Maternal Toxoplasma gondii infection affects proliferation, differentiation and cell cycle regulation of retinal neural progenitor cells in mouse embryo

BackgroundToxoplasmosis affects one third of the world population and has the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii as etiological agent. Congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) can cause severe damage to the fetus, including miscarriages, intracranial calcification, hydrocephalus and retinochoroiditis. Severity of CT depends on the gestational period in which infection occurs, and alterations at the cellular level during retinal development have been reported. In this study, we proposed a mouse CT model to investigate the impact of infection on retinal development.MethodsPregnant females of pigmented C57BL/6 strain mice were infected intragastrically with two T. gondii cysts (ME49 strain) at embryonic day 10 (E10), and the offspring were analyzed at E18.ResultsInfected embryos had significantly smaller body sizes and weights than the PBS-treated controls, indicating that embryonic development was affected. In the retina, a significant increase in the number of Ki-67-positive cells (marker of proliferating cells) was found in the apical region of the NBL of infected mice compared to the control. Supporting this, cell cycle proteins Cyclin D3, Cdk6 and pChK2 were significantly altered in infected retinas. Interestingly, the immunohistochemical analysis showed a significant increase in the population of β-III-tubulin-positive cells, one of the earliest markers of neuronal differentiation.ConclusionsOur data suggests that CT affects cell cycle progression in retinal progenitor cells, possibly inducing the arrest of these cells at G2/M phase. Such alterations could influence the differentiation, anticipating/increasing neuronal maturation, and therefore leading to abnormal retinal formation. Our model mimics important events observed in ocular CT

Actin-microtubule cytoskeletal interplay mediated by MRTF-A/SRF signaling promotes dilated cardiomyopathy caused by LMNA mutations

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Mutations in the lamin A/C gene (LMNA) cause dilated cardiomyopathy associated with increased activity of ERK1/2 in the heart. We recently showed that ERK1/2 phosphorylates cofilin-1 on threonine 25 (phospho(T25)-cofilin-1) that in turn disassembles the actin cytoskeleton. Here, we show that in muscle cells carrying a cardiomyopathy-causing LMNA mutation, phospho(T25)-cofilin-1 binds to myocardin-related transcription factor A (MRTF-A) in the cytoplasm, thus preventing the stimulation of serum response factor (SRF) in the nucleus. Inhibiting the MRTF-A/SRF axis leads to decreased α-tubulin acetylation by reducing the expression of ATAT1 gene encoding α-tubulin acetyltransferase 1. Hence, tubulin acetylation is decreased in cardiomyocytes derived from male patients with LMNA mutations and in heart and isolated cardiomyocytes from Lmnap.H222P/H222P male mice. In Atat1 knockout mice, deficient for acetylated α-tubulin, we observe left ventricular dilation and mislocalization of Connexin 43 (Cx43) in heart. Increasing α-tubulin acetylation levels in Lmnap.H222P/H222P mice with tubastatin A treatment restores the proper localization of Cx43 and improves cardiac function. In summary, we show for the first time an actin-microtubule cytoskeletal interplay mediated by cofilin-1 and MRTF-A/SRF, promoting the dilated cardiomyopathy caused by LMNA mutations. Our findings suggest that modulating α-tubulin acetylation levels is a feasible strategy for improving cardiac function.Peer reviewe

Recent Developments in the Interactions Between Caveolin and Pathogens

The role of caveolin and caveolae in the pathogenesis of infection has only recently been appreciated. In this chapter, we have highlighted some important new data on the role of caveolin in infections due to bacteria, viruses and fungi but with particular emphasis on the protozoan parasites Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma cruzi and Toxoplasma gondii. This is a continuing area of research and the final chapter has not been written on this topic

Interação Trypanosoma cruzi - célula hospedeira: danos moleculares e celulares e o efeito de amiodarona na recuperação de cardiomiócitos infectados

