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34 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 34
Quantification of Factor H Mediated Self vs. Non-self Discrimination by Mathematical Modeling.

Abstract (Expand)

The complement system is part of the innate immune system and plays an important role in the host defense against infectious pathogens. One of the main effects is the opsonization of foreign invaders … and subsequent uptake by phagocytosis. Due to the continuous default basal level of active complement molecules, a tight regulation is required to protect the body's own cells (self cells) from opsonization and from complement damage. A major complement regulator is Factor H, which is recruited from the fluid phase and attaches to cell surfaces where it effectively controls complement activation. Besides self cells, pathogens also have the ability to bind Factor H; they can thus escape opsonization and phagocytosis causing severe infections. In order to advance our understanding of the opsonization process at a quantitative level, we developed a mathematical model for the dynamics of the complement system-termed DynaCoSys model-that is based on ordinary differential equations for cell surface-bound molecules and on partial differential equations for concentration profiles of the fluid phase molecules in the environment of cells. This hybrid differential equation approach allows to model the complement cascade focusing on the role of active C3b in the fluid phase and on the cell surface as well as on its inactivation on the cell surface. The DynaCoSys model enables us to quantitatively predict the conditions under which Factor H mediated complement evasion occurs. Furthermore, investigating the quantitative impact of model parameters by a sensitivity analysis, we identify the driving processes of complement activation and regulation in both the self and non-self regime. The two regimes are defined by a critical Factor H concentration on the cell surface and we use the model to investigate the differential impact of complement model parameters on this threshold value. The dynamic modeling on the surface of pathogens are further relevant to understand pathophysiological situations where Factor H mutants and defective Factor H binding to target surfaces results in pathophysiology such as renal and retinal disease. In the future, this DynaCoSys model will be extended to also enable evaluating treatment strategies of complement-related diseases.

Authors: A. Tille, T. Lehnert, P. F. Zipfel, M. T. Figge

Date Published: 5th Oct 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Hybrid Agent-Based Modeling of Aspergillus fumigatus Infection to Quantitatively Investigate the Role of Pores of Kohn in Human Alveoli.

Abstract (Expand)

The healthy state of an organism is constantly threatened by external cues. Due to the daily inhalation of hundreds of particles and pathogens, the immune system needs to constantly accomplish the task … of pathogen clearance in order to maintain this healthy state. However, infection dynamics are highly influenced by the peculiar anatomy of the human lung. Lung alveoli that are packed in alveolar sacs are interconnected by so called Pores of Kohn. Mainly due to the lack of in vivo methods, the role of Pores of Kohn in the mammalian lung is still under debate and partly contradicting hypotheses remain to be investigated. Although it was shown by electron microscopy that Pores of Kohn may serve as passageways for immune cells, their impact on the infection dynamics in the lung is still unknown under in vivo conditions. In the present study, we apply a hybrid agent-based infection model to quantitatively compare three different scenarios and discuss the importance of Pores of Kohn during infections of Aspergillus fumigatus. A. fumigatus is an airborne opportunistic fungus with rising incidences causing severe infections in immunocompromised patients that are associated with high mortality rates. Our hybrid agent-based model incorporates immune cell dynamics of alveolar macrophages - the resident phagocytes in the lung - as well as molecular dynamics of diffusing chemokines that attract alveolar macrophages to the site of infection. Consequently, this model allows a quantitative comparison of three different scenarios and to study the importance of Pores of Kohn. This enables us to demonstrate how passaging of alveolar macrophages and chemokine diffusion affect A. fumigatus infection dynamics. We show that Pores of Kohn alter important infection clearance mechanisms, such as the spatial distribution of macrophages and the effect of chemokine signaling. However, despite these differences, a lack of passageways for alveolar macrophages does impede infection clearance only to a minor extend. Furthermore, we quantify the importance of recruited macrophages in comparison to resident macrophages.

Authors: M. Blickensdorf, S. Timme, M. T. Figge

Date Published: 9th Sep 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Flotillin-Dependent Membrane Microdomains Are Required for Functional Phagolysosomes against Fungal Infections.

Abstract (Expand)

Lipid rafts form signaling platforms on biological membranes with incompletely characterized role in immune response to infection. Here we report that lipid-raft microdomains are essential components … of phagolysosomal membranes of macrophages and depend on flotillins. Genetic deletion of flotillins demonstrates that the assembly of both major defense complexes vATPase and NADPH oxidase requires membrane microdomains. Furthermore, we describe a virulence mechanism leading to dysregulation of membrane microdomains by melanized wild-type conidia of the important human-pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus resulting in reduced phagolysosomal acidification. We show that phagolysosomes with ingested melanized conidia contain a reduced amount of free Ca(2+) ions and that inhibition of Ca(2+)-dependent calmodulin activity led to reduced lipid-raft formation. We identify a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the human FLOT1 gene resulting in heightened susceptibility for invasive aspergillosis in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Collectively, flotillin-dependent microdomains on the phagolysosomal membrane play an essential role in protective antifungal immunity.

