Impact of Proinflammatory Cytokines on the Virulence of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli

Abstract

The effect of a urinary tract infection on the host is a well-studied research field. However, how the host immune response affects uropathogenic Escherichia coli (CFT073) virulence is less studied. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of proinflammatory cytokine exposure on the virulence of uropathogenic Escherichia coli. We found that all tested proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and IFN-γ) induced an increased CFT073 growth. We also found that biofilm formation and hemolytic activity was reduced in the presence of all proinflammatory cytokines. However, a reduction in siderophore release was only observed in the presence of IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8. Real time-qPCR showed that all proinflammatory cytokines except TNF-α significantly increased genes associated with the iron acquisition system in CFT073. We also found that the proinflammatory cytokines induced significant changes in type-1 fimbriae, P-fimbriae and gluconeogenetic genes. Furthermore, we also showed, using a Caenorhabditis elegans ( C. elegans) killing assay that all cytokines decreased the survival of C. elegans worms significantly. Taken together, our findings show that proinflammatory cytokines have the ability to alter the virulence traits of UPEC.

Influenza A virus infection in turkeys induces respiratory and enteric bacterial dysbiosis correlating with cytokine gene expression

“…The pro-inflammatory cytokine-mediated mechanism of bacterial growth augmentation involves a direct interaction between cytokines and bacterial cells. For example, addition of TNF-α, IL-1 β, IL-6, IL-8 and IFN-γ cytokines (from commercial sources) in bacterial growth medium triggered a rapid growth of uropathogenic E. coli strain CFT073, possibly by increasing iron acquisition by the bacterium ( Engelsoy, Rangel & Demirel, 2019 ). Type I IFNs are also directly involved in dysbiosis induction.…”

“…Avian influenza viruses are among the numerous pathogens that induce strong innate immune responses such as IFNs and pro-inflammatory cytokines ( Akira, Uematsu & Takeuchi, 2006 ; Medzhitov & Janeway Jr, 2000 ; Mogensen, 2009 ) which can trigger dysbiosis in the respiratory tract of mammals ( Duvigneau et al, 2016 ; Engelsoy, Rangel & Demirel, 2019 ; Madouri et al, 2018 ; Sharma-Chawla et al, 2019 ) and in the avian gut ( Ganz et al, 2017 ; Hird et al, 2018 ; Li et al, 2018 ; Yitbarek et al, 2018c ; Zhao et al, 2018 ). However, influenza virus-induced dysbiosis of avian respiratory microbiota has not been described due to challenges in respiratory sampling methodologies ( Abundo et al, 2020 ; Abundo et al, 2021 ).…”

Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection: A Mystery in Search of Better Model Systems

“…The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been used for in vivo infection studies that include various UTI pathogens (Lavigne et al, 2008;Szabados et al, 2013;Engelsöy et al, 2019). Very recently, Hashimoto et al demonstrated that UPEC mutants with defective iron acquisition-related virulence factors were a significant factor in survival of C. elegans (Hashimoto et al, 2021).…”

“…The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been used for in vivo infection studies that include various UTI pathogens ( Lavigne et al., 2008 ; Szabados et al., 2013 ; Engelsöy et al., 2019 ). Very recently, Hashimoto et al.…”

<p>A Synthetic Peptide 2Abz²³S²⁹ Reduces Bacterial Titer and Induces Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in a Murine Model of Urinary Tract Infection</p>

“…These cytokines are important for the clearance of UPEC and the recruitment of neutrophils. 5 Human C-X-C ligand 8 (IL-8) is the major chemokine for neutrophil recruitment during UTI, which is secreted by the urothelial cells. 6 The level of IL-8 was also raised in the urine of humans suffering from acute UTI.…”