scholarly journals Virulent but not Avirulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Can Evade the Growth Inhibitory Action of a T Helper 1–dependent, Nitric Oxide Synthase 2–independent Defense in Mice

2002 ◽  
Vol 196 (7) ◽  
pp. 991-998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Jin Jung ◽  
Ronald LaCourse ◽  
Lynn Ryan ◽  
Robert J. North

Control of infection with virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in mice is dependent on the generation of T helper (Th)1-mediated immunity that serves, via secretion of interferon (IFN)-γ and other cytokines, to upregulate the antimycobacterial function of macrophages of which the synthesis of inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS)2 is an essential event. As a means to understanding the basis of Mtb virulence, the ability of gene-deleted mice incapable of making NOS2 (NOS2−/−), gp91Phox subunit of the respiratory burst NADPH-oxidase complex (Phox−/−), or either enzyme (NOS2/Phox−/−), to control airborne infection with the avirulent R1Rv and H37Ra strains of Mtb was compared with their ability control infection with the virulent H37Rv strain. NOS2−/−, Phox−/−, and NOS2/Phox−/− mice showed no deficiency in ability to control infection with either strain of avirulent Mtb. By contrast, NOS2−/− mice, but not Phox−/− mice, were incapable of controlling H37Rv infection and died early from neutrophil-dominated lung pathology. Control of infection with avirulent, as well as virulent Mtb, depended on the synthesis of IFN-γ, and was associated with a substantial increase in the synthesis in the lungs of mRNA for IFN-γ and NOS2, and with production of NOS2 by macrophages at sites of infection. The results indicate that virulent, but not avirulent, Mtb can overcome the growth inhibitory action of a Th1–dependent, NOS2-independent mechanism of defense.

2000 ◽  
Vol 68 (12) ◽  
pp. 6879-6882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea M. Cooper ◽  
John E. Pearl ◽  
Jason V. Brooks ◽  
Stefan Ehlers ◽  
Ian M. Orme

ABSTRACT The interleukin-12 and gamma interferon (IFN-γ) pathway of macrophage activation plays a pivotal role in controlling tuberculosis. In the murine model, the generation of supplementary nitric oxide by the induction of the nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) gene product is considered the principal antimicrobial mechanism of IFN-γ-activated macrophages. Using a low-dose aerosol-mediated infection model in the mouse, we have investigated the role of nitric oxide in controllingMycobacterium tuberculosis in the lung. In contrast to the consequences of a systemic infection, a low dose of bacteria introduced directly into the lungs of mice lacking the NOS2 gene is controlled almost as well as in intact animals. This is in contrast to the rapid progression of disease in mice lacking IFN-γ or a key member of the IFN signaling pathway, interferon regulatory factor 1. Thus while IFN-γ is pivotal in early control of bacterial growth in the lung, this control does not completely depend upon the expression of the NOS2 gene. The absence of inducible nitric oxide in the lung does, however, result in increased polymorphonuclear cell involvement and eventual necrosis in the pulmonary granulomas of the infected mice lacking the NOS2 gene.


1996 ◽  
Vol 183 (5) ◽  
pp. 2293-2302 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Nicholson ◽  
M da G Bonecini-Almeida ◽  
J R Lapa e Silva ◽  
C Nathan ◽  
Q W Xie ◽  
...  

The high-output pathway of nitric oxide production helps protect mice from infection by several pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, based on studies of cells cultured from blood, it is controversial whether human mononuclear phagocytes can express the corresponding inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS;NOS2). The present study examined alveolar macrophages fixed directly after bronchopulmonary lavage. An average of 65% of the macrophages from 11 of 11 patients with untreated, culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis reacted with an antibody documented herein to be monospecific for human NOS2. In contrast, a mean of 10% of bronchoalveolar lavage cells were positive from each of five clinically normal subjects. Tuberculosis patients' macrophages displayed diaphorase activity in the same proportion that they stained for NOS2, under assay conditions wherein the diaphorase reaction was strictly dependent on NOS2 expression. Bronchoalveolar lavage specimens also contained NOS2 mRNA. Thus, macrophages in the lungs of people with clinically active Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection often express catalytically competent NOS2.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 774-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiong Wang ◽  
Dale A. Pelligrino ◽  
Verna L. Baughman ◽  
Heidi M. Koenig ◽  
Ronald F. Albrecht

The nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitors, nitro-L-arginine, its methyl ester, and N-monomethyl-L-arginine, have been shown to attenuate resting CBF and hypercapnia-induced cerebrovasodilation. Those agents nonspecifically inhibit the endothelial and neuronal NOS (eNOS and nNOS). In the present study, we used a novel nNOS inhibitor, 7-nitroindazole (7-NI) to examine the role of nNOS in CBF during normocapnia and hypercapnia in fentanyl/N2O-anesthetized rats. CBF was monitored using laser-Doppler flowmetry. Administration of 7-NI (80 mg kg−1 i.p.) reduced cortical brain NOS activity by 57%, the resting CBF by 19–27%, and the CBF response to hypercapnia by 60%. The 60% reduction was similar in magnitude to the CBF reductions observed in previous studies in which nonspecific NOS inhibitors were used. In the present study, 7-NI did not increase the MABP. Furthermore, the CBF response to oxotremorine, a blood–brain barrier permeant muscarinic agonist that induces cerebrovasodilation via endothelium-derived NO, was unaffected by 7-NI. These results confirmed that 7-NI does not influence eNOS; they also indicated that the effects of 7-NI on the resting CBF and on the CBF response to hypercapnia in this study were solely related to its inhibitory action on nNOS. The results further suggest that the NO synthesized by the action of nNOS participates in regulation of basal CBF and is the major, if not the only, category of NO contributing to the hypercapnic CBF response.


