Ubiquitination and cell-autonomous immunity.

Cell-autonomous immunity is the first line of defense by which cells recognize and contribute to eliminating invasive pathogens. It is composed of immune signaling networks that sense microbial pathogens, promote pathogen restriction, and stimulate their elimination, including host cell death. Ubiquitination is a pivotal orchestrator of these pathways, by changing the activity of signal transducers and effector proteins in an efficient way. In this review, we will focus on how ubiquitin connects the pathways that sense pathogens to the cellular responses to invaders and shed light on how ubiquitination impacts the microenvironment around the infected cell, stimulating the appropriate immune response. Finally, we discuss therapeutic options directed at favoring cell-autonomous immune responses to infection.

The nutrient games - Plasmodium metabolism during hepatic development.

Malaria is a febrile illness caused by species of the protozoan parasite Plasmodium and is characterized by recursive infections of erythrocytes, leading to clinical symptoms and pathology. In mammals, Plasmodium parasites undergo a compulsory intrahepatic development stage before infecting erythrocytes. Liver-stage parasites have a metabolic configuration to facilitate the replication of several thousand daughter parasites. Their metabolism is of interest to identify cellular pathways essential for liver infection, to kill the parasite before onset of the disease. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on nutrient acquisition and biosynthesis by liver-stage parasites mostly generated in murine malaria models, gaps in knowledge, and challenges to create a holistic view of the development and deficiencies in this field.

Plasmodium translocon component EXP2 facilitates hepatocyte invasion.

Plasmodium parasites possess a translocon that exports parasite proteins into the infected erythrocyte. Although the translocon components are also expressed during the mosquito and liver stage of infection, their function remains unexplored. Here, using a combination of genetic and chemical assays, we show that the translocon component Exported Protein 2 (EXP2) is critical for invasion of hepatocytes. EXP2 is a pore-forming protein that is secreted from the sporozoite upon contact with the host cell milieu. EXP2-deficient sporozoites are impaired in invasion, which can be rescued by the exogenous administration of recombinant EXP2 and alpha-hemolysin (an S. aureus pore-forming protein), as well as by acid sphingomyelinase. The latter, together with the negative impact of chemical and genetic inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase on invasion, reveals that EXP2 pore-forming activity induces hepatocyte membrane repair, which plays a key role in parasite invasion. Overall, our findings establish a novel and critical function for EXP2 that leads to an active participation of the host cell in Plasmodium sporozoite invasion, challenging the current view of the establishment of liver stage infection.

Parasitism: Anopheles Mosquitoes and Plasmodium Parasites Share Resources.

Female Anopheles mosquitoes are the definitive hosts of Plasmodium parasites. A new study has found that successful establishment and development of Plasmodium in the Anopheles midgut requires mosquito oogenesis, without affecting egg production.

Plasmodium UIS3 sequesters host LC3 to avoid elimination by autophagy in hepatocytes.

The causative agent of malaria, Plasmodium, replicates inside a membrane-bound parasitophorous vacuole (PV), which shields this intracellular parasite from the cytosol of the host cell 1 . One common threat for intracellular pathogens is the homeostatic process of autophagy, through which cells capture unwanted intracellular material for lysosomal degradation 2 . During the liver stage of a malaria infection, Plasmodium parasites are targeted by the autophagy machinery of the host cell, and the PV membrane (PVM) becomes decorated with several autophagy markers, including LC3 (microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3) 3,4 . Here we show that Plasmodium berghei parasites infecting hepatic cells rely on the PVM transmembrane protein UIS3 to avoid elimination by host-cell-mediated autophagy. We found that UIS3 binds host LC3 through a non-canonical interaction with a specialized surface on LC3 where host proteins with essential functions during autophagy also bind. UIS3 acts as a bona fide autophagy inhibitor by competing with host LC3-interacting proteins for LC3 binding. Our work identifies UIS3, one of the most promising candidates for a genetically attenuated vaccine against malaria 5 , as a unique and potent mediator of autophagy evasion in Plasmodium. We propose that the protein-protein interaction between UIS3 and host LC3 represents a target for antimalarial drug development.

Dietary alterations modulate susceptibility to Plasmodium infection.

The relevance of genetic factors in conferring protection to severe malaria has been demonstrated, as in the case of sickle cell trait and G6PD deficiency 1 . However, it remains unknown whether environmental components, such as dietary or metabolic variations, can contribute to the outcome of infection 2 . Here, we show that administration of a high-fat diet to mice for a period as short as 4 days impairs Plasmodium liver infection by over 90%. Plasmodium sporozoites can successfully invade and initiate replication but die inside hepatocytes, thereby are unable to cause severe disease. Transcriptional analyses combined with genetic and chemical approaches reveal that this impairment of infection is mediated by oxidative stress. We show that reactive oxygen species, probably spawned from fatty acid ß-oxidation, directly impact Plasmodium survival inside hepatocytes, and parasite load can be rescued by exogenous administration of the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine or the ß-oxidation inhibitor etomoxir. Together, these data reveal that acute and transient dietary alterations markedly impact the establishment of a Plasmodium infection and disease outcome.

GLUT1-mediated glucose uptake plays a crucial role during Plasmodium hepatic infection.

Intracellular pathogens have evolved mechanisms to ensure their survival and development inside their host cells. Here, we show that glucose is a pivotal modulator of hepatic infection by the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei and that glucose uptake via the GLUT1 transporter is specifically enhanced in P. berghei-infected cells. We further show that ATP levels of cells containing developing parasites are decreased, which is known to enhance membrane GLUT1 activity. In addition, GLUT1 molecules are translocated to the membrane of the hepatic cell, increasing glucose uptake at later stages of infection. Chemical inhibition of GLUT1 activity leads to a decrease in glucose uptake and the consequent impairment of hepatic infection, both in vitro and in vivo. Our results reveal that changes in GLUT1 conformation and cellular localization seem to be part of an adaptive host response to maintain adequate cellular nutrition and energy levels, ensuring host cell survival and supporting P. berghei hepatic development.

Cytotoxic bile acids, but not cytoprotective species, inhibit the ordering effect of cholesterol in model membranes at physiologically active concentrations.

Submillimolar concentrations of cytotoxic bile acids (BAs) induce cell death via apoptosis. On the other hand, several cytoprotective BAs were shown to prevent apoptosis in the same concentration range. Still, the mechanisms by which BAs trigger these opposite signaling effects remain unclear. This study was aimed to determine if cytotoxic and cytoprotective BAs, at physiologically active concentrations, are able to modulate the biophysical properties of lipid membranes, potentially translating into changes in the apoptotic threshold of cells. Binding of BAs to membranes was assessed through the variation of fluorescence parameters of suitable derivatized BAs. These derivatives partitioned with higher affinity to liquid disordered than to the cholesterol-enriched liquid ordered domains. Unlabeled BAs were also shown to have a superficial location upon interaction with the lipid membrane. Additionally, the interaction of cytotoxic BAs with membranes resulted in membrane expansion, as concluded from FRET data. Moreover, it was shown that cytotoxic BAs were able to significantly disrupt the ordering of the membrane by cholesterol at physiologically active concentrations of the BA, an effect not associated with cholesterol removal. On the other hand, cytoprotective bile acids had no effect on membrane properties. It was concluded that, given the observed effects on membrane rigidity, the apoptotic activity of cytotoxic BAs could be potentially associated with changes in plasma membrane organization (e.g. modulation of lipid domains) or with an increase in mitochondrial membrane affinity for apoptotic proteins.