Role of the caspase-1 inflammasome in Salmonella typhimurium pathogenesis
Maria Lara-Tejero1, Fayyaz S. Sutterwala2,3, Yasunori Ogura3, Ethan P. Grant4, John Bertin4, Anthony J. Coyle4, Richard A. Flavell3, and Jorge E. Gal?n1
1 Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, 2 Section of Infectious Diseases, and 3 Section of Immunobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06536
4 Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, MA 02139
Caspase-1 is activated by a variety of stimuli after the assembly of the "inflammasome," an activating platform made up of a complex of the NOD-LRR family of proteins. Caspase-1 is required for the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1? and IL-18, and is involved in the control of many bacterial infections. Paradoxically, however, its absence has been reported to confer resistance to oral infection by Salmonella typhimurium. We show here that absence of caspase-1 or components of the inflammasome does not result in resistance to oral infection by S. typhimurium, but rather, leads to increased susceptibility to infection.
Critical role for NALP3/CIAS1/Cryopyrin in innate and adaptive immunity through its regulation of caspase-1.
Sutterwala FS, Ogura Y, Szczepanik M, Lara-Tejero M, Lichtenberger GS, Grant EP, Bertin J, Coyle AJ, Galan JE, Askenase PW, Flavell RA.
Immunity. 2006 Mar;24(3):317-27.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16546100&query_hl=31&itool=pubmed_docsum
Bacterial flagellin is a known ligand for the Toll-like receptor TLR5. However, several recent papers have now revealed that in addition to the TLR5 pathway, which responds to extracellular flagellin, host macrophages can respond to cytosolic flagellin through members of the NOD-like receptor (NLR) family.
The recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns by host TLRs is a key component of innate immunity and much has been learned about TLRs and their signalling pathways over the past decade. More recently, attention has turned to the role of non-TLRs in innate immunity, including the cytoplasmic NLR family. Details of the NLR signalling pathways are beginning to emerge and NLRs are known to be involved in secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) by macrophages. IL-1 is produced initially as a zymogen that is activated for secretion by caspase 1.
In Salmonella typhimurium infection, the NLR protein Ipaf was known to be involved in caspase 1 activation and IL-1 secretion but, until now, the S. typhimurium ligand for Ipaf was unknown. Two independent groups led by Gabriel N??ez and Alan Aderem investigated the nature of the innate immune response to S. typhimurium infection. Both groups confirmed that Ipaf was required for IL-1 production and caspase 1 activation in macrophages. Additionally, they both found that S. typhimurium mutants that either lack or have mutated flagella did not stimulate caspase 1 activation or IL-1 secretion, suggesting that flagellin is the S. typhimurium ligand for Ipaf.
As flagellin is also a known ligand for TLR5, the involvement of TLRs was examined ? both groups found that S. typhimurium could stimulate caspase 1 activation and IL-1 secretion in TLR5-deficient macrophages, and in wild-type macrophages, and in addition Franchi et al. found normal levels of caspase 1 activation and IL-1 secretion in tolerant macrophages that are refractory to TLR stimulation. Taken together, these results suggest that macrophages sense flagellin through a TLR5-independent pathway that relies on the cytoplasmic sensor Ipaf. Further confirmation that Ipaf senses flagellin in the cytosol independently of TLR5 comes from the fact that both groups also demonstrated that purified flagellin delivered to the cytosol triggered caspase 1 activation in wild-type but not Ipaf-deficient macrophages. The mechanism by which flagellin accesses the cytosol during infection remains to be completely elucidated, however genetic evidence presented by Miao et al. suggests that it is transferred directly into the host cell cytoplasm by the virulence-associated type III secretion system.
These results are echoed by results published recently in two independent papers, one in PLoS Pathogens and one in Journal of Experimental Medicine, which indicate that an NLR is also involved in cytosolic sensing of Legionella pneumophila flagellin through a TLR5-independent, caspase-1-dependent pathway.
References and links
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS
Franchi, L. et al. Cytosolic flagellin requires Ipaf for activation of caspase-1 and interleukin 1 in Salmonella-infected macrophages. Nature Immunol. 30 April 2006 (doi:10.1038/ni1346)
Article
Miao, E. A. et al. Cytoplasmic flagellin activates caspase-1 and secretion of interleukin 1via Ipaf. Nature Immunol. 30 April 2006 (doi:10.1038/ni1344)
Article
Ren, T. et al. Flagellin-deficient Legionella mutants evade caspase 1 and Naip5-mediated macrophage immunity. PLoS Pathogens 3 e18 (2006)
Molofsky, A. B. et al. Cytosolic recognition of flagellin by mouse macrophages restricts Legionella pneumophila infection. J. Exp. Med. 203, 1093?1104 (2006)
Nature Immunology 7, 549 - 551 (2006)
doi:10.1038/ni0606-549
Cytosolic detection of flagellin: a deadly twist
Craig R Roy & Dario S Zamboni
Craig R. Roy and Dario S. Zamboni are with the Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06536, USA.
Immune responses to bacterial infection occur by host cell detection of bacterial components. Monomeric flagellin can be elicited directly by host cells and then are 'sensed' by the cytosolic protein Ipaf.
Detection of pathogenic intestinal bacteria by Toll-like receptor 5 on intestinal CD11c(+) lamina propria cells.
