Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae exploits the interaction between protein-E and vitronectin for the adherence and invasion to bronchial epithelial cells

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Naoki Inui¹  Toshi Nagata²  Tomoyuki Fujisawa³  Masaki Ikeda³  Dai Hashimoto³  Takafumi Suda³  Yutaro Nakamura³  Noriyuki Enomoto³ 

[1] Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan;Department of Health Science, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan;Second Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan;

关键词: Haemophilus influenzae;    NTHi;    Intracellular invasion;    Protein-E;    Vitronectin;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12866-015-0600-8

 received in 2015-06-06, accepted in 2015-11-06,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundNontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is one of the most common Gram-negative pathogens in otitis media and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. NTHi has been reported to invade bronchial epithelial cells. This penetration enables NTHi to evade the host immune system and antibiotics, and it seems to be related to the intractable features of these diseases. However, the precise mechanism of the invasion has been unknown. We hypothesized that protein-E, an outer membrane protein of NTHi, plays a role in this penetration into bronchial epithelial cells.ResultsWe utilized two NTHi strains. NTHi efficiently attached to plate-bound vitronectin (254–309 / field at 1,000× magnification) and this attachment was blocked by pretreatment with protein-E peptide (PE84–108). The blockade of adhesion was dependent on the concentration of PE84–108. NTHi strains invaded bronchial epithelial cells and the intracellular bacteria were localized in early endosomes. Furthermore, intracellular invasion of NTHi was also blocked by PE84–108, but not by Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptide. Pretreatment with PE84–108 significantly prevented cells from being invaded by both NTHi strains, which was confirmed by fluorescent microscope observation. In addition, pretreatment with PE84–108 significantly reduced percentages of CFU after gentamicin treatment of cells per input CFU.ConclusionsThese results suggest that NTHi does not directly bind to the cell surface, but binds to host vitronectin that is bound to the cell surface, via bacterial protein-E. Bacterial protein-E and host vitronectin play a role in the attachment to bronchial epithelial cells and is also involved in the subsequent intracellular invasion of NTHi. A novel vaccine or treatment strategy targeting the protein-E-vitronectin axis may prevent respiratory intracellular infection of NTHi and may lead to better clinical outcomes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Ikeda et al. 2015