Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III

The gram-negative bacterium Legionella dumoffii is, beside Legionella pneumophila, an etiological agent of Legionnaires’ disease, an atypical form of pneumonia. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activity of Galleria mellonella defense polypeptides against L. dumoffii. The extr...

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Main Authors:	Palusińska-Szysz, Marta, Zdybicka-Barabas, Agnieszka, Pawlikowska-Pawlęga, Bożena, Mak, Pawel, Cytryńska, Małgorzata
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3546738/

id	pubmed-3546738
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-35467382013-01-23 Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III Palusińska-Szysz, Marta Zdybicka-Barabas, Agnieszka Pawlikowska-Pawlęga, Bożena Mak, Pawel Cytryńska, Małgorzata Article The gram-negative bacterium Legionella dumoffii is, beside Legionella pneumophila, an etiological agent of Legionnaires’ disease, an atypical form of pneumonia. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activity of Galleria mellonella defense polypeptides against L. dumoffii. The extract of immune hemolymph, containing a mixture of defense peptides and proteins, exhibited a dose-dependent bactericidal effect on L. dumoffii. The bacterium appeared sensitive to a main component of the hemolymph extract, apolipophorin III, as well as to a defense peptide, Galleria defensin, used at the concentrations 0.4 mg/mL and 40 μg/mL, respectively. L. dumoffii cells cultured in the presence of choline were more susceptible to both defense factors analyzed. A transmission electron microscopy study of bacterial cells demonstrated that Galleria defensin and apolipophorin III induced irreversible cell wall damage and strong intracellular alterations, i.e., increased vacuolization, cytoplasm condensation and the appearance of electron-white spaces in electron micrographs. Our findings suggest that insects, such as G. mellonella, with their great diversity of antimicrobial factors, can serve as a rich source of compounds for the testing of Legionella susceptibility to defense-related peptides and proteins. Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2012-12-12 /pmc/articles/PMC3546738/ /pubmed/23235329 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms131217048 Text en © 2012 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Palusińska-Szysz, Marta Zdybicka-Barabas, Agnieszka Pawlikowska-Pawlęga, Bożena Mak, Pawel Cytryńska, Małgorzata
spellingShingle	Palusińska-Szysz, Marta Zdybicka-Barabas, Agnieszka Pawlikowska-Pawlęga, Bożena Mak, Pawel Cytryńska, Małgorzata Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III
author_facet	Palusińska-Szysz, Marta Zdybicka-Barabas, Agnieszka Pawlikowska-Pawlęga, Bożena Mak, Pawel Cytryńska, Małgorzata
author_sort	Palusińska-Szysz, Marta
title	Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III
title_short	Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III
title_full	Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III
title_fullStr	Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III
title_full_unstemmed	Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III
title_sort	anti-legionella dumoffii activity of galleria mellonella defensin and apolipophorin iii
description	The gram-negative bacterium Legionella dumoffii is, beside Legionella pneumophila, an etiological agent of Legionnaires’ disease, an atypical form of pneumonia. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activity of Galleria mellonella defense polypeptides against L. dumoffii. The extract of immune hemolymph, containing a mixture of defense peptides and proteins, exhibited a dose-dependent bactericidal effect on L. dumoffii. The bacterium appeared sensitive to a main component of the hemolymph extract, apolipophorin III, as well as to a defense peptide, Galleria defensin, used at the concentrations 0.4 mg/mL and 40 μg/mL, respectively. L. dumoffii cells cultured in the presence of choline were more susceptible to both defense factors analyzed. A transmission electron microscopy study of bacterial cells demonstrated that Galleria defensin and apolipophorin III induced irreversible cell wall damage and strong intracellular alterations, i.e., increased vacuolization, cytoplasm condensation and the appearance of electron-white spaces in electron micrographs. Our findings suggest that insects, such as G. mellonella, with their great diversity of antimicrobial factors, can serve as a rich source of compounds for the testing of Legionella susceptibility to defense-related peptides and proteins.
publisher	Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3546738/
_version_	1611947509957001216

Anti-Legionella dumoffii Activity of Galleria mellonella Defensin and Apolipophorin III

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