Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-183).

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is recognised as the most widely established genetic model of immunity of the contemporary scientific era, exhibiting a high degree of conservation between Drosophila and mammalian innate immunity genes. However, whilst the majority of Drosophila immunity studies have previously been performed in adults and larvae, the embryo has recently emerged as a potentially viable model system; aiding in vivo studies and providing a more amendable system to undertake live imaging, hence evading many of the caveats associated with current immunity models. This project aimed to further develop the Drosophila embryo as a more potent and insightful immunity model, focusing on the immune response to bacterial infection. Initial results demonstrated that the Stage 15 Drosophila embryo was able to mount a relatively robust immune response to bacterial infection. This included induction of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes upon a range of bacterial stimuli; a response which was able to effectively discriminate between differential types of bacterial infection via the characterised Drosophila systemic immunity pathways. Live-imaging studies also showed that the cellular immune response was functional within the Stage 15 embryo. Subsequently, immune competence was shown to arise at approximately mid-embryogenesis, under the control of 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-HE) signalling, as demonstrated by the partial rescue of AMP expression and bacterial clearance in early stage embryos upon 20-HE co-administration with infective agents. Further analysis of the global transcriptional response of the Drosophila embryo to infection and damage via microarray studies confirmed the immune potential of this system, but also permitted the identification of genes upregulated uniquely upon Gram-positive or Gram-negativ infection. Moreover, wounding via sterile laser ablation induced significant upregulation of a subset of AMP genes an a network of cuticular genes, providing an insight into the embryonic damage response. Parallel analysis of the hemocyte transcriptional profile upon infection and damage elucidated that these immune cells may play a role in the regulation of the immune response via 20-HE signalling and production of ROS, although this remains subject to further validation. As such, transcriptional profile analysis of the embryo has been successful in identifying candidate genes for further validation and study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, January, 2009. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-136).

O choque e ressuscitação predispoe os pacientes a uma maior susceptibilidade a uma lesão pulmonar aguda devido a uma exagerada resposta imune a um segundo estimulo inflamatório, conhecida como lesão das duas agressões, cujos mecanismos tem sido extensivamente pesquisados, mas ainda permanecem sem entendimento. Sendo assim, o principal objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a resposta inflamatória em modelo das duas agressões, no qual a primeira e representada pela I-R e a segunda pela instilação intratraqueal de bactérias vivas. O modelo de choque com animais acordados e hemorragia controlada, seguido de inoculação intratraqueal de bactérias vivas E. coli foi utilizado neste estudo. Todos os animais apresentaram variáveis hemodinâmicas similares, onde a PAM alcançou valores de aproximadamente 40 mmHg depois do sangramento. Solução hipertônica (HS, NaCl - 7,5%) ou isotônica (SS,NaCl - 0,9%) foram usadas como soluções de reperfusão, com resultados hemodinâmicos semelhantes. A inflamação pulmonar foi mais evidente nos animais submetidos a I-R e ressuscitados com solução isotônica (grupo SS) antes da inoculação da bactéria (grupo SEC). Animais que receberam solução hipertônica (grupo HS) apresentaram menos inflamação comparados com os animais do grupo SEC. RNAm para TLR2/4 e CD40/CD40L tiveram sua expressões aumentadas depois da instilação com a bactéria. Quando esses animais foram submetidos somente a lesão de I-R o mesmo não acorreu. Animais do grupo HEC apresentaram maior expressão desses receptors que o grupo SEC. Nos concluímos que a lesão de I-R aumenta a resposta a uma segunda agressão e que a HS pode modular favoravelmente esta resposta / Shock and resuscitation renders patients more susceptible to acute lung injury due to an exaggerated immune response to late inflammatory stimuli, the so-called two-hit model, whose mechanisms have been extensively researched, but are still not completely understood. