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- Interfakultäres Institut für Genetik und Funktionelle Genomforschung (UMG) (6) (remove)
This thesis contains results from transcriptome studies on different aspects of host-pathogen interactions. First, liver gene expression profiles from a murine chronic stress model served to elucidate aspects of the influence of stress on metabolism and immune response state. Chronic stress in female BALB/c mice was shown to lead to a hypermetabolic syndrome including induction of gluconeogenesis, hypercholesteremia, and loss of essential amino acids, to the induction of the acute phase response, but also of immune suppressive pathways and to the repression of hepatic antigen presentation. Increased leukocyte trafficking, increased oxidative stress together with counter-regulatory gene expression changes, and an induction of apoptosis were detected. The influence of intra-venous infection on the host kidney gene expression was analyzed in another murine model using the wild type strain Staphylococcus aureus RN1HG and its isogenic sigB mutant. Gene expression profiling indicated a highly reproducible host kidney response to infection. The comparison of infected with non-infected samples revealed a strong inflammatory reaction of kidney tissue, e. g. Toll-like receptor signaling, complement system, antigen presentation, interferon and IL-6 signaling. However, the results of this study did not provide any hints for differences in the pathomechanism of the S. aureus strains RN1HG and ΔsigB, since the host response did not differ between infections with the two strains analyzed. Effects of SigB might be transient, only apparent at earlier time points, or might also be compensated for in the in vivo infection by the interlaced pattern of other regulators. SigB might possess only to a lesser extent characteristics attributed to virulence factors and might act in vivo more like a virulence modulator and fine tune bacterial reactions. In addition to the analysis of tissue samples, different in vitro models were furthermore studied. The third part of this thesis focuses on bone-marrow derived macrophages (BMM) of the two mouse strains BALB/c and C57BL/6, which are described in literature to exhibit genetically determined differences in their reaction to infection. Expression profiling was performed on control and IFN-γ treated samples from a serum-free cultivation system and revealed mainly induction of gene expression after treatment of BMM with IFN-γ. Gene expression changes confirmed known IFN-γ effects like induction of immunoproteasome, antigen presentation, interferon signaling related genes, GTPase/GBPs, and inducible NO synthase. IFN-γ dependent gene expression changes were highly similar in BALB/c and C57BL/6 BMM. Considering gene expression differences between BMM of both strains, a similar expression trend was visible on the level of untreated controls as well as after IFN-γ treatment. Differentially expressed genes between BMM of both strains included immune-relevant genes as well as genes linked to cell death, but the coverage of functional groups was limited. The bronchial epithelial cell line S9 was used as an in vitro model system for the infection with S. aureus RN1HG. The fourth chapter in this thesis includes S9 cell gene expression signatures 2.5 h and 6.5 h after start of infection. At the early time point, only 40 genes were differentially expressed, which nevertheless indicated a beginning pro-inflammatory response, e. g. induction of cytokines (IL-6, IFN-β, LIF) or prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2), but also counter-regulatory processes, e. g. induction of CD274. The host cell response was dramatically aggravated at the later 6.5 h time point. Differential expression was detected for 1196 genes. These included induced cytokines, pattern recognition receptor signaling, antigen presentation, and genes involved in immune defense (e. g. GBPs, MX, APOL). Negative effects on growth and proliferation were even more enhanced in comparison to the early time point, and signs for apoptotic processes were revealed. Finally, the last chapter addresses amongst others the pathogen’s expression profile in the S9 cell in vitro infection model at the two time points 2.5 h and 6.5 h after start of infection by tiling array gene expression analysis. The pathogen expression profiling revealed the activity of the SaeRS two-component system in internalized staphylococci. Partly dependent on SaeRS, the induction of adhesins (e. g. fnbAB, clfAB), toxins (hlgBC, lukDE, hla), and immune evasion genes (e. g. chp, eap) was observed. Furthermore, expression changes of metabolic genes were recorded (gene induction of amino acid biosynthesis, TCA cycle, gluconeogenesis; gene repression of glycolysis, purine biosynthesis, tRNA synthetases). Expression analysis recorded a distinct bacterial expression program, which supported literature results of a specific, bacterial strain and host cell line dependent transcriptional adaptation of the pathogen.
