Bacillus anthracis Spore Surface Protein BclA Mediates Complement Factor H Binding to Spores and Promotes Spore Persistence

PLoS Pathogens

Margarita Martinez-Moczygemba¹  Ankita Shree¹  Chunfang Gu¹  Marina Botto¹  Yanyu Wang¹  Sarah A. Jenkins¹  Rick A. Wetsel²  Jennifer Herold³  Yi Xu⁴ 

[1] Center for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America;Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom;Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, Texas, United States of America;The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

关键词: Bacterial spores;    Complement system;    Bacillus anthracis;    Enzyme-linked immunoassays;    Antibody response;    Complement activation;    Complement inhibitors;    Antibodies;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1005678

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, are known to persist in the host lungs for prolonged periods of time, however the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that BclA, a major surface protein of B. anthracis spores, mediated direct binding of complement factor H (CFH) to spores. The surface bound CFH retained its regulatory cofactor activity resulting in C3 degradation and inhibition of downstream complement activation. By comparing results from wild type C57BL/6 mice and complement deficient mice, we further showed that BclA significantly contributed to spore persistence in the mouse lungs and dampened antibody responses to spores in a complement C3-dependent manner. In addition, prior exposure to BclA deletion spores (ΔbclA) provided significant protection against lethal challenges by B. anthracis, whereas the isogenic parent spores did not, indicating that BclA may also impair protective immunity. These results describe for the first time an immune inhibition mechanism of B. anthracis mediated by BclA and CFH that promotes spore persistence in vivo. The findings also suggested an important role of complement in persistent infections and thus have broad implications.

【 授权许可】

CC BY