Polymorphic factor H-binding activity of CspA protects Lyme disease borreliae from the host complement

Authors
Hart, T.
Nguyen, N.T.T.
Nowak, N.
Zhang, F.
Linhardt, Robert J.
Diuk-Wasser, M.
Ram, S.
Kraiczy, P.
Lin, Y.P.
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2219-5833
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Issue Date
2018
Keywords
Biology , Chemistry and chemical biology , Chemical and biological engineering , Biomedical engineering
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Terms of Use
Attribution 3.0 United States
CC BY : this license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. Credit must be given to the authors and the original work must be properly cited.
Full Citation
Polymorphic factor H-binding activity of CspA protects Lyme disease borreliae from the host complement, T. Hart, N. T. T. Nguyen, N. Nowak, F. Zhang, R. J. Linhardt, M. Diuk-Wasser, S. Ram, P. Kraiczy, Y.-P. Lin, PLOS Pathogens, 14, e1007106, 2018.
Abstract
Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl), the causative agent of Lyme disease, establishes an initial infection in the host's skin following a tick bite, and then disseminates to distant organs, leading to multisystem manifestations. Tick-to-vertebrate host transmission requires that Bbsl survives during blood feeding. Complement is an important innate host defense in blood and interstitial fluid. Bbsl produces a polymorphic surface protein, CspA, that binds to a complement regulator, Factor H (FH) to block complement activation in vitro. However, the role that CspA plays in the Bbsl enzootic cycle remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that different CspA variants promote spirochete binding to FH to inactivate complement and promote serum resistance in a host-specific manner. Utilizing a tick-to-mouse transmission model, we observed that a cspA-knockout B. burgdorferi is eliminated from nymphal ticks in the first 24 hours of feeding and is unable to be transmitted to naïve mice. Conversely, ectopically producing CspA derived from B. burgdorferi or B. afzelii, but not B. garinii in a cspA-knockout strain restored spirochete survival in fed nymphs and tick-to-mouse transmission. Furthermore, a CspA point mutant, CspA-L246D that was defective in FH-binding, failed to survive in fed nymphs and at the inoculation site or bloodstream in mice. We also allowed those spirochete-infected nymphs to feed on C3-/- mice that lacked functional complement. The cspA-knockout B. burgdorferi or this mutant strain complemented with cspA variants or cspA-L246D was found at similar levels as wild type B. burgdorferi in the fed nymphs and mouse tissues. These novel findings suggest that the FH-binding activity of CspA protects spirochetes from complement-mediated killing in fed nymphal ticks, which ultimately allows Bbsl transmission to mammalian hosts.
Description
PLOS Pathogens, 14, e1007106
Note : if this item contains full text it may be a preprint, author manuscript, or a Gold OA copy that permits redistribution with a license such as CC BY. The final version is available through the publisher’s platform.
Department
The Linhardt Research Labs.
The Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS)
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Relationships
The Linhardt Research Labs Online Collection
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
https://harc.rpi.edu/
Access
Open Access
CC BY — Creative Commons Attribution