Authors: F. Schmidt, A. Thywissen, M. Goldmann, C. Cunha, Z. Cseresnyes, H. Schmidt, M. Rafiq, S. Galiani, M. H. Graler, G. Chamilos, J. F. Lacerda, A. Jr Campos, C. Eggeling, M. T. Figge, T. Heinekamp, S. G. Filler, A. Carvalho, A. A. Brakhage

Date Published: 18th Aug 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Functional surface proteomic profiling reveals the host heat-shock protein A8 as a mediator of Lichtheimia corymbifera recognition by murine alveolar macrophages.

Abstract (Expand)

Mucormycosis is an emergent, fatal fungal infection of humans and warm-blooded animals caused by species of the order Mucorales. Immune cells of the innate immune system serve as the first line of … defence against inhaled spores. Alveolar macrophages were challenged with the mucoralean fungus Lichtheimia corymbifera and subjected to biotinylation and streptavidin enrichment procedures followed by LC-MS/MS analyses. A total of 28 host proteins enriched for binding to macrophage-L. corymbifera interaction. Among those, the HSP70-family protein Hspa8 was found to be predominantly responsive to living and heat-killed spores of a virulent and an attenuated strain of L. corymbifera. Confocal scanning laser microscopy of infected macrophages revealed colocalization of Hspa8 with phagocytosed spores of L. corymbifera. The amount of detectable Hspa8 was dependent on the multiplicity of infection. Incubation of alveolar macrophages with an anti-Hspa8 antibody prior to infection reduced their capability to phagocytose spores of L. corymbifera. In contrast, anti-Hspa8 antibodies did not abrogate the phagocytosis of Aspergillus fumigatus conidia by macrophages. These results suggest an important contribution of the heat-shock family protein Hspa8 in the recognition of spores of the mucoralean fungus L. corymbifera by host alveolar macrophages and define a potential immunomodulatory therapeutic target.

Authors: M. I. A. Hassan, J. M. Kruse, T. Kruger, H. M. Dahse, Z. Cseresnyes, M. G. Blango, H. Slevogt, F. Horhold, V. Ast, R. Konig, M. T. Figge, O. Kniemeyer, A. A. Brakhage, K. Voigt

Date Published: 26th Jun 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Quantitative Impact of Cell Membrane Fluorescence Labeling on Phagocytosis Measurements in Confrontation Assays.

Abstract (Expand)

Phagocytosis is series of steps where the pathogens and the immune cells interact during an invasion. This starts with the adhesion process between the host and pathogen cells, and is followed by the … engulfment of the pathogens. Many analytical methods that are applied to characterize phagocytosis based on imaging the host-pathogen confrontation assays rely on the fluorescence labeling of cells. However, the potential effect of the membrane labeling on the quantitative results of the confrontation assays has not been studied in detail. In this study, we determine whether the fluorescence labeling processes themselves influence the results of the phagocytosis measurements. Here, alveolar macrophages, which form one of the most important compartments of the innate immune system, were used as an example of host cells, whereas Aspergillus fumigatus and Lichtheimia corymbifera that cause aspergillosis and mucormycosis, respectively, were studied as examples for pathogens. At first, our study investigated the importance of the sequence of steps of the fixation process when preparing the confrontation assay sample for microscopy studies. Here we showed that applying the fixation agent before the counter-staining causes miscalculations during the determination of the phagocytic measures. Furthermore, we also found that staining the macrophages with various concentrations of DID, as a typical membrane label, in most cases altered the capability of macrophages to phagocytose FITC-stained A. fumigatus and L. corymbifera spores in comparison with unlabeled macrophages. This effect of the DID staining showed a differential character dependent upon the labeling status and the specific type of pathogen. Moreover, labeling the spores of A. fumigatus and L. corymbifera with FITC increased the phagocytic measures during confrontation with unlabeled macrophages when compared to label-free spores. Overall, our study confirms that the staining process itself may significantly manipulate the quantitative outcome of the confrontation assay. As a result of our study, we also developed a user-friendly image analysis tool that analyses confrontation assays both with and without fluorescence labeling of the host cells and of the pathogens. Our image analysis algorithm saves experimental work effort and time, provides more precise results when calculating the phagocytic measures, and delivers a convenient analysis tool for the biologists to monitor host-pathogen interactions as they happen without the artifacts that fluorescence labeling imposes on biological interactions.

Authors: Z. Cseresnyes, M. I. A. Hassan, H. M. Dahse, K. Voigt, M. T. Figge

Date Published: 26th Jun 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Candida Species-Dependent Release of IL-12 by Dendritic Cells Induces Different Levels of NK Cell Stimulation.

