Palusińska-Szysz Marta, Zdybicka-Barabas Agnieszka, Pawlikowska-Pawlęga Bożena, Mak Pawel, Cytryńska Małgorzata
Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Akademicka 19 St., 20-033 Lublin, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2012 Dec 12;13(12):17048-64. doi: 10.3390/ijms131217048.
The gram-negative bacterium Legionella dumoffii is, beside Legionella pneumophila, an etiological agent of Legionnaires' disease, an atypical form of pneumonia. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activity of Galleria mellonella defense polypeptides against L. dumoffii. The extract of immune hemolymph, containing a mixture of defense peptides and proteins, exhibited a dose-dependent bactericidal effect on L. dumoffii. The bacterium appeared sensitive to a main component of the hemolymph extract, apolipophorin III, as well as to a defense peptide, Galleria defensin, used at the concentrations 0.4 mg/mL and 40 μg/mL, respectively. L. dumoffii cells cultured in the presence of choline were more susceptible to both defense factors analyzed. A transmission electron microscopy study of bacterial cells demonstrated that Galleria defensin and apolipophorin III induced irreversible cell wall damage and strong intracellular alterations, i.e., increased vacuolization, cytoplasm condensation and the appearance of electron-white spaces in electron micrographs. Our findings suggest that insects, such as G. mellonella, with their great diversity of antimicrobial factors, can serve as a rich source of compounds for the testing of Legionella susceptibility to defense-related peptides and proteins.
除嗜肺军团菌外,革兰氏阴性菌杜莫夫军团菌也是退伍军人病(一种非典型肺炎)的病原体。本研究的目的是确定大蜡螟防御多肽对杜莫夫军团菌的抗菌活性。含有防御肽和蛋白质混合物的免疫血淋巴提取物对杜莫夫军团菌表现出剂量依赖性杀菌作用。该细菌对血淋巴提取物的主要成分载脂蛋白III以及分别以0.4mg/mL和40μg/mL浓度使用的防御肽大蜡螟防御素敏感。在胆碱存在下培养的杜莫夫军团菌细胞对所分析的两种防御因子更敏感。对细菌细胞的透射电子显微镜研究表明,大蜡螟防御素和载脂蛋白III诱导不可逆的细胞壁损伤和强烈的细胞内改变,即电子显微镜照片中空泡化增加、细胞质浓缩和电子空白区域的出现。我们的研究结果表明,像大蜡螟这样具有多种抗菌因子的昆虫,可以作为测试军团菌对防御相关肽和蛋白质敏感性的丰富化合物来源。