Infection and Immunity最新文献_第6页

What goes around comes around: updates in the study of Coxiella burnetii lipopolysaccharide phase variation. 周而复生：伯氏杆菌脂多糖相变化研究的最新进展。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-09-08 Epub Date: 2026-08-19 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00030-26

Kathleen N Pierce, Rebecca Anderson, Megan Brose, Jessica McCormick-Ell, Carrie Mae Long

{"title":"What goes around comes around: updates in the study of Coxiella burnetii lipopolysaccharide phase variation.","authors":"Kathleen N Pierce, Rebecca Anderson, Megan Brose, Jessica McCormick-Ell, Carrie Mae Long","doi":"10.1128/iai.00030-26","DOIUrl":"10.1128/iai.00030-26","url":null,"abstract":"Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a major outer membrane component of Gram-negative bacteria that can modulate host immune responses during infection. Extensive studies on the LPS of well-studied organisms, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., have elucidated many LPS pathways; however, knowledge of unique LPS structures of lesser-studied bacteria, such as Coxiella burnetii, remains limited. C. burnetii is an intracellular pathogen that is the cause of the zoonotic disease Q fever. The highly infectious nature of C. burnetii warrants designation as a select agent by the United States Federal Select Agent Program and must be contained in a Biosafety Level three facility. Contributing to the organism's biothreat potential, C. burnetii LPS is a critical virulence determinant that dictates bacterial survival and pathogenesis. Several reviews have extensively covered C. burnetii LPS structure and function prior to 2017, though recent findings regarding mechanisms of LPS biosynthesis, LPS-induced host immunity, and LPS elongation pose biosafety and regulatory questions that necessitate careful consideration. Here, we discuss recent (post-2017) findings related to C. burnetii LPS from scientific and biosafety perspectives that may be applicable across many fields of research. From the discovery of C. burnetii LPS phase variation by Fiset and Stoker in 1956 to the recent elucidation of specific genetic mechanisms underlying this process, the study of C. burnetii LPS is a reminder that what goes around comes around, even in research.","PeriodicalId":13541,"journal":{"name":"Infection and Immunity","volume":" ","pages":"e0003026"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13552124/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148792612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Transcriptional analyses of peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained shortly after primary immunization discriminate vaccines against Francisella tularensis. 初步免疫土拉弗朗西斯菌鉴别疫苗后不久获得的外周血淋巴细胞转录分析。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-09-08 Epub Date: 2026-08-14 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00208-26

Roberto De Pascalis, Scott Espich, Hamda Khan, Mykia Toney, Chou Chao-Kai, Wu Wells, Karen L Elkins

{"title":"Transcriptional analyses of peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained shortly after primary immunization discriminate vaccines against Francisella tularensis.","authors":"Roberto De Pascalis, Scott Espich, Hamda Khan, Mykia Toney, Chou Chao-Kai, Wu Wells, Karen L Elkins","doi":"10.1128/iai.00208-26","DOIUrl":"10.1128/iai.00208-26","url":null,"abstract":"The high virulence and pathogenesis of Francisella tularensis (Ft), responsible for tularemia, made it a target for bioweapon development during the \"Cold War.\" This prompted investigation of vaccines, starting with an older vaccine candidate denoted Ft live vaccine strain (LVS). LVS has limited efficacy against aerosol challenge with Ft subsp. Tularensis (Type A), the most virulent subtype. However, no vaccines, including LVS, have been licensed in the U.S. Animal studies indicate that Ft vaccines induce protective T-cell-mediated immune responses. In previous studies, analyses of leukocytes from vaccinated animals that were restimulated in vitro facilitated screening and selection of vaccines for more extensive in vivo evaluation. These studies demonstrated that a novel live attenuated vaccine strain derived from Type A Ft, denoted ΔclpB, was protective against aerosol challenge in animal models. In this study, we focused on evaluating immune responses immediately after vaccination of Fischer 344 rats with LVS and ΔclpB using multiple analytical approaches. While humoral immune responses were comparable between the two vaccines, we identified multiple differences in immune responses by analyses of peripheral blood leukocytes by flow cytometry and by relative gene expression. In particular, vaccination with LVS or ΔclpB resulted in differential expression of multiple genes at selected time points. Gene expression, in turn, predicted activation or inhibition of multiple biological pathways. These results suggest that immune responses shortly after primary vaccination may discriminate vaccines with different degrees of in vivo protection that could potentially be used as correlates of protection and extrapolate efficacy from animals to people.","PeriodicalId":13541,"journal":{"name":"Infection and Immunity","volume":" ","pages":"e0020826"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13552110/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148764876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

