Species-specific and pathotype-specific binding of bacteria to zymogen granule membrane glycoprotein 2 (GP2)

With interest we read the paper by Juste et al 1 proposing the amount of zymogen-granule membrane glycoprotein 2 (GP2) on the surface of intestinal bacteria as a Crohn\u27s disease (CD) marker. Indeed, a decreased GP2 level was found on microbes in patients with CD as compared to those of healthy controls. GP2 is a homologue to the urinary Tamm–Horsefall protein demonstrating an antimicrobial function by binding type 1-fimbriated uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Likewise, GP2 seems to interact with intestinal bacteria as a specific receptor of bacterial type-1 fimbriae (FimH) on intestinal microfold cells that are partaking in immune responses against such microbes.2 GP2 is overexpressed in the inflamed intestine of patients with CD and has an immunomodulating role in innate and acquired immune responses.3 ,4Interestingly, GP2 was identified as autoantigen of pancreatic antibodies in CD.4 Altogether, these findings indicate two major GP2 sources (pancreatic/intestinal) and support a role for GP2 in the interaction between the immune system and intestinal microbiota.3 Thus, loss of tolerance to GP2 could play a role in CD\u27s pathophysiology supposed to be exacerbated by preceding intestinal infections. In general, the findings by Juste et al 1 may be explained by a lower pancreatic GP2 secretion, an impaired GP2 binding to bacteria, or by a higher prevalence of bacteria with poor or no GP2 binding in patients with CD

Molecular characterization of macrolide resistance of a Mycoplasma pneumoniae strain that developed during therapy of a patient with pneumonia

The development of macrolide resistance that occurred during 3 days of therapy with azithromycin to treat Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in a paediatric patient is reported. After extended molecular characterization of strains, the parallel occurrence of clones showing the non-mutated wild-type 23S rRNA sequence as well as mutations A2063G and A2064G, which are both responsible for phenotypic resistance, was confirmed for the first time

Retrotransposition and Cell-to-Cell Transfer of Foamy Viruses

A remarkable feature of the prototype foamy virus (PFV) replication pathway has been reported to consist of the ability to retrotranspose intracellularly with high efficiency (M. Heinkelein, T. Pietschmann, G. Jármy, M. Dressler, H. Imrich, J. Thurow, D. Lindemann, M. Bock, A. Moebes, J. Roy, O. Herchenröder, and A. Rethwilm, EMBO J. 19:3436-3345, 2000). PFV intracellular retrotransposition (IRT) was reported to be enhanced by coexpression of fusion-defective envelope protein. To investigate the possibility of cell-to-cell transfer of PFV genomes, which could mimic IRT, we performed cocultivation experiments with cells transfected with an IRT-competent and marker gene-expressing PFV vector together with cells expressing a different marker and measured cells positive for both markers. The findings corroborated the initial report on IRT of Env-deficient PFV. Furthermore, they indicated that viral cores that have incorporated fusion-deficient Env can be transferred from cell to cell in a cell type-specific manor. One possible explanation consists of a minor alternative cleavage site in Env that can be used to expose the fusion peptide of the Env transmembrane protein, which appears to be required for virus uptake

Feline Foamy Virus Genome and Replication Strategy

Crucial aspects of the foamy virus (FV) replication strategy have so far only been investigated for the prototypic FV (PFV) isolate, which is supposed to be derived from nonhuman primates. To study whether the unusual features of this replication pathway also apply to more-distantly related FVs, we constructed feline FV (FFV) infectious molecular clones and vectors. It is shown by quantitative RNA and DNA PCR analysis that FFV virions contain more RNA than DNA. Full-length linear DNA was found in extracellular FFV by Southern blot analysis. Similar to PFV, azidothymidine inhibition experiments and the transfection of nucleic acids extracted from extracellular FFV indicated that DNA is the functional relevant FFV genome. Unlike PFV, no evidence was found indicating that FFV recycles its DNA into the nucleus

Species-specific and pathotype-specific binding of bacteria to zymogen granule membrane glycoprotein 2 (GP2)

With interest we read the paper by Juste et al 1 proposing the amount of zymogen-granule membrane glycoprotein 2 (GP2) on the surface of intestinal bacteria as a Crohn's disease (CD) marker. Indeed, a decreased GP2 level was found on microbes in patients with CD as compared to those of healthy controls. GP2 is a homologue to the urinary Tamm–Horsefall protein demonstrating an antimicrobial function by binding type 1-fimbriated uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Likewise, GP2 seems to interact with intestinal bacteria as a specific receptor of bacterial type-1 fimbriae (FimH) on intestinal microfold cells that are partaking in immune responses against such microbes.2 GP2 is overexpressed in the inflamed intestine of patients with CD and has an immunomodulating role in innate and acquired immune responses.3 ,4Interestingly, GP2 was identified as autoantigen of pancreatic antibodies in CD.4 Altogether, these findings indicate two major GP2 sources (pancreatic/intestinal) and support a role for GP2 in the interaction between the immune system and intestinal microbiota.3 Thus, loss of tolerance to GP2 could play a role in CD's pathophysiology supposed to be exacerbated by preceding intestinal infections. In general, the findings by Juste et al 1 may be explained by a lower pancreatic GP2 secretion, an impaired GP2 binding to bacteria, or by a higher prevalence of bacteria with poor or no GP2 binding in patients with CD.This article is from Gut 64 (2015): 517–519, doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2014-307854. Posted with permission.</p