Chair of Microbiology, University of Würzburg Biocenter, Würzburg, Germany.
Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020 May 12;10:215. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00215. eCollection 2020.
Obligate human pathogenic are the second most frequent bacterial cause of sexually transmitted diseases. These bacteria invade different mucosal tissues and occasionally disseminate into the bloodstream. Invasion into epithelial cells requires the activation of host cell receptors by the formation of ceramide-rich platforms. Here, we investigated the role of sphingosine in the invasion and intracellular survival of gonococci. Sphingosine exhibited an anti-gonococcal activity . We used specific sphingosine analogs and click chemistry to visualize sphingosine in infected cells. Sphingosine localized to the membrane of intracellular gonococci. Inhibitor studies and the application of a sphingosine derivative indicated that increased sphingosine levels reduced the intracellular survival of gonococci. We demonstrate here, that sphingosine can target intracellular bacteria and may therefore exert a direct bactericidal effect inside cells.
需氧人类病原体是第二种最常见的性传播疾病的细菌病原体。这些细菌侵袭不同的黏膜组织，偶尔会扩散到血液中。侵袭上皮细胞需要通过形成富含神经酰胺的平台来激活宿主细胞受体。在这里，我们研究了神经鞘氨醇在淋球菌侵袭和细胞内存活中的作用。神经鞘氨醇表现出抗淋球菌活性。我们使用了特定的神经鞘氨醇类似物和点击化学来观察感染细胞中的神经鞘氨醇。神经鞘氨醇定位于细胞内淋球菌的膜上。抑制剂研究和神经鞘氨醇衍生物的应用表明，神经鞘氨醇水平的增加降低了细胞内淋球菌的存活。我们在这里证明，神经鞘氨醇可以靶向细胞内细菌，因此可能在细胞内发挥直接杀菌作用。