ABPs: diffusible antibacterial toxins secreted by and active against diverse gram-positive bacteria. ABPs：由多种革兰氏阳性细菌分泌的扩散性抗菌毒素。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-07-22 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00297-26

Jake Colautti, Daniel Mwangi, Joshua J Woodward, John C Whitney

{"title":"ABPs: diffusible antibacterial toxins secreted by and active against diverse gram-positive bacteria.","authors":"Jake Colautti, Daniel Mwangi, Joshua J Woodward, John C Whitney","doi":"10.1128/iai.00297-26","DOIUrl":"10.1128/iai.00297-26","url":null,"abstract":"Competition between organisms is a ubiquitous feature of life on Earth and a major driver of evolutionary innovation. As Earth's most diverse and abundant organisms, bacteria employ numerous strategies to inhibit the growth of competitors, ranging from the production of diffusible antibiotic metabolites to the secretion of sophisticated protein toxins. Although secreted antibacterial protein toxins have been extensively studied in gram-negative bacteria, analogous systems employed by gram-positive organisms remain comparatively poorly understood. Recent work has shed light on a widespread family of secreted protein toxins associated with co-secreted serine proteases that likely mediate interbacterial competition among gram-positive species. These systems, termed antibacterial protein (ABP) systems, consist of a secreted polymorphic toxin (AbpT), a co-secreted serine protease (AbpP), and a cytoplasmic immunity protein (AbpI). Following proteolytic processing, ABP toxins inhibit the growth of a remarkably diverse range of gram-positive bacteria spanning the phyla Bacillota and Actinomycetota. Existing evidence suggests that these proteins combine the properties of cationic antimicrobial peptides with those of classical polymorphic antibacterial toxins, potentially enabling toxin delivery into distantly related bacteria. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the organization, mechanisms, and ecology of ABP systems; discuss major outstanding questions regarding toxin import and native biological function; and highlight opportunities for future mechanistic and biotechnological investigation in this emerging field.","PeriodicalId":13541,"journal":{"name":"Infection and Immunity","volume":" ","pages":"e0029726"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13460014/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148548791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The role of probiotics in restoring and maintaining vaginal microbiome health: a review. 益生菌在恢复和维持阴道微生物群健康中的作用综述。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-06-26 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00011-26

Binaya Krushna Sahu, Sujogya Kumar Panda, Utkalika Mallick, Smita Hasini Panda, Mahesh Chandra Sahu

{"title":"The role of probiotics in restoring and maintaining vaginal microbiome health: a review.","authors":"Binaya Krushna Sahu, Sujogya Kumar Panda, Utkalika Mallick, Smita Hasini Panda, Mahesh Chandra Sahu","doi":"10.1128/iai.00011-26","DOIUrl":"10.1128/iai.00011-26","url":null,"abstract":"The vaginal microbiome is an important aspect of female reproductive health. The dominant microbial species of this ecosystem, Lactobacillus, offers protection from vaginal infections by maintaining lower pH levels and reducing potential pathogen colonization. Dysbiosis, or imbalance of the vaginal microbial ecosystem, has been associated with both common infections, such as bacterial vaginosis (BV), vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), and urinary tract infections (UTIs), and obstetric complications, including gestational diabetes, preterm labor, and obstetric anemia. This review provides an overview of the composition and function of the vaginal microbiota, emphasizing the role of Lactobacillus and other beneficial microbes and their mechanisms of action, including lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide production, competitive adherence, and immune modulation. Evidence from clinical trials supports the efficacy of these strains in reducing recurrence of BV, VVC, and UTIs. Additionally, emerging research shows promise for probiotic use in managing reproductive conditions such as gestational diabetes mellitus, preterm labor, and obstetric anemia. The review also discusses safety considerations, particularly in immunocompromised individuals, and the expanding interest in non-Lactobacillus genera like Bifidobacterium and Bacillus. Targeted probiotic interventions have great potential for restoring and maintaining a healthy vaginal microbiome, preventing recurrent infections, and helping improve reproductive outcomes. However, in order to incorporate these approaches in clinical practice, probiotic strains, delivery method, and dosage all need standardization.","PeriodicalId":13541,"journal":{"name":"Infection and Immunity","volume":" ","pages":"e0001126"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13460080/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148338576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Porphyromonas gingivalis sphingolipids affect early responses of THP-1 macrophages to outer membrane vesicles. 牙龈卟啉单胞菌鞘脂影响THP-1巨噬细胞对外膜囊泡的早期反应。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-07-06 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00736-25