Uematsu S, Jang MH, Chevrier N, Guo Z, Kumagai Y, Yamamoto M, Kato H, Sougawa N, Matsui H, Kuwata H, Hemmi H, Coban C, Kawai T, Ishii KJ, Takeuchi O, Miyasaka M, Takeda K, Akira S
Nat Immunol. 2006 Aug;7(8):868-74. Epub 2006 Jul 9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16829963&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
The Journal of Cell Biology
Research Roundup
Salmonella sneaks past security
http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/full/jcb.1743rr2v1?papetoc
Certain gut cells can leave resident bacteria alone but respond selectively to invaders. Satoshi Uematsu, Shizuo Akira, and colleagues (Osaka University, Japan) suggest that gut cells achieve this differentiation by using a special, pathogen-specific receptor called the Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5). But the pathogenic Salmonella typhimurium turns the situation around: events triggered by the special receptor help the bug to invade its host.
TLRs, which are expressed on professional antigen-presenting cells, recognize common pathogen-associated molecules and trigger innate immunity. TLR5 on dendritic cells recognizes bacterial flagellin protein in vitro, but its function in vivo was previously unknown.
Akira's team found that TLR5 mRNA was highly expressed in the mouse intestine particularly in a specific subpopulation of antigen-presenting lamina propria cells (CD11c+ LPCs). In these cells, TLR5 was necessary for bacterial flagellin to induce inflammatory cytokines, yet when the team infected TLR5-/- mice with Salmonella, a flagellated bacterium, these mice were unexpectedly resistant to the bug.
It was not, however, invasion of the CD11c+ LPCs that showed a difference. In the gut, Salmonella invaded the CD11c+ LPCs in both TLR5+/+ and TLR5-/- mice. However, in the TLR5-/- mice, fewer bacteria-laden CD11c+ LPCs moved from the intestinal tract to the mesenteric lymph nodes, probably because the LPCs failed to be activated by the bacteria. These mice had more resistance to systemic infection--fewer bacteria reached their livers and spleens--but it is not yet clear whether a similar tactic of TLR5 blocking would work in humans.
Reference:
Uematsu, S., et al. 2006. Nat. Immunol. doi:10.1038/ni1362. [Abstract]
Innate immunity: Gut feeling
Lucy Bird
http://www.nature.com/nri/journal/v6/n8/full/nri1902.html
How intestinal immune cells discriminate between pathogenic and commensal bacteria in the gut has troubled immunologists and microbiologists alike for decades. Might the answer lie in the selective expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) by cells in the lamina propria, as described by Shizuo Akira and colleagues in a recent Nature Immunology paper?
TLR5 recognizes the flagella of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and has been shown to be expressed mainly on the basolateral surface of intestinal epithelial cells. It is not, however, expressed by conventional splenic dendritic cells or macrophages, which implies an important role for TLR5 in the detection of invasive flagellated bacteria in the gut. In this study, the authors observed that CD11c+ cells in the intestinal lamina propria preferentially express TLR5 and not TLR4.
Gene-expression analysis showed that, following stimulation of CD11c+ lamina propria cells with flagellin, the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and other immune-related proteins was induced. Interestingly, expression of the regulatory cytokine IL-10 was not induced, indicating that the response to flagellin is immunostimulatory and not tolerogenic.
By generating Tlr5-knockout mice, the authors then studied the role of TLR5 in response to commensal (Enterobacter cloacae) versus pathogenic (Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium) bacteria in vivo. Although wild-type CD11c+ lamina propria cells produced copious amounts of IL-6 in response to S. typhimurium, only low levels were induced by E. cloacae. Importantly, the response to the pathogenic bacteria was TLR5 dependent, as Tlr5-/- CD11c+ lamina propria cells failed to respond. This was in contrast to the response by wild-type CD11c+ splenic cells, which, although they lack TLR5 expression, responded to both S. typhimurium and E. cloacae in a TLR4-dependent manner.
So, how does the absence of this immune response in Tlr5-/- mice affect the outcome of infection with S. typhimurium? Surprisingly, Tlr5-/- mice survived infection with an otherwise lethal dose of S. typhimurium. This was probably due to the involvement of TLR5 in the transport of the bacteria from the gut to the blood and therefore in establishing lethal systemic infection, as fewer bacteria could be detected in the mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen of infected Tlr5-/- mice than infected wild-type mice.
Therefore, although selective expression of TLRs by cells in the lamina propria provides an elegant way of avoiding responses to commensal bacteria, pathogenic bacteria might have evolved ways to use this to their advantage.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Uematsu, S. et al. Detection of pathogenic intestinal bacteria by Toll-like receptor 5 on intestinal CD11c+ lamina propria cells. Nature Immunol. 9 July 2006 (doi:)
Involvement of Toll-like receptor 5 in the recognition of flagellated bacteria.
Feuillet V, Medjane S, Mondor I, Demaria O, Pagni PP, Galan JE, Flavell RA, Alexopoulou L.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Aug 15;103(33):12487-12492. Epub 2006 Aug 4.
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are key components of the immune system that detect microbial infection and trigger antimicrobial host defense responses. TLR5 is a sensor for monomeric flagellin, which is a component of bacterial flagella known to be a virulence factor. In this study we generated TLR5-deficient mice and investigated the role of TLR5 signaling in the detection of flagellin and antibacterial immune responses to Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We found that TLR5 is essential for the recognition of bacterial flagellin both in vivo and ex vivo. TLR5 contribution to antibacterial host response to i.p. infection with S. typhimurium or intranasal administration of P. aeruginosa may be masked by TLR4 or other sensing mechanisms. By using radiation bone marrow chimera, we showed that upon i.p. injection of flagellin immune responses are mediated by lymphoid cells, whereas resident cells are required for the initiation of response upon intranasal flagellin administration. These results suggest that flagellin recognition in different organs is mediated by distinct TLR5-expressing cells and provide insights into the cooperation of the TLR5 and TLR4 signaling pathways used by the innate immune system in the recognition of bacterial pathogens.