F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice

Francisella tularensis is a facultative intracellular bacterium that causes tularemia in humans and animals. Epidemiology of tularemia worldwide is often associated with water-borne transmission, which includes mosquitoes and amoebae as the potential host reservoirs of the bacteria in water environm...

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Main Authors:	Ozanic, Mateja, Gobin, Ivana, Brezovec, Martin, Marecic, Valentina, Trobonjaca, Zlatko, Abu Kwaik, Yousef, Santic, Marina
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870235/

id	pubmed-4870235
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-48702352016-05-30 F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice Ozanic, Mateja Gobin, Ivana Brezovec, Martin Marecic, Valentina Trobonjaca, Zlatko Abu Kwaik, Yousef Santic, Marina Microbiology Francisella tularensis is a facultative intracellular bacterium that causes tularemia in humans and animals. Epidemiology of tularemia worldwide is often associated with water-borne transmission, which includes mosquitoes and amoebae as the potential host reservoirs of the bacteria in water environment. In vitro studies showed intracellular replication of F. tularensis within Acanthamoeba castellanii and Hartmanella vermiformis cells. While infection of amoeba by Legionella pneumophila has been shown to enhance infectivity of L. pneumophila the role of F. tularensis-infected protozoa in the pathogenesis of tularemia is not known. We used 6 h coculture of A. castellanii and F. novicida for investigation of the effect of inhaled amoeba on the pathogenesis of tularemia on in vivo model. Balb/c mice were infected intratracheally with F. novicida or with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii. Surprisingly, infection with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii did not lead to bronchopneumonia in Balb/c mice, and Francisella did not disseminate into the liver and spleen. Upon inhalation, F. novicida infects a variety of host cells, though neutrophils are the predominant cells early during infection in the lung infiltrates of pulmonary tularemia. The numbers of neutrophils in the lungs of Balb/c mice were significantly lower in the infection of mice with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii in comparison to group of mice infected only with F. novicida. These results demonstrate that following inoculation of mice with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii, mice did not develop tularemia. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-05-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4870235/ /pubmed/27242974 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2016.00056 Text en Copyright © 2016 Ozanic, Gobin, Brezovec, Marecic, Trobonjaca, Abu Kwaik and Santic. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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	Ozanic, Mateja Gobin, Ivana Brezovec, Martin Marecic, Valentina Trobonjaca, Zlatko Abu Kwaik, Yousef Santic, Marina
spellingShingle	Ozanic, Mateja Gobin, Ivana Brezovec, Martin Marecic, Valentina Trobonjaca, Zlatko Abu Kwaik, Yousef Santic, Marina F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice
author_facet	Ozanic, Mateja Gobin, Ivana Brezovec, Martin Marecic, Valentina Trobonjaca, Zlatko Abu Kwaik, Yousef Santic, Marina
author_sort	Ozanic, Mateja
title	F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice
title_short	F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice
title_full	F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice
title_fullStr	F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice
title_full_unstemmed	F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice
title_sort	f. novicida-infected a. castellanii does not enhance bacterial virulence in mice
description	Francisella tularensis is a facultative intracellular bacterium that causes tularemia in humans and animals. Epidemiology of tularemia worldwide is often associated with water-borne transmission, which includes mosquitoes and amoebae as the potential host reservoirs of the bacteria in water environment. In vitro studies showed intracellular replication of F. tularensis within Acanthamoeba castellanii and Hartmanella vermiformis cells. While infection of amoeba by Legionella pneumophila has been shown to enhance infectivity of L. pneumophila the role of F. tularensis-infected protozoa in the pathogenesis of tularemia is not known. We used 6 h coculture of A. castellanii and F. novicida for investigation of the effect of inhaled amoeba on the pathogenesis of tularemia on in vivo model. Balb/c mice were infected intratracheally with F. novicida or with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii. Surprisingly, infection with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii did not lead to bronchopneumonia in Balb/c mice, and Francisella did not disseminate into the liver and spleen. Upon inhalation, F. novicida infects a variety of host cells, though neutrophils are the predominant cells early during infection in the lung infiltrates of pulmonary tularemia. The numbers of neutrophils in the lungs of Balb/c mice were significantly lower in the infection of mice with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii in comparison to group of mice infected only with F. novicida. These results demonstrate that following inoculation of mice with F. novicida-infected A. castellanii, mice did not develop tularemia.
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870235/
_version_	1613580441452806144

F. novicida-Infected A. castellanii Does Not Enhance Bacterial Virulence in Mice

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