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- Eklund, Daniel, 1984-
(author)
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Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the human macrophage : shifting the balance through inflammasome activation
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a very successful pathogen and tuberculosis constitutes a major threat to global health worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that almost nine million new cases and 1.5 million deaths occur annually and the situation is worsened by increased antibiotic resistance and an extreme synergism with the HIV pandemic. M. tuberculosis primarily affects the lungs where the infection can lead to either eradication of the bacteria or the initiation of an immune response that culminates in the formation of a large cluster of immune cells termed granulomas. In these granulomas, the bacteria can either replicate and cause disease with the ultimate goal of spreading to new hosts or cause latent tuberculosis, which can persist for decades. The tools available to manage the disease are currently suboptimal and include lengthy antibiotic treatments and an inefficient vaccine resulting in poor protection. On a cellular level, M. tuberculosis primarily infects the cell designed to recognize, ingest and eradicate bacteria, namely the human macrophage. Following recognition, the macrophage phagocytoses the bacterium and tries to kill it using an array of different effector mechanisms including acidification of the bacterium-containing vacuole, different degradative enzymes and the generation of radicals. However, the bacterium is able to circumvent many of these harmful effects, leading to a tug-of-war between the bacterium and host macrophage. This thesis aims at studying the interaction between the human macrophage and M. tuberculosis to identify host factors critical for controlling growth of the bacteria. More specifically, it focuses on the role of an intracellular receptor protein called NLRP3 and its downstream effects. NLRP3 is activated in human macrophages infected by M. tuberculosis and upon activation it forms a multi-protein complex known as the inflammasome. This protein complex is known to induce the production of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β and specialized forms of macrophage cell death. We hypothesized that stimulating this pathway would have a beneficial effect for the host macrophage during infection with M. tuberculosis.To allow us to follow interaction between M. tuberculosis and the human macrophage, we first developed a luminometry-based method of measuring bacterial numbers and following bacterial growth over several days in infected cells. With this new assay we showed that low numbers of bacteria induced very low levels of IL-1β and failed to induce any type of cell death in the macrophage. However, when a critical number of bacteria were reached, the infected macrophages underwent necrosis, which was accompanied by high levels of IL-1β. We were also able to show that addition of vitamin D, which has been implicated as an important factor for increased killing capacity of infected macrophages, increased the production of IL-1β, which coincided with increased killing of M. tuberculosis. This effect was seen specifically in cells from patients with active tuberculosis, suggesting that these cells are primed to respond to vitamin D and increased levels of IL-1β. Furthermore, we also showed that increasing production of IL-1β by stimulating infected macrophages with apoptotic neutrophils in turn drives the production of other proinflammatory cytokines. Lastly, we showed that gain-of-function polymorphisms in inflammasome components linked to increased inflammasome activation and IL-1β production promotes bacterial killing in human macrophages. In conclusion, the work presented in this thesis shows that by enhancing the functions of the inflammasome, it is possible to tip the balance between the human macrophage and M. tuberculosis in favor of the host cell.
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| 2. |
- Winberg Tinnerfelt, Martin, 1976-
(author)
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Leukocyte responses to pathogens : integrins, membrane rafts and nitric oxide
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During microbial invasion, leukocytes of the innate immunity are rapidly recruited to the site of infection where they internalize (phagocytose), kill and digest the invaders. To aid this process, leukocytes express surface receptors such as Toll-like receptors, β2-integrins and Fc-receptors. The β2-integrins are also used for attachment to the extracellular matrix and are important for migration. When pro- vs. anti-inflammatory regulation of β2-integrins was investigated, it was found that chemotactic factors modulate neutrophil adhesion through altered affinity and/or avidity of β2-integrins. A bacteria-derived chemoattractant evoked a large increase in affinity as well as in mobility and clustering, while an early, host-derived chemotactic factor induced increased clustering and surface mobility, but only a slight increase in affinity. Anti-inflammatory lipoxin affected β2-integrin avidity, but not affinity.The leukocyte membrane is composed of lipids and proteins, which are inhomogeneously distributed. Specific domains in the membrane, membrane rafts, are enriched in signaling proteins and receptors. It was found that lipophosphoglycan (LPG) a virulence factor and membrane component of the parasite Leishmania donovani, accumulated in macrophage rafts during infection, inhibited PKCα translocation to the membrane and halted phagosomal maturation. Membrane rafts were instrumental for LPG to exert its effect. We further showed that nitric oxide (NO) rescued phagosomal maturation halted by Leishmania donovani parasites, possibly through effects on actin dynamics. NO did not affect parasite virulence per se. Moreover, lipoarabinomannan (LAM), a virulence factor on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) bacteria, also inserted itself into macrophage membrane rafts. LAM from a less virulent strain (PILAM) was less efficiently inserted. Insertion could to some extent be inhibited by phosphatidylinositol mannoside (PIM), another structural molecule from Mtb. LAM did not activate the p38 MAPK signaling pathway nor did LAM interfere with TLR 2 or 4 signaling. In neutrophil leukocytes we observed a simultaneous, calciumdependent up-regulation of membrane rafts and secretion of azurophilic granules at the site of phagocytosis. Rafts were also found in the phagosome membrane. Wild type Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria, which can survive phagocytosis, modulated raft delivery.
