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Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is a harmless resident of the human nasopharyngeal cavity, and, in general, every individual is likely to be colonized asymptomatically at least once during life. However, under certain conditions, the bacterium can spread to other tissues and organs causing local, non-invasive infections but also lifethreatening, invasive diseases. Pneumococcal carriage and infection is a highly regulated interplay between pathogen- and host-specific factors and the intimate contact of S. pneumoniae with the surface of the nasopharynx is the crucial step in pneumococcal pathogenesis. Pneumococcal adherence to the respiratory epithelium is mediated by surface-exposed adhesins. These adhesins engage host cell receptors either directly or indirectly by recognizing glycoproteins of the extracellular matrix (ECM) including structural components, such as collagens, laminins, and fibronectins, as well as plasma-derived ECM modulators, like vitronectin and Factor H. Pneumococcal surface protein C (PspC) is a surface-exposed protein and important virulence factor of S. pneumoniae. The multifunctional PspC protein promotes pneumococcal adherence to host cells by interacting with the secretory component of the human polymeric Immunoglobulin receptor of respiratory cells. In addition, PspC facilitates pneumococcal immune evasion by recruiting the complement inhibitor proteins C4b-binding protein (C4BP) and Factor H. Moreover, Factor H bound to the pneumococcal surface promotes bacterial adhesion to human epithelial and endothelial cells. S. pneumoniae also interacts with the human glycoprotein vitronectin. In plasma, monomeric vitronectin regulates thrombosis, fibrinolysis and the terminal complement cascade, while it additionally mediates cell-matrix interactions, cell adhesion and migration in the ECM. It was shown that multimeric, ECM-associated vitronectin facilitates pneumococcal adherence to respiratory epithelial cells. In addition, the interaction of pneumococci with vitronectin promotes their uptake by mucosal epithelial cells via the engagement of the integrin αvβ3 receptor and activation of intracellular signaling pathways culminating in cytoskeletal rearrangements. This study aims to identify and characterize the surface-exposed protein(s) that mediate binding of pneumococci to vitronectin and to elucidate the impact of vitronectin on pneumococcal pathogenesis beyond its function as molecular bridge between pneumococcus and host. Flow cytometric, immunosorbent and surface plasmon resonance experiments revealed that PspC is a vitronectin-binding protein of S. pneumoniae. The specificity of the interaction with vitronectin was confirmed using recombinant PspC proteins and Lactococcus lactis heterologously expressing PspC on their surface. Factor H did not hinder vitronectinbinding to PspC indicating that vitronectin recognizes the central part of PspC. Secretory IgA inhibited but not completely prevented vitronectin-binding to PspC, strongly suggesting that vitronectin binds near, but not directly to, the SC-binding region within the R domain(s) of PspC. In addition, PspC proteins comprising two R domains bound with higher affinity to vitronectin than PspC containing only one R domain, indicating that two interconnected R domains are required for efficient vitronectin-binding. Despite the sequential and structural differences to classical PspC, the PspC-like protein Hic specifically interacted with vitronectin with similar affinity than PspC containing two linked R domains. Binding studies confirmed that Factor H interacts with the very N-terminal region of Hic showing high sequence homology to classical PspC proteins, while vitronectin recognizes an adjacent region in the N-terminal region of Hic. The studied PspC proteins bound to both soluble and immobilized vitronectin, and the C-terminal heparin-binding domain (HBD3) was identified as PspC-binding motif in soluble vitronectin. However, in its immobilized form, vitronectin likely exposes additional binding sites for PspC since a region N-terminally to the identified HBD3 conferred binding of PspC. Vitronectin inhibits the terminal complement pathway, thereby preventing proinflammatory immune reactions and tissue damage. In general, pneumococci are protected from opsonization and MAC-dependent lysis by their capsule. However, pneumococci in close contact to human cells can become susceptible to complement attack due to reduced amounts of capsule. In addition, they can be severely affected by TCC-induced inflammatory responses. Vitronectin bound to PspC significantly inhibited the formation of terminal complement complexes. Thus, the interaction of PspC with vitronectin might aid in immune evasion of S. pneumoniae by inhibiting complement-mediated lysis and/or suppressing proinflammatory events. In conclusion, the results revealed the multifunctional PspC and Hic as vitronectin-binding proteins and proposed a novel role for the specific interaction of S. pneumoniae with vitronectin in regulating the complement cascade, beside its function as molecular bridge to the respiratory epithelium.
Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococci) are Gram-positive cocci and commensals of the human upper respiratory tract. Pneumococcal pathogenesis requires adherence to host cells and dissemination through cellular barriers and to evade host defense mechanisms. The Pneumococcal surface protein C (PspC) is an important virulence factor which has a crucial role in pneumococcal adhesion to host cells and immune evasion by manipulating the host complement system. To elucidate the pneumococcal adherence and uptake mechanism via factor H glycosaminoglycans (dermatan sulfate and heparin) were employed as competitive inhibitors in infection experiments with epithelial cells or human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs). Glycosaminoglycans significantly inhibited the FH mediated pneumococcal adherence and subsequent invasion to host epithelial cells. Furthermore, the short consensus repeats of FH which promotes the adhesion of pneumococci to host cells were identified by blocking experiments with domain mapped antibodies for specific regions of FH. Moreover, this study indicates that FH acts as adhesion molecule via cellular receptors recognized as integrin CR3 on human PMNs. Binding of Factor H loaded pneumococci to integrins CR3 was assessed by flow cytometry. Pneumococci coated with Factor H showed a significantly increased association with PMNs. This interaction was blocked by anti-CR3 antibodies and Pra1. This project further aims to study mechanisms of pneumococcal endocytosis by host cells, their intracellular fate, and the pathogen induced host cell signal transduction cascades including the calcium signaling upon pneumococcal infection of host cells via the PspC-hpIgR interaction. To assess now the role of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) during pneumococcal infection via PspC, cell culture infections were performed in presence of pharmacological inhibitors of PTKs and MAPKs or by employing genetic interference techniques. Blocking the function of Src or ER1/2 and JNK and genetic-knock down of Src and FAK reduced significantly internalization of pneumococci. These data indicated the importance of a coordinated signaling between Src PTKs, ERK1/2, and JNK during PspC-pIgR-mediated uptake of pneumococci by host epithelial cells. The impact of host cells intracellular calcium concentrations on pneumococcal PspC-hpIgR mediated internalization was studied. Intracellular calcium measurement of epithelial cells performed in the presence of pneumococci suggested a calcium influx in host epithelial cells and importantly this calcium influx was PspC- hpIgR specific as pspC-deficient pneumococci were unable to mediate calcium mobilization in host cells. The increase in intracellular calcium [Ca2+]i was dependent on phospholipase C as pretreatment of cells with a phospholipase C-specific inhibitor abolished the increase in [Ca2+]i. Furthermore, role of host intracellular calcium concentrations during pneumococcal internalization was demonstrated by employing specific pharmacological inhibitors and calcium chelators in epithelial cell culture infection assays. The results revealed that elevated host cells calcium concentrations diminished pneumococcal internalization while lower calcium concentration in host epithelial cells promoted pneumococcal uptake. This study further demonstrates that dynamin, clathrin and caveolin play a key role during pneumococcal endocytosis into host cells via PspC-hpIgR. The use of specific pharmacological inhibitors or genetic interference approaches against dynamin, clathrin and caveolin in epithelial cell culture infection assays significantly blocked pneumococcal uptake. Furthermore, confocal microscopy revealed that pneumococci co-localize with clathrin. At later stages of the infection the pathogen is sorted to early, late and recycling endosomes as indicated by co-localization of pneumococci with endosomal markers such as Rab5, Rab4, Rab 7, and Lamp1. In order to get further insights into PspC-hpIgR mediated uptake mechanisms, a chimeric PspC was constructed and expressed heterologously on the surface of Lactococcus lactis. Immunofluorescence staining, immunoblot and flow cytometric analysis of L. lactis confirmed the expression of PspC on the bacterial surface. Moreover the ability of recombinant lactococci expressing PspC to adhere to and to invade pIgR-expressing epithelial cells confirmed the functional activity of PspC when exposed on the lactococcal surface. PspC expressing lactococci confirmed the specificity of PspC-hpIgR mediated endocytosis in host epithelial cells as PspC deficient lactococci were not taken up by these host cells. Confocal microscopic analysis demonstrated that only PspC expressing lactococci were sorted to early, late and recycling endosomes, similar to the intracellular fate of S. pneumoniae.