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the inflammatory response in a two-hit model, in which the first injury is represented by ischemia and reperfusion (I-R), and the second challenge by live bacteria injection. A shock model, with conscious rats and controlled hemorrhage, followed by intratracheal innoculation of live E.coli bacteria was used in this study. All animals showed similar hemodynamic variables, with the mean arterial pressure decreasing to about 40 mmHg after bleeding. Hypertonic saline (HS, NaCl 7,5%) or isotonic saline (SS, NaCl 0,9%) were used as resuscitation fluids, with equal hemodynamic results. Lung inflammation and damage was more evident in the animals submitted to I-R and resuscitated with SS before bacteria innoculation (SEC group). Animals receiving HS displayed less inflammation compared to SEC. TLR2 and TLR4 mRNA expression increased markedly after E.coli injection. When submitted to I-R, these proteins were not up-regulated (except TLR2) when challenged with bacteria. Animals in the HEC group showed higher expression of these modulators than animals in the SEC group. We conclude that I-R blunts inflammatory response, rendering animals more susceptible to damage by a second challenge. Resuscitation with hypertonic saline may favorably modulate this response

The innate immune system is the first line of defence against infection. It is comprised of physicochemical barriers and a variety of cell types including macrophages and dendritic cells. Pathogens express specific pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMP) which are recognised by pattern recognition receptors (PRR) on macrophages to initiate an innate immune response. Gram-negative bacteria such as Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium express a range of bacterial PAMPs recognised by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) including lipopolysaccharides (LPS) recognised by TLR-4 and lipoproteins by TLR-2. The activation of TLRs results in activation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) to drive transcription of mRNA coding for pro-inflammatory proteins such as tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and pro-interleukin (IL) 1β. Myeloid cells also possess intracellular PRRs including the nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) family. NLR family CARD domain- containing protein 4 (NLRC4) and NLR family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) are the main NLRs engaged in recognising S. Typhimurium infection, leading to formation of the inflammasome. The inflammasome is a macromolecular complex assembled in the cytoplasm, and usually contains a NLR, the structural protein apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD (ASC) and effector enzymes such as cysteine-dependent aspartate-directed protease (caspase) -1 and caspase-8. This structure is responsible for processing the cytokines pro- IL-1β and pro-IL-18 to their mature form and is involved in triggering a pro-inflammatory process of cell death termed pyroptosis. The formation of the inflammasome therefore results in cell death and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines which play important roles in controlling infections. Inflammasome activity must be tightly coordinated, as its dysregulation is associated with a variety of auto-inflammatory and auto-immune diseases. The signalling events leading to inflammasome assembly are poorly understood and the molecules involved in fine-tuning its activity are only beginning to be discovered. The aim of this thesis was to discover new molecules involved in inflammasome activation and/or in keeping its activity in check. To achieve this goal, I performed S. Typhimurium infection assays in primary bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM) derived from C57BL/6 mice wild type (WT) and compared the resulting cellular viability, intracellular bacteria counts and IL-1β production to that of BMDMs derived from C57BL/6 mice lacking proteins involved with, or suspected to be involved with, innate immune activity. Amongst the proteins I studied, caspase recruitment domain 9 (CARD9) inhibited inflammasome-mediated IL-1β production. Multiple independent genome-wide association studies link this protein to inflammatory pathologies such as Crohn's disease, but its role in canonical inflammasomes was largely unexplored. To investigate