Staphylococcus aureus ist ein ubiquitär verbreitetes Bakterium. Häufig als Kommensale des Menschen vorkommend, zählt das Bakterium jedoch zu einem der wichtigsten Infektionserreger des 21. Jahrhunderts. Neben lokalen Infektionen (z. B. Furunkel) kann der Erreger nach einer Besiedlung auch systemische Erkrankungen in seinem Wirt (z. B. Sepsis, Endokarditis, Pneumonie) hervorrufen. Die pathogene Wirkung von S. aureus ist auf die Produktion und Sekretion von Pathogenitäts- bzw. Virulenzfaktoren, unter anderem Superantigene, hämolytische Toxine, Gewebe-zerstörende Enzyme und Oberflächenproteine, welche ihrerseits mit dem Immunsystem des Wirtes interferieren, zurückzuführen. Ziel dieser Arbeit war unter anderem die Analyse des extrazellulären Proteoms von S. aureus RN1HG in pMEM, ein an das bakterielle Wachstum adaptierte Zellkulturmedium. Bei den extrazellulären Proteomanalysen von S. aureus RN1HG konnten 39 Proteine identifiziert werden, welche dem Bakterium eine Interaktion mit dem Wirt (Clumping-Faktoren) ermöglichen, die Phagozytose (Protein A) verhindern oder die Ausbreitung im Gewebe (alpha-Hämolysin, gamma-Hämolysin, Lipase) erleichtern. Da die Zusammensetzung des extrazellulären Proteoms durch diverse Regulons (z. B. agr-System, sarA, sigB) bestimmt wird, stellte sich die Frage, inwiefern diese einen Einfluss auf die Virulenz des Stammes RN1HG-Stamm haben. Ein vielfach in der Literatur diskutierter Regulator ist SigB. Die vergleichende gelfreie LC-MS/MS-Analyse des extrazellulären Proteoms von S. aureus RN1HG mit einer sigB Deletion (RN1HG delta sigB) zeigte, dass sich im Vergleich zum Wildtyp die Zusammensetzung des extrazellulären Proteoms nicht grundsätzlich ändert. Jedoch konnte durch eine „labelfreie“ Quantifizierung eine verstärkte Akkumulation zahlreicher Virulenzfaktoren (z. B. Aureolysin, 1-Phosphatidylinositol- Phosphodiesterase, alpha-Hämolysin, gamma-Hämolysin, Lipase, Thermonuklease) in der delta sigB Mutante nachgewiesen werden. Die Serin-Proteasen A, C und E konnten nur für die delta sigB Mutante identifiziert werden. Adhäsine, darunter Clumping-Faktoren oder Elastin-Bindeprotein, wurden lediglich während der exponentiellen Wachstumsphase für die delta sigB Mutante nachgewiesen. Dies konnte für clf auch durch Transkriptomanalysen belegt werden. Die gelfreien Analysen wurden durch gelbasierte Verfahren (2D-Gelelektrophorese) ergänzt. Neben der Erstellung einer Referenzkarte des extrazellulären Proteoms von S. aureus RN1HG (Wildtyp und delta sigB Mutante) wurden quantitative gelbasierte Daten erhoben, die einerseits die Ergebnisse der gelfreien Analysen bestätigten, andererseits aber auch zeigten, dass SigB nur wenig Einfluss auf die Prozessierung und posttranslationale Modifikation extrazellulärer Proteine in S. aureus RN1HG hat. Die Zusammensetzung des extrazellulären Proteoms ist vor allem bei pathogenen Bakterien bedeutsam, da z. B. durch extrazelluläre Enzyme die Erschließung von Nährstoffquellen in extremen Habitaten begünstigt und durch Virulenzfaktoren sowohl die Kolonisierung als auch die Überlebensfähigkeit im Wirtsorganismus gesichert wird. Um die Erreger-Wirt Interaktion näher zu charakterisieren, wurde die Reaktion von humanen bronchialen Epithelzellen (S9-Zellen) auf eine Infektion mit S. aureus RN1GH pMV158 untersucht. Die Durchführung der Infektionsstudien mit einem GFP-markierten RN1HG-Stamm ermöglichte die Sortierung der infizierten S9-Zellen durch die Durchflusszytometrie. Da im Epithelverband nicht jede Zelle mit S. aureus infiziert ist, lag der Vorteil der Sortierung darin, dass Proteomanalysen spezifisch für die S9-Zellen mit internalisierten Staphylokokken durchgeführt werden konnten. Infolge einer Internalisierung von S. aureus durch die S9-Epithelzellen kam es zunächst zu einer Integrin-vermittelten Adhäsion. Eine zunehmende Inkubation mit S. aureus führte zu inflammatorischen Prozessen. Die Invasion pathogener Bakterien in Wirtzellen führt somit zum Remodelling biologischer Prozesse, die dem Wirt die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Pathogen ermöglichen.
