Human Neutrophils Kill Bacillus anthracis

PLoS Pathogens

Robert Hurwitz¹  Anne Mayer-Scholl²  Arturo Zychlinsky²  Yvette Weinrauch³  Volker Brinkmann⁴  Monika Schmid⁵  Peter Jungblut⁵ 

[1] Biochemistry Core Facility, Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany;Department of Cellular Microbiology, Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany;Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America;Microscopy Core Facility, Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany;Protein Analysis Core Facilities, Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin. Germany

关键词: Neutrophils;    Bacillus anthracis;    Bacterial spores;    Anthrax;    Respiratory infections;    Toxins;    Reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography;    Phagocytosis;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.0010023

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Bacillus anthracis spores cause natural infections and are used as biological weapons. Inhalation infection with B. anthracis, the etiological agent of anthrax, is almost always lethal, yet cutaneous infections usually remain localized and resolve spontaneously. Neutrophils are typically recruited to cutaneous but seldom to other forms of anthrax infections, raising the possibility that neutrophils kill B. anthracis. In this study we infected human neutrophils with either spores or vegetative bacteria of a wild-type strain, or strains, expressing only one of the two major virulence factors. The human neutrophils engulfed B. anthracis spores, which germinated intracellularly and were then efficiently killed. Interestingly, neutrophil killing was independent of reactive oxygen species production. We fractionated a human neutrophil granule extract by high-performance liquid chromatography and identified α-defensins as the component responsible for B. anthracis killing. These data suggest that the timely recruitment of neutrophils can control cutaneous infections and possibly other forms of B. anthracis infections, and that α-defensins play an important role in the potent anti-B. anthracis activity of neutrophils.

【 授权许可】

CC BY