how CARD9 inhibits inflammasome-mediated IL-1β production I have conducted assays in WT and Card9-/- BMDMs, including stimulation of specific NLRs with their purified ligands, infection with bacterial strains deficient in NLRC4 activation, and infection assays in presence of pharmacological inhibitors. By employing these approaches, I observed that CARD9 has a negative role on NLRP3-dependent IL-1β production. Specifically, in response to activation of the NLRP3 by Salmonella infection, CARD9 negatively regulates pro-IL-1β transcription, and decreases IL-1β processing by inhibiting spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK)-mediated NLRP3 activation and represses caspase-8 activity in the inflammasome. CARD9 expression is suppressed in the course of S. Typhimurium infection which may act as a mechanism to increase IL-1β production during the infection. In conclusion, I have established a connection between CARD9 and IL-1β production by the canonical NLRP3 inflammasome and elucidated some of the mechanisms involved in this process. I have also found evidence that other proteins are likely to be involved in inflammasome regulation and the elucidation of their roles will be addressed in future studies.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Microbiology) -- University of Colorado Denver, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-132). Free to UCD Anschutz Medical Campus. Online version available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations;

Thesis (Ph.D. in Microbiology) -- University of Colorado Denver, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-147). Free to UCD Anschutz Medical Campus. Online version available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations;

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:49:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-10-29. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-08-11T03:25:40Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-065a.pdf: 467665 bytes, checksum: 5c21c191852c281d4e2eebf6fd7a8d72 (MD5). Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-08-11T03:25:40Z : No. of bitstreams: 2 Publico-065a.pdf: 467665 bytes, checksum: 5c21c191852c281d4e2eebf6fd7a8d72 (MD5) Publico-065b.pdf: 1808818 bytes, checksum: ea880bd6471f0602f5add685ca9800fe (MD5) / INTRODUÇÃO: A substituição monótona de bases G → A no genoma do HIV-1 é observada desde a década de 1990, entretanto, apenas recentemente esse efeito foi atribuído às APOBECs (apolipoprotein B editing catalytic polypeptide) da imunidade inata. As APOBECs celulares atuam na deaminação de citidina a uridina na fita de DNA viral de polaridade negativa e esse efeito é verificado como excesso de adeninas na fita complementar de DNA viral resultante do processo de transcrição reversa. A presença de hipermutações ocasiona perda da capacidade replicativa da partícula do HIV-1 e pode levar populações virais à extinção. Estudos in vitro demonstraram o efeito antiretroviral das APOBECs3 baseados, principalmente, na verificação de hipermutação. Por outro lado, estudos sistemáticos in vivo são escassos e os dados da literatura são controversos com relação ao efeito da hipermutação no genoma das subpopulações de HIV-1 e na dinâmica da infecção. OBJETIVOS: Este estudo objetivou avaliar os efeitos da hipermutação em pacientes HIVpositivos não tratados correlacionando a freqüência de hipermutação com a carga viral. A carga viral é um importante indicador biológico de replicação do HIV-1 e clínico de progressão para a aids. Assim sendo, foi testado se a presença de hipermutação tem efeito protetor no controle da infecção natural pelo HIV utilizando como parâmetro de apoio a carga viral plasmática do HIV-1 nas 157 amostras de pacientes não tratados testadas para detecção de hipermutação. A integrase constitui um hot spot de hipermutação no genoma viral. MÉTODOS: Foi realizada PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) para amplificar um fragmento de 582 pares de bases do gene da integrase e o produto de PCR foi visualizado em gel de agarose com HA-Yellow. O corante HA-Yellow retarda a migração eletroforética de um produto de PCR proporcionalmente ao conteúdo de bases A da sequência. Nosso método de análise foi validado com base em sequências de clones e calibrado em acordo com os resultados gerados pelo programa Hypermut (disponível em http://www.hiv.lanl.gov/content/sequence/HYPERMUT/ hypermut.html). A análise dos dados realizou-se com base na estatística de K-means que permitiu