Staphylococcus aureus is a commensal colonizing 20-30% of the population as well as a pathogen causing diverse diseases ranging from skin infections via toxin mediated diseases to life threatening conditions. In its interplay with the human host, this microorganism resorts to an extensive repertoire of both membrane-bound and secreted virulence factors facilitating adhesion to, invasion of, and spreading into various host tissues. Among the numerous virulence factors produced by S. aureus are the staphylococcal superantigens (SAgs). They directly cross-link conserved regions of the T cell-receptor with MHC class II molecules (outside the peptide-binding cleft) on antigen presenting cells. This results in a strong stimulation of up to 20% of all T cells which respond with proliferation and massive cytokine release. Recently, the enterotoxin gene cluster (egc) located on a pathogenicity island was described. The egc-genes are the most prevalent SAg genes in commensal and invasive S. aureus isolates. However, they appear to cause toxic shock only very rarely and their presence is negatively correlated with severity of S. aureus sepsis. Therefore it was suggested that SAgs might differ in their pro-inflammatory potential. In addition to their superantigenicity, SAgs also act as conventional antigens and induce a specific antibody response. In contrast to non-egc SAgs, despite the high prevalence of egc SAgs, neutralizing antibodies against egc SAgs are very rare, even among carriers of egc-positive S. aureus strains. In order to find an explanation for this “egc-gap”, we have tested two non-exclusive hypotheses: (i) egc and non-egc SAgs have unique intrinsic properties and drive the immune response into different directions and (ii) egc and non-egc SAgs are released by S. aureus under different conditions, which shape the immune response to them. To test these hypotheses, we compared the effects of egc and non-egc SAgs on human blood cells. Their T cell-mitogenic potencies, the elicited cytokine profiles as well as their impact on gene expression were highly similar. Both egc and non-egc SAgs induced a very strong pro-inflammatory response. In contrast, the regulation of SAg release by S. aureus differed markedly between egc and non-egc SAgs. Egc-encoded proteins were secreted by S. aureus during exponential growth, while non-egc SAgs were released in the stationary phase. We conclude that the distinct biological behavior of egc and non-egc SAgs is not due to their intrinsic properties, which are very similar, but is caused by their differential release by S. aureus. Traditionally, S. aureus has not been considered as an intracellular pathogen but strong evidence emerged indicating that staphylococci can invade and persist in various cell types. Internalization might constitute a bacterial strategy to evade the host’s defense reactions and the action of antibiotics. The intracellular niche might thus constitute a reservoir for chronic or relapsing infections. Contrary to their potential importance, genome-wide functional genomics analyses of the adaptation reactions of S. aureus to the host cell environment are rare and so far confined to gene expression profiling. Investigations addressing the proteome of internalized S. aureus are still lacking due to the challenge of obtaining a sufficient number of infecting bacteria. The proteome of other pathogens such as Francisella tularensis has been characterized by classical 2-DE approaches. However, the number of bacteria required for such a 2-DE based approach is often exceeding the numbers available from in vivo infection models. Furthermore, this approach does not allow monitoring of time-dependent quantitative changes in protein levels. Here, a workflow allowing time-resolved analysis of internalized S. aureus by combining pulse-chase stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture with high capacity cell sorting, on-membrane digestion, and high-sensitivity mass spectrometry is presented. This workflow permits detection and quantitative monitoring of several hundred staphylococcal proteins from as little as a few million internalized S. aureus cells. This approach has been used to reveal time-resolved changes in levels of proteins in S. aureus RN1HG upon internalization by human bronchial epithelial cells. Proteins involved in stress adaptation as well as protein folding and some components of the phosphotransferase system were upregulated in internalized staphylococci, whereas proteins of the purine biosynthesis pathway and tRNA aminoacylation were downregulated. Furthermore, regulatory adaptive responses of internalized S. aureus to the intracellular milieu were shown as global regulators displayed increased protein abundance levels compared to non-internalized bacteria. Taken together, we observed changes in levels of proteins with functions in protection against oxidative damage and adaptation of cell wall synthesis in internalized S. aureus.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are used to identify genetic markers linked with at least partially heritable diseases or phenotypes without prior knowledge of any disease-associated genetic loci. In summer 2008, all individuals of the population based cohort Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) were individually genotyped using the Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 microarray. The aim of this work was to establish an efficient workflow for GWAS using the more than 4000 individually genotyped samples of the SHIP cohort as well as pooled samples, focusing exclusively on analyzing genetic variations based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Firstly, an optimal array platform for the genotyping analysis had to be chosen that detected most of the available genetic variants at a high level of accuracy. Secondly, extensive quality controls had to be performed starting from DNA extraction and including tests of the generated array data by the analysis software to obtain the most reliable data for the subsequent association studies. For the identification