Impaired Interferon-γ Responses, Increased Interleukin-17 Expression, and a Tumor Necrosis Factor–α Transcriptional Program in Invasive Aspergillosis

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 200; no. 8; pp. 1341 - 1351
• Main Authors: Armstrong-James, Darius P. H., Turnbull, Suzy A., Teo, Ian, Stark, Jaroslav, Rogers, Nicola J., Rogers, Thomas R. F., Bignell, Elaine, Haynes, Ken
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford The University of Chicago Press 15.10.2009; University of Chicago Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Animals; Apoptosis; Aspergillus fumigatus; Biological and medical sciences; Cytokines; DNA, Complementary; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fungal infections; FUNGI; Gene Expression Regulation - immunology; Genes; Immune response; Immunocompromised Host; Immunosuppression; Infections; Infectious diseases; Interferon-gamma - genetics; Interferon-gamma - metabolism; Interleukin-17 - genetics; Interleukin-17 - metabolism; Male; Medical sciences; Mice; Microbiology; Pulmonary Aspergillosis - immunology; Pulmonary Aspergillosis - metabolism; T lymphocytes; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - genetics; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - metabolism; Infection; Mycosis; Microbiology; Cytokine; Aspergillosis; Tumor necrosis factor α; Interleukin 17; Gamma interferon
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1086/605931

BackgroundInvasive aspergillosis (IA) is the most common cause of death associated with fungal infection in the developed world. Historically, susceptibility to IA has been associated with prolonged neutropenia; however, IA has now become a major problem in patients on calcineurin inhibitors and allogenic hematopoetic stem cell transplant patients following engraftment. These observations suggest complex cellular mechanisms govern immunity to IA MethodsTo characterize the key early events that govern outcome from infection with Aspergillus fumigatus we performed a comparative immunochip microarray analysis of the pulmonary transcriptional response to IA between cyclophosphamide-treated mice and immunocompetent mice at 24 h after infection ResultsWe demonstrate that death due to infection is associated with a failure to generate an incremental interferon-γ response, increased levels of interleukin-5 and interleukin-17a transcript, coordinated expression of a network of tumor necrosis factor–α-related genes, and increased levels of tumor necrosis factor–α. In contrast, clearance of infection is associated with increased expression of a number genes encoding proteins involved in innate pathogen clearance, as well as apoptosis and control of inflammation ConclusionThis first organ-level immune response transcriptional analysis for IA has enabled us to gain new insights into the mechanisms that govern fungal immunity in the lung