Abstract (Expand)

BACKGROUND: Candida albicans and Candida glabrata are the 2 most prevalent Candida species causing bloodstream infections. Patterns of innate immune activation triggered by the 2 fungi differ considerably. … METHODS: To analyze human natural killer (NK) cell activation by both species, we performed ex vivo whole-blood infection assays and confrontation assays with primary human NK cells. RESULTS: C. albicans was a stronger activator for isolated human NK cells than C. glabrata. In contrast, activation of blood NK cells, characterized by an upregulated surface exposure of early activation antigen CD69 and death receptor ligand TRAIL, as well as interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) secretion, was more pronounced during C. glabrata infection. NK cell activation in blood is mediated by humoral mediators released by other immune cells and does not depend on direct activation by fungal cells. Cross-talk between Candida-confronted monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDC) and NK cells resulted in the same NK activation phenotype as NK cells in human blood. Blocking experiments and cytokine substitution identified interleukin-12 as a critical mediator in regulation of primary NK cells by moDC. CONCLUSIONS: Activation of human NK cells in response to Candida in human blood mainly occurs indirectly by mediators released from monocytic cells.

Authors: A. Marolda, K. Hunniger, S. Bottcher, W. Vivas, J. Loffler, M. T. Figge, O. Kurzai

Date Published: 11th Jun 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

The Transcription Factor Stp2 Is Important for Candida albicans Biofilm Establishment and Sustainability.

Abstract (Expand)

The fungal pathogen Candida albicans forms polymorphic biofilms where hyphal morphogenesis and metabolic adaptation are tightly coordinated by a complex intertwined network of transcription factors. … The sensing and metabolism of amino acids play important roles during various phases of biofilm development - from adhesion to maturation. Stp2 is a transcription factor that activates the expression of amino acid permease genes and is required for environmental alkalinization and hyphal growth in vitro and during macrophage phagocytosis. While it is well established that Stp2 is activated in response to external amino acids, its role in biofilm formation remains unknown. In addition to widely used techniques, we applied newly developed approaches for automated image analysis to quantify Stp2-regulated filamentation and biofilm growth. Our results show that in the stp2Delta deletion mutant adherence to abiotic surfaces and initial germ tube formation were strongly impaired, but formed mature biofilms with cell density and morphological structures comparable to the control strains. Stp2-dependent nutrient adaptation appeared to play an important role in biofilm development: stp2Delta biofilms formed under continuous nutrient flow displayed an overall reduction in biofilm formation, whereas under steady conditions the mutant strain formed biofilms with lower metabolic activity, resulting in increased cell survival and biofilm longevity. A deletion of STP2 led to increased rapamycin susceptibility and transcriptional activation of GCN4, the transcriptional regulator of the general amino acid control pathway, demonstrating a connection of Stp2 to other nutrient-responsive pathways. In summary, the transcription factor Stp2 is important for C. albicans biofilm formation, where it contributes to adherence and induction of morphogenesis, and mediates nutrient adaption and cell longevity in mature biofilms.

Authors: B. Bottcher, B. Hoffmann, E. Garbe, T. Weise, Z. Cseresnyes, P. Brandt, S. Dietrich, D. Driesch, M. T. Figge, S. Vylkova

Date Published: 20th May 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Neutrophils Produce Antifungal Extracellular Vesicles against Aspergillus fumigatus.

Abstract (Expand)

Polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMNs) are indispensable for controlling life-threatening fungal infections. In addition to various effector mechanisms, PMNs also produce extracellular vesicles (EVs). … Their contribution to antifungal defense has remained unexplored. We reveal that the clinically important human-pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus triggers PMNs to release a distinct set of antifungal EVs (afEVs). Proteome analyses indicated that afEVs are enriched in antimicrobial proteins. The cargo and the release kinetics of EVs are modulated by the fungal strain confronted. Tracking of afEVs indicated that they associated with fungal cells and even entered fungal hyphae, resulting in alterations in the morphology of the fungal cell wall and dose-dependent antifungal effects. To assess as a proof of concept whether the antimicrobial proteins found in afEVs might contribute to growth inhibition of hyphae when present in the fungal cytoplasm, two human proteins enriched in afEVs, cathepsin G and azurocidin, were heterologously expressed in fungal hyphae. This led to reduced fungal growth relative to that of a control strain producing the human retinol binding protein 7. In conclusion, extracellular vesicles produced by neutrophils in response to A. fumigatus infection are able to associate with the fungus, limit growth, and elicit cell damage by delivering antifungal cargo. This finding offers an intriguing, previously overlooked mechanism of antifungal defense against A. fumigatus IMPORTANCE Invasive fungal infections caused by the mold Aspergillus fumigatus are a growing concern in the clinic due to the increasing use of immunosuppressive therapies and increasing antifungal drug resistance. These infections result in high rates of mortality, as treatment and diagnostic options remain limited. In healthy individuals, neutrophilic granulocytes are critical for elimination of A. fumigatus from the host; however, the exact extracellular mechanism of neutrophil-mediated antifungal activity remains unresolved. Here, we present a mode of antifungal defense employed by human neutrophils against A. fumigatus not previously described. We found that extracellular vesicles produced by neutrophils in response to A. fumigatus infection are able to associate with the fungus, limit growth, and elicit cell damage by delivering antifungal cargo. In the end, antifungal extracellular vesicle biology provides a significant step forward in our understanding of A. fumigatus host pathogenesis and opens up novel diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities.