of loci with smaller genetic influences, individual cohorts were meta-analyzed in large nationally and internationally organized consortia (e.g. CHARGE, BPGen, HaemGen, GIANT, CKD Gen). To participate in those meta-analyses, a comparable common set of genetic data had to be generated. This was done by imputation of the data generated by individual array-based genotyping on the basis of a reference panel using chromosomal linkage information. Due to the extensive phenotype information in the SHIP study, it was possible to perform many genome-wide discovery analyses and replication studies of possible susceptibility loci in a short time once the genetic data was available and processed. This resulted in the necessity to set up an efficient workflow for storing the huge amount of genetic data, converting it into different formats readable for specific analysis software, performing the association analyses and processing the results into a human-readable and clear format. This included replications, GWAS and meta-analyses of several cohorts. Many susceptibility loci were newly identified in different association studies with the SHIP data included and were subsequently published. In this work, genetic association studies with the SHIP data included were performed and published on blood pressure, uric acid concentrations, cardiac structure and function, lipid metabolism, hematological parameters, kidney functions, smoking quantity, circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentrations and thyroid volume including the risk of goiter development. Besides the SHIP cohort, there was a need to use other, especially patient cohorts for GWAS. Since no genotype information from these patient cohorts was available and the individual genotyping of many probands is still expensive and therefore often not affordable, we established the cost-effective allelotyping method that relied on pooling of DNA samples prior to the hybridization with microarrays. After estimating the pooling-specific error of a case-control allelotyping study, the allelotyping approach was used for identifying genetic susceptibility loci associated with aggressive periodontitis. If not referring to work of collaborators, all statistical analyses, data handling and in silico work concerning the SHIP data described in this context was performed by the author of this dissertation.
Macrophages are cells of immune system and distributed throughout the body. They provide the first line of defense against microbial pathogen infections. Using bone marrow macrophages (BMMs) which derived from mice of strain BALB/c and strain C57BL/6, this study aimed to identify the changes in proteome of the macrophages due to IFN gamma stimulation and S. aureus infection. Two quantitative proteomic techniques, two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were applied in this study. The analysis results indicated that many proteins which play important roles in immunological functions of macrophages were changed due to IFN gamma stimulation and S. aureus infection. This study also identified the differences in proteome of macrophages derived from mice of strain BALB/c in comparing to macrophages of strain C57BL/6.
In the post genomic era, novel “Omics” technologies like genomics and proteomics can be used in powerful screening approaches to provide unbiased lists of candidate genes and proteins and thus facilitate a comprehensive analysis of complex diseases such as cancer, which would not have been possible applying traditional genetic and biochemical approaches alone. During my PhD tenure I applied functional genomics screening technologies including proteomics in combination with traditional biochemical and cell biology approaches in two disease oriented projects: 1. Characterization of the role of BCL11b in Human T cell lymphomas (and) 2. Elucidation of the mechanism of pathophysiology of Johanson Blizzard Syndrome using UBR1 knockout mice and JBS patients’ lymphoblasts cell lines.
1.Characterization of the role of BCL11b in Human T cell lymphomas
: The Bcl11b protein belongs to the C2H2-family of Krueppel-like zinc finger proteins and thus is a member of the largest family of transcription factors in eukaryotes. It was shown to be important for a variety of functions such as T cell differentiation, normal development of central nervous system and DNA damage response. Malignant T cells undergo apoptotic cell death upon BCL11B down-regulation. However, the detailed mechanism of this cell death is not fully understood. Two dimensional difference in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE), mass spectrometry and cell biological experiments were employed to investigate the functional impact of knock down of BCL11B in malignant T cell lines such as Jurkat and huT78. To further confirm the findings of these experiments, changes in protein patterns were also recorded after down-regulation of BCL11B expression in Jurkat cells over expressing BcL-xL and in Jurkat cells over expressing BCL11B. These experiments provide evidence for the involvement of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and increased levels of cleavage fragments of known caspase targets such as myosin, spectrin and vimentin were observed after BCL11B knockdown. The findings suggest an involvement of ERM proteins, which were up-regulated and phosphorylated upon BCL11B down-regulation. Besides ERM proteins, PDCD5, a key regulator of apoptosis, was also found at increased levels upon down regulation of BCL11B. Moreover, the levels of several proteins implicated in cell cycle entry, including DUT-N, UCK2, MAT1, CDK6, MCM4 and MCM6 were elevated, which might lead to uncontrolled cell cycle progression, uracil misincorporation and cell death. Interestingly, an inverse regulation pattern, i.e. decreased levels of ERM proteins, DUT-N, UCK2 and PDCD5 was seen upon over expression of BCL11B in Jurkat cells. In summary, proteome analyses revealed several previously unidentified mechanisms which could significantly contribute to the cell death following BCL11B knockdown.
