Biological Trojan horse: Antigen 43 provides specific bacterial uptake and survival in human neutrophils |
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| Authors: | Fexby Sara Bjarnsholt Thomas Jensen Peter Østrup Roos Viktoria Høiby Niels Givskov Michael Klemm Per |
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| Affiliation: | Center for Biomedical Microbiology, BioCentrum-DTU, Building 301, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark. |
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| Abstract: | Escherichia coli is a versatile pathogen causing millions of infections in humans every year. This bacterium can form multicellular aggregates when it expresses a self-associating protein, antigen 43 (Ag43), on its surface. We have discovered that Ag43-expressing E. coli cells are efficiently taken up by human defense cells, polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs), in an opsonin-independent manner. Surprisingly, the phagocytosed bacteria were not immediately killed but resided as tight aggregates within the PMNs. Our observations indicate that Ag43-mediated uptake and survival in PMNs constitute a mechanism to subvert one of the primary defense mechanisms of the human body. |
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