agrupar as amostras clínicas de acordo com sua distância de migração no gel de agarose com HA-Yellow. RESULTADOS: Foi observada hipermutação em 31,2% (n=49/157) destas amostras e houve associação entre presença de hipermutação e maiores níveis de viremia (P=0,02, teste de Mann-Whitney). Adicionalmente, a presença de hipermutação não apresentou associação com menores níveis de linfócitos T CD4 positivos (P=0,06, Teste de Mann-Whitney), nem ao gênero ou à etnia. CONCLUSÕES: Os valores de carga viral detectados em cada indivíduo refletem a quantidade de partículas virais filtradas pelo processo de hipermutação e o substrato da hipermutação é a replicação viral. Assim sendo, nós constatamos que amostras clínicas com altos níveis de replicação viral exibiram o fenômeno de hipermutação mais frequentemente. Em resumo, a detecção de variantes provirais de HIV-1 portando hipermutação correlacionou-se com maiores níveis de carga viral nos pacientes avaliados. Assim sendo, concluímos que a hipermutação, fenômeno bioquímico de substituições G para A no HIV-1, é um processo pervasivo e está associada com níveis mais elevados de replicação viral. Palavras- Chave: HIV-1, APOBEC, imunidade inata, carga viral, hipermutação / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

O choque e ressuscitação predispoe os pacientes a uma maior susceptibilidade a uma lesão pulmonar aguda devido a uma exagerada resposta imune a um segundo estimulo inflamatório, conhecida como lesão das duas agressões, cujos mecanismos tem sido extensivamente pesquisados, mas ainda permanecem sem entendimento. Sendo assim, o principal objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a resposta inflamatória em modelo das duas agressões, no qual a primeira e representada pela I-R e a segunda pela instilação intratraqueal de bactérias vivas. O modelo de choque com animais acordados e hemorragia controlada, seguido de inoculação intratraqueal de bactérias vivas E. coli foi utilizado neste estudo. Todos os animais apresentaram variáveis hemodinâmicas similares, onde a PAM alcançou valores de aproximadamente 40 mmHg depois do sangramento. Solução hipertônica (HS, NaCl - 7,5%) ou isotônica (SS,NaCl - 0,9%) foram usadas como soluções de reperfusão, com resultados hemodinâmicos semelhantes. A inflamação pulmonar foi mais evidente nos animais submetidos a I-R e ressuscitados com solução isotônica (grupo SS) antes da inoculação da bactéria (grupo SEC). Animais que receberam solução hipertônica (grupo HS) apresentaram menos inflamação comparados com os animais do grupo SEC. RNAm para TLR2/4 e CD40/CD40L tiveram sua expressões aumentadas depois da instilação com a bactéria. Quando esses animais foram submetidos somente a lesão de I-R o mesmo não acorreu. Animais do grupo HEC apresentaram maior expressão desses receptors que o grupo SEC. Nos concluímos que a lesão de I-R aumenta a resposta a uma segunda agressão e que a HS pode modular favoravelmente esta resposta / Shock and resuscitation renders patients more susceptible to acute lung injury due to an exaggerated immune response to late inflammatory stimuli, the so-called two-hit model, whose mechanisms have been extensively researched, but are still not completely understood. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the inflammatory response in a two-hit model, in which the first injury is represented by ischemia and reperfusion (I-R), and the second challenge by live bacteria injection. A shock model, with conscious rats and controlled hemorrhage, followed by intratracheal innoculation of live E.coli bacteria was used in this study. All animals showed similar hemodynamic variables, with the mean arterial pressure decreasing to about 40 mmHg after bleeding. Hypertonic saline (HS, NaCl 7,5%) or isotonic saline (SS, NaCl 0,9%) were used as resuscitation fluids, with equal hemodynamic results. Lung inflammation and damage was more evident in the animals submitted to I-R and resuscitated with SS before bacteria innoculation (SEC group). Animals receiving HS displayed less inflammation compared to SEC. TLR2 and TLR4 mRNA expression increased markedly after E.coli injection. When submitted to I-R, these proteins were not up-regulated (except TLR2) when challenged with bacteria. Animals in the HEC group showed higher expression of these modulators than animals in the SEC group. We conclude that I-R blunts inflammatory response, rendering animals more susceptible to damage by a second challenge. Resuscitation with hypertonic saline may favorably modulate this response