Zavier G Eure, Tamires Fernanda Vilas Boas Cordeiro, Alejandro Riveros Walker, Fernanda G Rocha, Mary Ellen Davey, Frank C Gibson

{"title":"Porphyromonas gingivalis sphingolipids affect early responses of THP-1 macrophages to outer membrane vesicles.","authors":"Zavier G Eure, Tamires Fernanda Vilas Boas Cordeiro, Alejandro Riveros Walker, Fernanda G Rocha, Mary Ellen Davey, Frank C Gibson","doi":"10.1128/iai.00736-25","DOIUrl":"10.1128/iai.00736-25","url":null,"abstract":"Porphyromonas gingivalis is an oral bacterium commonly associated with periodontitis. P. gingivalis synthesizes sphingolipids (SLs), and recently, we reported that P. gingivalis SLs packaged into outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) can regulate THP-1 macrophage inflammatory responses to P. gingivalis OMVs. The contribution that P. gingivalis SLs have on host-pathogen interactions remains poorly understood, especially in the context of OMVs. Here, we demonstrate that P. gingivalis SLs significantly reduce the uptake of OMVs isolated from SL-containing wild-type (WT) P. gingivalis compared to OMVs from an SL-null mutant P. gingivalis strain, and that the loss of SLs drives uptake of P. gingivalis OMVs via lipid rafts in THP-1 macrophages. Intriguingly, we found that the sensing of P. gingivalis OMVs via TLR2 and MyD88 is attenuated due to the presence of SLs. Lastly, transcriptomic analysis of THP-1 macrophages co-cultured with either WT or SL-null P. gingivalis OMVs for 2 h revealed an array of differentially expressed genes. Interestingly, at 2 h, WT P. gingivalis OMVs promoted an overall trend of gene downregulation in THP-1 macrophages when compared to unchallenged, whereas SL-null OMVs strongly promoted upregulated gene expression. These findings provide early-phase characterization of the role of SLs in initial host cellular responses to P. gingivalis OMVs and expand our knowledge of interactions between SL-containing P. gingivalis OMVs and the host.","PeriodicalId":13541,"journal":{"name":"Infection and Immunity","volume":" ","pages":"e0073625"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13460102/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148390796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Balancing act of cytokines in controlling the severity of Clostridioides difficile infection. 细胞因子在控制艰难梭菌感染严重程度中的平衡作用。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-07-17 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00551-25

Kevin S Mears, Michael C Abt

引用次数: 0

Effluxosomes and the evolution of metal resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 结核分枝杆菌外排体与金属耐药性的演变。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-06-26 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00307-26

Louis Benastre, Pierre Dupuy, Claude Gutierrez, Pascal Demange, Olivier Neyrolles