2004 ◽  
Vol 72 (11) ◽  
pp. 6666-6675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Brennan ◽  
Kasi Russell ◽  
Guoquan Zhang ◽  
James E. Samuel

ABSTRACT Host control of Coxiella burnetii infections is believed to be mediated primarily by activated monocytes/macrophages. The activation of macrophages by cytokines leads to the production of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) and reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) that have potent antimicrobial activities. The contributions of ROI and RNI to the inhibition of C. burnetii replication were examined in vitro by the use of murine macrophage-like cell lines and primary mouse macrophages. A gamma interferon (IFN-γ) treatment of infected cell lines and primary macrophages resulted in an increased production of nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and a significant inhibition of C. burnetii replication. The inhibition of replication was reversed in the murine cell line J774.16 upon the addition of either the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibitor NG-monomethyl-l-arginine (NGMMLA) or the H2O2 scavenger catalase. IFN-γ-treated primary macrophages from iNOS−/− and p47phox−/− mice significantly inhibited replication but were less efficient at controlling infection than IFN-γ-treated wild-type macrophages. To investigate the contributions of ROI and RNI to resistance to infection, we performed in vivo studies, using C57BL/6 wild-type mice and knockout mice lacking iNOS or p47phox. Both iNOS−/− and p47phox−/− mice were attenuated in the ability to control C. burnetii infection compared to wild-type mice. Together, these results strongly support a role for both RNI and ROI in the host control of C. burnetii infection.


Pteridines ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-96
Author(s):  
Stephan Leitner ◽  
Georg Golderer ◽  
Christiana Winkler ◽  
Dietmar Fuchs ◽  
Gabriele Werner-Felmayer ◽  
...  

AbstractWe investigated a possible involvement of nitric oxide formed by inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the signaling cascade leading to growth inhibition and differentiation in the human neuroblastoma cell line SK-NSII. Treatment of SK-N-SH with interferon-γ (IFN-γ) plus interleukin-lß (IL-lß) led to induction of iNOS, growth inhibition and an altered cell shape. However two inhibitors of iNOS were not able to prevent cytokine induced changes. In addition, IFN-γ alone led to growth inhibition in absence of iNOS induction. Inhibition of the induced indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) activity also did not prevent growth inhibition. Our findings show that mechanisms other than NO and IDO can control interferon-y-induced growth inhibition of SK-N-SH cells.


2001 ◽  
Vol 194 (12) ◽  
pp. 1847-1859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Ehlers ◽  
Jochen Benini ◽  
Heinz-Dieter Held ◽  
Christiane Roeck ◽  
Gottfried Alber ◽  
...  

The immunological basis of tuberculin-induced necrosis, known for more than a century as “Koch's phenomenon,” remains poorly understood. Aerosol infection in mice with the highly virulent Mycobacterium avium strain TMC724 causes progressive pulmonary pathology strongly resembling caseating necrosis in human patients with tuberculosis. To identify the cellular and molecular mediators causing this pathology, we infected C57BL/6 mice and mice selectively deficient in recombinase activating gene (RAG)-1, αβ T cell receptor (TCR), γδ TCR, CD4, CD8, β2-microglobulin, interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-10, IL-12p35, IL-12p35/p40, or iNOS with M. avium by aerosol and compared bacterial multiplication, histopathology, and respiratory physiology in these mice. The bacterial load in the lung was similarly high in all mouse groups. Pulmonary compliance, as a surrogate marker for granulomatous infiltrations in the lung, deteriorated to a similar extent in all groups of mice, except in αβ TCR-knockout (KO) and IL-12–KO mice in which compliance was higher, and in IFN-γ and inducible nitric oxide synthase–KO mice in which compliance was reduced faster. Progressive caseation of pulmonary granulomas never occurred in αβ TCR-KO, IL-12–KO, and IFN-γ–KO mice and was reduced in CD4-KO mice. In summary, αβ TCR+ cells and IFN-γ are essential for the development of mycobacteria-induced pulmonary caseous necrosis. In contrast, high mycobacterial load and extensive granulomatous infiltration per se are not sufficient to cause caseation, nor is granuloma necrosis linked to the induction of nitric oxide.


2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 685-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Opa Vajragupta ◽  
Chantana Boonyarat ◽  
Yukihisa Murakami ◽  
Michihisa Tohda ◽  
Kinzo Musatmoto ◽  
...  

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