Caspase-1 cleavage of the TLR adaptor TRIF inhibits autophagy and β-interferon production during pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

Bacterial infection can trigger autophagy and inflammasome activation, but the effects of inflammasome activation on autophagy are unknown. We examined this in the context of Pseudomonas aeruginosa macrophage infection, which triggers NLRC4 inflammasome activation. P. aeruginosa induced autophagy via TLR4 and its adaptor TRIF. NLRC4 and caspase-1 activation following infection attenuated autophagy. Caspase-1 directly cleaved TRIF to diminish TRIF-mediated signaling, resulting in inhibition of autophagy and in reduced type I interferon production. Expression of a caspase-1 resistant TRIF mutant enhanced autophagy and type I interferon production following infection. Preventing TRIF cleavage by caspase-1 in an in vivo model of P. aeruginosa infection resulted in enhanced bacterial autophagy, attenuated IL-1β production, and increased bacterial clearance. Additionally, TRIF cleavage by caspase-1 diminished NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Thus, caspase-1 mediated TRIF cleavage is a key event in controlling autophagy, type I interferon production, and inflammasome activation with important functional consequences

Mitochondrial damage contributes to Pseudomonas aeruginosa activation of the inflammasome and is downregulated by autophagy.

The nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat containing family caspase recruitment domain containing 4 (NLRC4) inflammasome can be activated by pathogenic bacteria via products translocated through the microbial type III secretion apparatus (T3SS). Recent work has shown that activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome is downregulated by autophagy, but the influence of autophagy on NLRC4 activation is unclear. We set out to determine how autophagy might influence this process, using the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which activates the NLRC4 inflammasome via its T3SS. Infection resulted in T3SS-dependent mitochondrial damage with increased production of reactive oxygen intermediates and release of mitochondrial DNA. Inhibiting mitochondrial reactive oxygen release or degrading intracellular mitochondrial DNA abrogated NLRC4 inflammasome activation. Moreover, macrophages lacking mitochondria failed to activate NLRC4 following infection. Removal of damaged mitochondria by autophagy significantly attenuated NLRC4 inflammasome activation. Mitochondrial DNA bound specifically to NLRC4 immunoprecipitates and transfection of mitochondrial DNA directly activated the NLRC4 inflammasome; oxidation of the DNA enhanced this effect. Manipulation of autophagy altered the degree of inflammasome activation and inflammation in an in vivo model of P. aeruginosa infection. Our results reveal a novel mechanism contributing to NLRC4 activation by P. aeruginosa via mitochondrial damage and release of mitochondrial DNA triggered by the bacterial T3SS that is downregulated by autophagy

Autophagy Controls Acquisition of Aging Features in Macrophages

Macrophages provide a bridge linking innate and adaptive immunity. An increased frequency of macrophages and other myeloid cells paired with excessive cytokine production is commonly seen in the aging immune system, known as 'inflamm-aging'. It is presently unclear how healthy macrophages are maintained throughout life and what connects inflammation with myeloid dysfunction during aging. Autophagy, an intracellular degradation mechanism, has known links with aging and lifespan extension. Here, we show for the first time that autophagy regulates the acquisition of major aging features in macrophages. In the absence of the essential autophagy gene Atg7, macrophage populations are increased and key functions such as phagocytosis and nitrite burst are reduced, while the inflammatory cytokine response is significantly increased - a phenotype also observed in aged macrophages. Furthermore, reduced autophagy decreases surface antigen expression and skews macrophage metabolism toward glycolysis. We show that macrophages from aged mice exhibit significantly reduced autophagic flux compared to young mice. These data demonstrate that autophagy plays a critical role in the maintenance of macrophage homeostasis and function, regulating inflammation and metabolism and thereby preventing immunosenescence. Thus, autophagy modulation may prevent excess inflammation and preserve macrophage function during aging, improving immune responses and reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with inflamm-aging. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel

p38 signaling inhibits mTORC1-independent autophagy in senescent human CD8(+) T cells

T cell senescence is thought to contribute to immune function decline, but the pathways that mediate senescence in these cells are not clear. Here, we evaluated T cell populations from healthy volunteers and determined that human CD8+ effector memory T cells that reexpress the naive T cell marker CD45RA have many characteristics of cellular senescence, including decreased proliferation, defective mitochondrial function, and elevated levels of both ROS and p38 MAPK. Despite their apparent senescent state, we determined that these cells secreted high levels of both TNF-α and IFN-γ and showed potent cytotoxic activity. We found that the senescent CD45RA-expressing population engaged anaerobic glycolysis to generate energy for effector functions. Furthermore, inhibition of p38 MAPK signaling in senescent CD8+ T cells increased their proliferation, telomerase activity, mitochondrial biogenesis, and fitness; however, the extra energy required for these processes did not arise from increased glucose uptake or oxidative phosphorylation. Instead, p38 MAPK blockade in these senescent cells induced an increase in autophagy through enhanced interactions between p38 interacting protein (p38IP) and autophagy protein 9 (ATG9) in an mTOR-independent manner. Together, our findings describe fundamental metabolic requirements of senescent primary human CD8+ T cells and demonstrate that p38 MAPK blockade reverses senescence via an mTOR-independent pathway