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| 3. |
- Asfaw Idosa, Berhane, 1977-
(author)
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Inflammasome polymorphisms and the Inflammatory Response to Bacterial Infections
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- NLRP3 inflammasome; a key component of the innate immune system, can be activated by a number of pathogens and other threats of the body. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome triggers caspase-1 mediated maturationof IL-1β and IL-18. Polymorphisms Q705K and C10X are two gene variants of the NLRP3 inflammasome that combined or per se have been associated with higher risk and severity of chronic inflammation and excessive production of IL-1β. Host genetic factors have been found an important determinants of susceptibility of infectious diseases and disease outcome. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the association between polymorphisms Q705K and C10X with bacterial infections and the inflammatory response, moreover to determine the inflammasome activation state in healthy carriers of these polymorphisms. The data of the thesis show higher levels of IL-1β and IL-33 in healthy carriers of combined polymorphisms of Q705K and C10X as compared to non-carrier controls. This may provide individuals with combined polymorphisms a more robust innate immune response against pathogens, but could also lead to the onset of chronic inflammation, and excessive inflammation during acute infection. In addition, individuals with C10X polymorphism per se showed association with the presence of bacteremia as compared withhealthy blood donors. No association was found in severely ill patients with negative blood culture bottle. In addition, the results show that LOS of N. meningitidis is responsible for the priming and activating steps of the inflammasome. The non-LOS components were found to contribute to the priming step. A higher inflammatory response to N. meningitidis was found in individuals who were non-carriers of the polymorphisms than individuals with the Q705K and C10X per se or combined regardless of the strain of bacteria. Taken together, the gene variations of the NLRP3 inflammasome are of importance in explaining inter-individual variation in susceptibility to infectious diseases.
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| 4. |
- Månsson, Emeli, 1978-
(author)
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Molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus epidermidis in prosthetic joint infections
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Staphylococcus epidermidis is ubiquitous in the human microbiota, but also an important pathogen in healthcare-associated infections, such as prosthetic joint infections (PJIs). In this thesis, aspects of the molecular epidemiology of S. epidermidis in PJIs were investigated with the aim of improving our understanding of the pre- and perioperative measures required to reduce the incidence of S. epidermidis PJIs.In Paper I, S. epidermidis retrieved from air sampling in the operating field during arthroplasty was characterized by multilocus sequence typing and antibiotic susceptibility testing. No isolates belonging to sequence types (STs) 2 and 215, previously associated with PJIs, were found in the air of the operating field. During air sampling, several Staphylococcus pettenkoferi isolates were identified, and as a spin-off of Paper I, the genomic relatedness of these isolates to S. pettenkoferi isolates from blood cultures was described in Paper II.In Paper III, genetic traits distinguishing S. epidermidis isolated from PJIs were determined using genome-wide association study accounting for population effects after whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of a population- based 10-year collection of S. epidermidis isolates from PJIs and of nasal isolates retrieved from patients scheduled for arthroplasty. Genes associated with antimicrobial agents used for prophylaxis in arthroplasty, i.e., beta-lactam antibiotics, aminoglycosides, and chlorhexidine, were associated with PJI origin. S. epidermidis from PJIs were dominated by the ST2a, ST2b, ST5, and ST215 lineages.In Paper IV, selective agar plates were used to investigate colonization with methicillin resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) in patients scheduled for arthroplasty. MRSE were further characterized by WGS. A subset of patients was found to harbour PJI-associated S. epidermidis lineages in their microbiota before hospitalization, but no isolates belonging to the ST2a lineage nor any rifampicin-resistant isolates were retrieved.
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