2.Elucidation of the mechanism of pathophysiology of Johanson Blizzard Syndrome using UBR1 knockout mice and JBS patients’ lymphoblasts cell lines
: Johanson-Blizzard syndrome (JBS; OMIM 243,800), which was first described in 1971, is a rare autosomal recessively inherited genetic disorder with a unique combination of congenital abnormalities. The most constant clinical feature of JBS is the loss of exocrine pancreatic function due to progressive destruction of pancreatic acini. Genome wide linkage analysis identified the disease associated locus in the 15q14-q21 chromosome region and high-throughput sequencing of this region revealed several truncated and some missense mutations in the UBR1 gene. UBR1 gene contains 47 exons and spans over 161 kilobases. The UBR1 protein belongs to the E3 ubiquitin ligase family and is an important component of the N-end rule pathway of ubiquitous protein degradation. It was hypothesized that stabilization of direct and unique substrates of UBR1 could be the main cause of the JBS pathophysiology. So far sequencing of the UBR1 gene is the only available diagnostic procedure. However, sequencing might not always allow precise prediction of residual UBR1 activity. Hence, this study was started to develop a protein based diagnostic assay for the detection of subclinical cases of JBS and to identify signalling pathways contributing to the pathophysiology of this complex disorder using a murine UBR1 knockout model. 2D-DIGE proteome analysis was carried out for a comparative evaluation of lymphoblast samples of 14 patients and 11 controls. Principal component Analysis (PCA) clearly discriminated JBS patients from controls. However, 4 JBS patients differed from the rest and resembled controls more closely. Western-blot analysis revealed residual UBR1 levels in these patients, which were linked to a milder phenotype. Hierarchical clustering of the three groups (controls, patients with residual UBR1 levels and patients without UBR1) showed group-specific characteristic differences in the abundance of differentially regulated proteins. Quantification of a panel of five selected protein spots encompassing Interferon-induced GTP binding protein, HLA class II histocompatibility antigen, Annexin A6, FK506-binding protein 4 and GRP78 permitted discrimination of controls and JBS patients with mild phenotypes. Of note, the molecular chaperones GRP78 (BiP) and FK506BP were consistently altered in level in JBS patients and probably constitute UBR1 dependent substrates. This suggested JBS as an ER-stress related disease also indicating a possible way of therapeutic intervention. Comparative proteome analysis of UBR1 knockout and wild type animals after caerulein treatment revealed a significant accumulation of pancreatic proteases such as chymotrypsin B, anionic trypsin and pancreatic elastase in animals lacking UBR1. Furthermore, an up-regulation of ER-stress proteins and inflammation related proteins was observed. Phenotypic characterisation revealed in UBR1 knockout animals significantly increased lipase levels, a significantly increased histological score and significantly increased elastase activity 8h after the onset of pancreatitis. In isolated pancreatic acini of UBR1 knockout animals we found a significant increase in intracellular elastase activation upon supramaximal CCK stimulation, which was associated with a significant rise in the rate of necrosis explaining the more severe phenotype in the UBR1 knock-out animals. A TUNEL assay showed that there was more apoptosis in wild type compared to UBR1 knockout mice. Another set of experiments was designed to identify physiologically important substrates of UBR1. Inhibition of such substrates might then in turn allow reversion or prevention of the severe form of pancreatitis in UBR1 knockout mice. However, using the trypsin specific and reversible inhibitor S-124 it was shown that impaired trypsin degradation and thereby prolonged activation of this protease did not critically influence the phenotype. Calcium analysis after physiological stimulation revealed an increase of pathological Ca2+ signalling events, i.e. significant decrease of spike number and significant increase of spike duration. Of the candidates potentially influencing Ca2+ signalling RGS4 turned out to be of particular importance. Pre-incubation of pancreatic acini of UBR1 knockout animals with a specific RGS4 inhibitor (CCG-4986, 10 µM) normalized Ca2+ patterns, did not affect trypsin activity itself but prevented Ca2+-triggered premature trypsin activation and thus acinar disintegration. In summary, using lymphoblasts samples of JBS patients we were able to deduce a protein panel which could be developed as a possible diagnostic tool for confirmation of JBS syndrome. Furthermore, using UBR1 knockout mice in an experimental model we were able to elucidate the vital function of UBR1 and its direct substrate RGS4 in the defense against pathologic pancreatic damage thereby manifesting JBS as an inflammatory disorder due to an inadequate UBR1 mediated defense.