RNA Microarray-Based Comparison of Innate Immune Phenotypes between Human THP-1 Macrophages Stimulated with Two BCG Strains

Abstract

Currently, the only available vaccine against tuberculosis is Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Pulmonary tuberculosis protection provided by the vaccine varies depending on the strain, the patient’s age and the evaluated population. Although the adaptive immune responses induced by different BCG strains have been widely studied, little conclusive data is available regarding innate immune responses, especially in macrophages. Here, we aimed to characterize the innate immune responses of human THP-1-derived macrophages at the transcriptional level following a challenge with either the BCG Mexico (M.BCG) or Phipps (P.BCG) strains. After a brief in vitro characterization of the bacterial strains and the innate immune responses, including nitric oxide production and cytokine profiles, we analyzed the mRNA expression patterns and performed pathway enrichment analysis using RNA microarrays. Our results showed that multiple biological processes were enriched, especially those associated with innate inflammatory and antimicrobial responses, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, type I interferon (IFN-I) and IFN-γ. However, four DEGs were identified in macrophages infected with M.BCG compared to P. BCG. These findings indicated the proinflammatory stimulation of macrophages induced by both BCG strains, at the cytokine level and in terms of gene expression, suggesting a differential expression pattern of innate immune transcripts depending on the mycobacterial strain.

Decoding the Transcriptome of Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras: Insights into Their Physiology, Morphology, Evolution, and Biomedical Applications

“…Microarrays were used to evaluate genetic expression, in the earlier moments of sequencing development, and it was a cheaper option, requiring less computational power [90] Even though this technique is still in use [91,92], the need of having previous molecular knowledge on the targeted species, limited the species compatible with this technique [93,94], and the NGS development led to the reduced interest of microarrays. Nevertheless, they can still be relevant to evaluate gene expression in model species [95][96][97].…”

Host–Pathogen Interaction 3.0

“…Reviews submitted summarize our current knowledge on important pathogens such as Corynebacterium diphtheriae [ 7 ], Staphylococcus aureus [ 8 , 9 ], Legionella species [ 10 ] and Neisseria meningitidis [ 11 ], while research articles highlight specific aspects of host–pathogen interaction. Different mycobacterial pathogens [ 12 , 13 ], Corynebacterium species [ 14 , 15 ], Helicobacter pylori [ 16 ], Mycoplasma fermentans [ 17 ], rickettsiae [ 18 ] and S. enterica [ 19 ] were studied in respect to their interaction with human cell lines. In addition to other human pathogens [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], animal- [ 25 , 26 ] and plant-pathogenic bacteria [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] were investigated.…”