Lactobacillus crispatus and its enolase and glutamine synthetase influence interactions between Neisseria gonorrhoeae and human epithelial cells

• Published in: The journal of microbiology Vol. 58; no. 5; pp. 405 - 414
• Main Authors: Płaczkiewicz, Jagoda, Chmiel, Paulina, Malinowska, Ewelina, Bącal, Pawel, Kwiatek, Agnieszka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul The Microbiological Society of Korea 01.05.2020; Springer Nature B.V; 한국미생물학회
• Subjects: Antibiosis; Bacterial Adhesion; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biota; CCL20 protein; Cell Line; Cytokines; Disease transmission; Dysbacteriosis; Epithelial cells; Epithelial Cells - microbiology; Epithelium; Female; Females; Gene expression; Genitourinary tract; Global health; Glutamate-ammonia ligase; Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase - metabolism; Glutamine; Gonorrhea; Gonorrhea - microbiology; Host Microbial Interactions; Humans; Infections; Invasiveness; Lactobacillus crispatus; Lactobacillus crispatus - enzymology; Life Sciences; Microbial Pathogenesis and Host-Microbe Interaction; Microbiology; Microbiota; Mucosa; Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Neisseria gonorrhoeae - physiology; Pathogenesis; Pathogens; Phosphopyruvate hydratase; Phosphopyruvate Hydratase - metabolism; Proteins; Sexually transmitted diseases; STD; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Vagina - cytology; Vagina - microbiology; 생물학; microbiota; enolase; glutamine syn-thetase; Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Lactobacillus crispatus
• ISSN: 1225-8873; 1976-3794
• DOI: 10.1007/s12275-020-9505-9

Neisseria gonorrhoeae , an obligatory human pathogen causes the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, which remains a global health problem. N. gonorrhoeae primarily infects the mucosa of the genitourinary tract, which in women, is colonized by natural microbiota, dominated by Lactobacillus spp., that protect human cells against pathogens. In this study, we demonstrated that precolonization of human epithelial cells with Lactobacillus crispatus , one of the most prevalent bacteria in the female urogenital tract, or preincubation with the L. crispatus enolase or glutamine synthetase impairs the adhesion and invasiveness of N. gonorrhoeae toward epithelial cells, two crucial steps in gonococcal pathogenesis. Furthermore, decreased expression of genes encoding the proinflam-matory cytokines, TNFα and CCL20, which are secreted as a consequence of N. gonorrhoeae infection, was observed in N. gonorrhoeae -infected epithelial cells that had been preco-lonized with L. crispatus or preincubated with enolase and glutamine synthetase. Thus, our results indicate that the protection of human cells against N. gonorrhoeae infection is a complex process and that L. crispatus and its proteins enolase and glutamine synthetase can have a potential role in protecting epithelial cells against gonococcal infection. Therefore, these results are important since disturbances of the micro-biota or of its proteins can result in dysbiosis, which is associated with increased susceptibility of epithelium to pathogens.