{"title":"Effluxosomes and the evolution of metal resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.","authors":"Louis Benastre, Pierre Dupuy, Claude Gutierrez, Pascal Demange, Olivier Neyrolles","doi":"10.1128/iai.00307-26","DOIUrl":"10.1128/iai.00307-26","url":null,"abstract":"During infection, host immune cells deploy a variety of strategies to neutralize invading pathogens, including the manipulation of metal availability, a process traditionally understood as nutritional immunity. While depriving microbes of essential metals, such as iron and manganese, inhibits their growth, host cells also engage in metal intoxication, actively overloading phagosomes with toxic levels of transition metals, such as copper and zinc. To survive these dual pressures, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiological agent of tuberculosis, has evolved specialized metal resistance mechanisms. This review explores how M. tuberculosis counters host-imposed metal stress through an arsenal of P-type ATPases, particularly the diverse P1B subfamily of transition metal exporters. We detail the structural features, metal specificities, and regulatory mechanisms of M. tuberculosis' 12 P-type ATPases, focusing on three key systems, CtpC, CtpG, and CtpV, and their cognate scaffold proteins PacL1, PacL2, and PacL3. These PacL-Ctp pairs form dynamic membrane assemblies termed effluxosomes, which mediate resistance to transition metals such as zinc and cadmium. The review also highlights several distinctive features of M. tuberculosis P1B-ATPases relative to canonical transporters such as CopA and ZntA, suggesting unique adaptations to the intracellular environment. Finally, we discuss the challenges of functionally and structurally characterizing these systems and propose future directions to elucidate effluxosome assembly and function. Together, these insights reveal how M. tuberculosis leverages metal export as a critical survival strategy and suggest novel therapeutic opportunities targeting metal detoxification pathways.","PeriodicalId":13541,"journal":{"name":"Infection and Immunity","volume":" ","pages":"e0030726"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13460109/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148338566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection causes lysosomal dysfunction in the cystic fibrosis bronchial epithelium. 铜绿假单胞菌感染导致囊性纤维化支气管上皮溶酶体功能障碍。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-06-30 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00347-26

Emma Lea Matthews, Meghan June Hirsch, Kuen-You Tsai, Hannah J McIntire-Ray, Viviana Acevedo Rua, Angela N Morales, Luke I Jones, Jarrod W Barnes, Megan R Kiedrowski, Stefanie Krick

{"title":"Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection causes lysosomal dysfunction in the cystic fibrosis bronchial epithelium.","authors":"Emma Lea Matthews, Meghan June Hirsch, Kuen-You Tsai, Hannah J McIntire-Ray, Viviana Acevedo Rua, Angela N Morales, Luke I Jones, Jarrod W Barnes, Megan R Kiedrowski, Stefanie Krick","doi":"10.1128/iai.00347-26","DOIUrl":"10.1128/iai.00347-26","url":null,"abstract":"Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder that causes chronic airway disease, leading to accelerated aging, inflammation, and susceptibility to opportunistic infections. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is prevalent in the CF lung, often multidrug-resistant, and affecting lung function decline, highlighting a need for alternative treatment strategies, such as host-directed therapeutics. The PA metabolite pyocyanin can induce senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-βgal), a lysosomal cell senescence marker. However, whether PA can induce cell senescence and therefore affect immune functions has not been studied. Using established airway epithelial culture models, we observed that PA infection increased SA-βgal activity and proinflammatory cytokines without increasing a comprehensive set of cell senescence markers. PA infection also resulted in lysosomal neutralization and decreased lysosome biogenesis, with the latter attenuated by rapamycin (RAPA), a senolytic and an established inhibitor of mTOR signaling. In conclusion, our study implies that PA infection does not induce cell senescence in the CF bronchial epithelium but disturbs lysosomal homeostasis, which can be attenuated by RAPA. These findings highlight lysosomal health as a promising therapeutic target in CF airways, especially as patients live longer yet remain susceptible to recurrent airway infections.","PeriodicalId":13541,"journal":{"name":"Infection and Immunity","volume":" ","pages":"e0034726"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13459585/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148351951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Pathological or preventative? Amyloid-β as an effector of innate immunity. 病理性的还是预防性的？淀粉样蛋白β作为先天免疫的效应器。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-06-26 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00085-26

Oluwagbenro O Adesunloro, Amanda N Tuckey, Jonathon P Audia, Allyson E Shea

引用次数: 0

Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A is not essential for corneal disease severity or bacterial survival. 铜绿假单胞菌外毒素A不是角膜疾病严重程度或细菌存活所必需的。

IF 3.4 3区医学

Infection and Immunity Pub Date : 2026-08-11 Epub Date: 2026-07-22 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00165-26

James D Begando, Michaela E Marshall, Emma Caitlin Kundracik, George R Dubyak, Arne Rietsch, Eric Pearlman

引用次数: 0