Authors: I. A. Shopova, I. Belyaev, P. Dasari, S. Jahreis, M. C. Stroe, Z. Cseresnyes, A. K. Zimmermann, A. Medyukhina, C. M. Svensson, T. Kruger, V. Szeifert, S. Nietzsche, T. Conrad, M. G. Blango, O. Kniemeyer, M. von Lilienfeld-Toal, P. F. Zipfel, E. Ligeti, M. T. Figge, A. A. Brakhage

Date Published: 14th Apr 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Enolase From Aspergillus fumigatus Is a Moonlighting Protein That Binds the Human Plasma Complement Proteins Factor H, FHL-1, C4BP, and Plasminogen.

Abstract (Expand)

The opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus can cause severe infections, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. Upon infection, A. fumigatus faces the powerful and directly acting … immune defense of the human host. The mechanisms on how A. fumigatus evades innate immune attack and complement are still poorly understood. Here, we identify A. fumigatus enolase, AfEno1, which was also characterized as fungal allergen, as a surface ligand for human plasma complement regulators. AfEno1 binds factor H, factor-H-like protein 1 (FHL-1), C4b binding protein (C4BP), and plasminogen. Factor H attaches to AfEno1 via two regions, via short conserved repeats (SCRs) 6-7 and 19-20, and FHL-1 contacts AfEno1 via SCRs 6-7. Both regulators when bound to AfEno1 retain cofactor activity and assist in C3b inactivation. Similarly, the classical pathway regulator C4BP binds to AfEno1 and bound to AfEno1; C4BP assists in C4b inactivation. Plasminogen which binds to AfEno1 via lysine residues is accessible for the tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), and active plasmin cleaves the chromogenic substrate S2251, degrades fibrinogen, and inactivates C3 and C3b. Plasmin attached to swollen A. fumigatus conidia damages human A549 lung epithelial cells, reduces the cellular metabolic activity, and induces cell retraction, which results in exposure of the extracellular matrix. Thus, A. fumigatus AfEno1 is a moonlighting protein and virulence factor which recruits several human regulators. The attached human regulators allow the fungal pathogen to control complement at the level of C3 and to damage endothelial cell layers and tissue components.

Authors: P. Dasari, N. Koleci, I. A. Shopova, D. Wartenberg, N. Beyersdorf, S. Dietrich, A. Sahagun-Ruiz, M. T. Figge, C. Skerka, A. A. Brakhage, P. F. Zipfel

Date Published: 12th Dec 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

Regulation of the Germinal Center Reaction and Somatic Hypermutation Dynamics by Homologous Recombination.

Abstract (Expand)

During somatic hypermutation (SHM) of Ig genes in germinal center B cells, lesions introduced by activation-induced cytidine deaminase are processed by multiple error-prone repair pathways. Although … error-free repair by homologous recombination (HR) is crucial to prevent excessive DNA strand breakage at activation-induced cytidine deaminase off-target genes, its role at the hypermutating Ig locus in the germinal center is unexplored. Using B cell-specific inactivation of the critical HR factor Brca2, we detected decreased proliferation, survival, and thereby class switching of ex vivo-activated B cells. Intriguingly, an HR defect allowed for a germinal center reaction and affinity maturation in vivo, albeit at reduced amounts. Analysis of SHM revealed that a certain fraction of DNA lesions at C:G bp was indeed repaired in an error-free manner via Brca2 instead of being processed by error-prone translesion polymerases. By applying a novel pseudo-time in silico analysis of mutational processes, we found that the activity of A:T mutagenesis during SHM increased during a germinal center reaction, but this was in part defective in Brca2-deficient mice. These mutation pattern changes in Brca2-deficient B cells were mostly specific for the Ig V region, suggesting a local or time-dependent need for recombination repair to survive high rates of SHM and especially A:T mutagenesis.

Authors: G. Hirth, C. M. Svensson, K. Bottcher, S. Ullrich, M. T. Figge, B. Jungnickel

Date Published: 15th Sep 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

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