Submitted by Anderson Silva ([email protected]) on 2012-11-26T15:43:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 daniel_a_p_martins_ioc_bcm_0024_2010.pdf: 10130276 bytes, checksum: 596c01e9402f3b4dd80395ef8bc4aa50 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2012-11-26T15:43:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 daniel_a_p_martins_ioc_bcm_0024_2010.pdf: 10130276 bytes, checksum: 596c01e9402f3b4dd80395ef8bc4aa50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho. Departamento de Neurobiologia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ,BrasilA doença de Chagas é causada pelo protozoário Trypanosoma cruzi sendo a principal causa de morbi-mortalidade entre as cardiopatias na América Latina, onde é endêmica. No presente trabalho nós utilizamos modelos experimentais tais como cultivo celular e infecção de camundongos albinos para avaliar aspectos relacionados à patogênese desta doença. Primeiramente utilizamos a técnica de microarranjos de oligonucleotídeos para determinar as diferentes assinaturas transcriptômicas induzidas por quatro diferentes cepas de T. cruzi em uma linhagem de células musculares. Neste trabalho, verificamos que os genes alterados significativamente nas células infectadas (p<0,05) foram diferentes para cada cepa e apenas 21 sofreram a mesma alteração nas quatro cepas estudadas. No entanto, mioblastos apresentaram assinaturas transcriptômicas únicas após infecção pelas quatro cepas de T. cruzi utilizadas. Estes resultados indicam que a infecção com diferentes cepas do parasito modula vias similares, porém não idênticas, nas células hospedeiras. Em seguida analisamos o impacto da infecção de cardiomiócitos murinos na expressão de caveolina-3 (Cav-3), proteína formadora das cavéolas, importantes para a manutenção da homeostase de cálcio intracelular e envolvida em processos de hipertrofia cardíaca. A infecção in vitro e in vivo por T. cruzi induziu redução significativa (p<0,05) nos níveis de Cav-3. Esta redução foi acompanhada pela ativação da quinase regulada por sinal extracelular (ERK), majoritariamente envolvida no processo de remodelamento e hipertrofia cardíacos, sugerindo a participação desta via de sinalização na patogênese da doença de Chagas. Por último, avaliamos a capacidade tripanocida do composto antiarrítmico amiodarona em culturas de cardiomiócitos infectadas. Este composto apresentou atividade seletiva anti-T. cruzi, promovendo danos ultra-estruturais às formas amastigotas intracelulares e a recuperação da célula hospedeira, incluindo restabelecimento do citoesqueleto de actina e junções comunicantes, além da contratilidade espontânea das culturas. O conjunto de dados gerado com esta tese traz importantes avanços para o entendimento do estabelecimento da doença de Chagas cardíaca e novas opções para o tratamento etiológico desta doença negligenciada.Chagas’disease is caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and is the main cause of morbidity and mortality by heart problems in endemic countries in Latin America. In the present work we employed as experimental models cell cultures and murine experimental infection to evaluate aspects related to the pathogenesis of this disease. In the first part we determined through oligonucleotide microarrays the transcriptomic signatures induced in a myoblast cell line by four reference T. cruzi strains. We observed that the significantly altered (p<0.05) genes differed for each strain studied and only 21 suffered changes in the same direction in all four strains. However, infected myoblasts presented proportional alterations in the the overall transcriptome. These results indicate that the infection with distinct strains modulate similar, but not identical, pathways in the host cell. Next we analyzed the impact of T. cruzi infection on cardiac caveolin-3 (Cav-3) expression, which has an important role in the maintenance of intracellular calcium homeostasis and is also involved in cardiac hypertrophy pathways. Both in vitro and in vivo infection induced a significant reduction of Cav-3 levels. This reduction was followed by the activation of extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), which plays a major role in cardiac remodeling and hypertrophy, suggesting that this pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of Chagas’ heart disease. Finally we tested the tripanocidal potential of the anti-arrhythmic drug amiodarone in infected cultures of cardiac myocytes. This compound displayed a selective anti-T. cruzi activity, inducing ultrastructural alterations in intracellular amastigotes and promoted host cell recovery with actin cytoskeleton and gap junction reassembly, followed by restoration of the spontaneous contractility. The data generated in this work bring important advances into the understanding of Chagas heart disease establishment and also a new option for the etiological treatment of this neglected disease