Polyamines and eIF5A Hypusination Modulate Mitochondrial Respiration and Macrophage Activation

How cells adapt metabolism to meet demands is an active area of interest across biology. Among a broad range of functions, the polyamine spermidine is needed to hypusinate the translation factor eukaryotic initiation factor 5A (eIF5A). We show here that hypusinated eIF5A (eIF5A$^{H}$) promotes the efficient expression of a subset of mitochondrial proteins involved in the TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Several of these proteins have mitochondrial targeting sequences (MTSs) that in part confer an increased dependency on eIF5AH. In macrophages, metabolic switching between OXPHOS and glycolysis supports divergent functional fates stimulated by activation signals. In these cells, hypusination of eIF5A appears to be dynamically regulated after activation. Using in vivo and in vitro models, we show that acute inhibition of this pathway blunts OXPHOS-dependent alternative activation, while leaving aerobic glycolysis-dependent classical activation intact. These results might have implications for therapeutically controlling macrophage activation by targeting the polyamine-eIF5A-hypusine axis

An outbreak of Shigella boydii serotype 20 in January 2015 amongst United Kingdom healthcare workers involved in the Ebola response in Sierra Leone

In January 2015, Public Health England and the United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence investigated cases of diarrhoea and fever in military personnel recently returned to the UK after supporting the response to the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. Tests for Ebola virus infection were negative. PCR tests detected the ipaH gene in 10/12 faecal specimens, and Shigella boydii serotype 20 was isolated from 7 patients. A case control study was undertaken and analysed using multivariable logistic regression. Consumption of a coronation chicken lunch at the transit camp in Sierra Leone (SL) 24–48 h prior to departure for the UK was significantly associated with disease [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 28.15, 95 % CI: 1.87–422.65]. In the context of heightened concern during the Ebola epidemic, this outbreak highlights the importance of rapid and effective microbiological and epidemiological investigations to identify the aetiological agent in patients presenting with fever and diarrhoea

Essential role for autophagy during invariant NKT cell development

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cellular homeostatic pathway essential for development, immunity, and cell death. Although autophagy modulates MHC antigen presentation, it remains unclear whether autophagy defects impact on CD1d lipid loading and presentation to invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells and on iNKT cell differentiation in the thymus. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether iNKT and conventional T cells have similar autophagy requirements for differentiation, survival, and/or activation. We report that, in mice with a conditional deletion of the essential autophagy gene Atg7 in the T-cell compartment (CD4 Cre-Atg7(-/-)), thymic iNKT cell development--unlike conventional T-cell development--is blocked at an early stage and mature iNKT cells are absent in peripheral lymphoid organs. The defect is not due to altered loading of intracellular iNKT cell agonists; rather, it is T-cell-intrinsic, resulting in enhanced susceptibility of iNKT cells to apoptosis. We show that autophagy increases during iNKT cell thymic differentiation and that it developmentally regulates mitochondrial content through mitophagy in the thymus of mice and humans. Autophagy defects result in the intracellular accumulation of mitochondrial superoxide species and subsequent apoptotic cell death. Although autophagy-deficient conventional T cells develop normally, they show impaired peripheral survival, particularly memory CD8(+) T cells. Because iNKT cells, unlike conventional T cells, differentiate into memory cells while in the thymus, our results highlight a unique autophagy-dependent metabolic regulation of adaptive and innate T cells, which is required for transition to a quiescent state after population expansion

Polyamine metabolism is a central determinant of helper T cell lineage fidelity

Polyamine synthesis represents one of the most profound metabolic changes during T cell activation, but the biological implications of this are scarcely known. Here, we show that polyamine metabolism is a fundamental process governing the ability of CD4+ helper T cells (TH) to polarize into different functional fates. Deficiency in ornithine decarboxylase, a crucial enzyme for polyamine synthesis, results in a severe failure of CD4+ T cells to adopt correct subset specification, underscored by ectopic expression of multiple cytokines and lineage-defining transcription factors across TH cell subsets. Polyamines control TH differentiation by providing substrates for deoxyhypusine synthase, which synthesizes the amino acid hypusine, and mice in which T cells are deficient for hypusine develop severe intestinal inflammatory disease. Polyamine-hypusine deficiency caused widespread epigenetic remodeling driven by alterations in histone acetylation and a re-wired tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. Thus, polyamine metabolism is critical for maintaining the epigenome to focus TH cell subset fidelity