the human stomach and triggers an inflammatory response that damages the gastric tissue. This host-pathogen interplay has dire consequences as up to 20 % of infected individuals develop peptic ulcer disease or gastric cancer. Given that half of the world’s population is infected, the number of afflicted humans is staggering and also tells that H. pylori is extremely efficient in spreading and maintaining infection. To enable persistent infection many factors play a role, but one important feature of H. pylori is its impressive ability to adhere to the slimy gastric mucus layer and the underlying epithelial cells. This occurs mainly via the BabA and SabA proteins that bind ABO/Leb- and sLex/sLea-antigens. I have in my thesis studied how these two proteins are utilized and regulated.H. pylori transcription is in part controlled by two-component systems (TCSs) that use a sensor protein and a DNA-binding response regulator. We have studied how these systems control sabA and to some extent babA and indeed found a better map of how sabA and babA is regulated at the transcriptional level. We also found that variations in a polynucleotide T-tract located in the sabA promotor could fine-tune SabA expression/ sLex-binding. Thus we have exposed how strict regulation by TCSs combined with stochastic processes together shapes attachment in the bacterial population.As the buffering mucus layer is constantly exfoliated, placing H. pylori in bactericidal acid, we hypothesized that low pH should abrogate adhesion. SabA expression was indeed repressed in low pH, however BabA expression remained unaffected. The BabA/ Leb-binding was instead directly reversibly hampered by low pH and the degree of pH sensitivity was strain dependent and encoded in the BabA sequence. We believe that the pH dependent loss of binding is one key factor H. pylori utilizes to maintain persistent infection.BabA is divided in generalists that bind ABO antigens and specialists that only bind blood group (bg) O. We co-crystalized BabA bound to these receptors and established the structural basis for generalist vs. specialist discrimination. We furthermore found a disulfide-clasped loop (CL2) in the center of the binding domain crucial for binding. Breaking CL2 with N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) disrupted binding and H. pylori infection mice experiments revealed inflammatory reduction upon NAC-treatment.In sum, I have in my thesis dissected how H. pylori controls its adhesive abilities and how intrinsic properties in binding can be exploited for therapeutic purposes.
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- Åberg, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular insights into the fine-tuning of pH-dependent ArsR-mediated regulation of the SabA adhesin in Helicobacter pylori
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nucleic Acids Research. - : Oxford University Press. - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 52:10, s. 5572-5595
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Adaptation to variations in pH is crucial for the ability of Helicobacter pylori to persist in the human stomach. The acid responsive two-component system ArsRS, constitutes the global regulon that responds to acidic conditions, but molecular details of how transcription is affected by the ArsR response regulator remains poorly understood. Using a combination of DNA-binding studies, in vitro transcription assays, and H. pylori mutants, we demonstrate that phosphorylated ArsR (ArsR-P) forms an active protein complex that binds DNA with high specificity in order to affect transcription. Our data showed that DNA topology is key for DNA binding. We found that AT-rich DNA sequences direct ArsR-P to specific sites and that DNA-bending proteins are important for the effect of ArsR-P on transcription regulation. The repression of sabA transcription is mediated by ArsR-P with the support of Hup and is affected by simple sequence repeats located upstream of the sabA promoter. Here stochastic events clearly contribute to the fine-tuning of pH-dependent gene regulation. Our results reveal important molecular aspects for how ArsR-P acts to repress transcription in response to acidic conditions. Such transcriptional control likely mediates shifts in bacterial positioning in the gastric mucus layer.
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- Åberg, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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The Helicobacter pylori sialic acid binding adhesin SabA is regulated via a network of two-component systems
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The acid-responsive signaling system ArsRS plays a key role in regulating factors important for survival in acidic conditions during infection of the human stomach by Helicobacter pylori. In addition, ArsRS was suggested to control the disease-associated attachment protein SabA, however, mechanistic data is still lacking. We show that the repressing effect of the ArsRS system on SabA expression occurs both at acidic and neutral conditions and is mediated at the transcriptional level. Purified His6-ArsR binds PsabA DNA at several sites, with varying affinity and independent of phosphorylation status and H. pylori strains showed unique cognate PsabA sequences to tweak the ArsR binding ability, resulting in strain-dependent repression of SabA expression. By site-directed mutagenesis we reveal key amino acids for the binding activity of ArsR. Finally, we show that that ArsR binds to A/T-rich DNA as dimers or larger multimers, suggesting that ArsR has affinity for DNA structures rather than to a specific promoter DNA sequence. SabA expression is further influenced by the FlgRS and CrdRS two-component systems, illustrating a complicated crosstalk among regulatory networks in H. pylori.
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