Interação Trypanosoma cruzi - célula hospedeira: danos moleculares e celulares e o efeito de amiodarona na recuperação de cardiomiócitos infectados

A doença de Chagas é causada pelo protozoário Trypanosoma cruzi sendo a principal causa de morbi-mortalidade entre as cardiopatias na América Latina, onde é endêmica. No presente trabalho nós utilizamos modelos experimentais tais como cultivo celular e infecção de camundongos albinos para avaliar aspectos relacionados à patogênese desta doença. Primeiramente utilizamos a técnica de microarranjos de oligonucleotídeos para determinar as diferentes assinaturas transcriptômicas induzidas por quatro diferentes cepas de T. cruzi em uma linhagem de células musculares. Neste trabalho, verificamos que os genes alterados significativamente nas células infectadas (p<0,05) foram diferentes para cada cepa e apenas 21 sofreram a mesma alteração nas quatro cepas estudadas. No entanto, mioblastos apresentaram assinaturas transcriptômicas únicas após infecção pelas quatro cepas de T. cruzi utilizadas. Estes resultados indicam que a infecção com diferentes cepas do parasito modula vias similares, porém não idênticas, nas células hospedeiras. Em seguida analisamos o impacto da infecção de cardiomiócitos murinos na expressão de caveolina-3 (Cav-3), proteína formadora das cavéolas, importantes para a manutenção da homeostase de cálcio intracelular e envolvida em processos de hipertrofia cardíaca. A infecção in vitro e in vivo por T. cruzi induziu redução significativa (p<0,05) nos níveis de Cav-3. Esta redução foi acompanhada pela ativação da quinase regulada por sinal extracelular (ERK), majoritariamente envolvida no processo de remodelamento e hipertrofia cardíacos, sugerindo a participação desta via de sinalização na patogênese da doença de Chagas. Por último, avaliamos a capacidade tripanocida do composto antiarrítmico amiodarona em culturas de cardiomiócitos infectadas. Este composto apresentou atividade seletiva anti-T. cruzi, promovendo danos ultra-estruturais às formas amastigotas intracelulares e a recuperação da célula hospedeira, incluindo restabelecimento do citoesqueleto de actina e junções comunicantes, além da contratilidade espontânea das culturas. O conjunto de dados gerado com esta tese traz importantes avanços para o entendimento do estabelecimento da doença de Chagas cardíaca e novas opções para o tratamento etiológico desta doença negligenciada.Chagas’disease is caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and is the main cause of morbidity and mortality by heart problems in endemic countries in Latin America. In the present work we employed as experimental models cell cultures and murine experimental infection to evaluate aspects related to the pathogenesis of this disease. In the first part we determined through oligonucleotide microarrays the transcriptomic signatures induced in a myoblast cell line by four reference T. cruzi strains. We observed that the significantly altered (p<0.05) genes differed for each strain studied and only 21 suffered changes in the same direction in all four strains. However, infected myoblasts presented proportional alterations in the the overall transcriptome. These results indicate that the infection with distinct strains modulate similar, but not identical, pathways in the host cell. Next we analyzed the impact of T. cruzi infection on cardiac caveolin-3 (Cav-3) expression, which has an important role in the maintenance of intracellular calcium homeostasis and is also involved in cardiac hypertrophy pathways. Both in vitro and in vivo infection induced a significant reduction of Cav-3 levels. This reduction was followed by the activation of extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), which plays a major role in cardiac remodeling and hypertrophy, suggesting that this pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of Chagas’ heart disease. Finally we tested the tripanocidal potential of the anti-arrhythmic drug amiodarone in infected cultures of cardiac myocytes. This compound displayed a selective anti-T. cruzi activity, inducing ultrastructural alterations in intracellular amastigotes and promoted host cell recovery with actin cytoskeleton and gap junction reassembly, followed by restoration of the spontaneous contractility. The data generated in this work bring important advances into the understanding of Chagas heart disease establishment and also a new option for the etiological treatment of this neglected disease

Infection of mouse neural progenitor cells by <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> affects <i>in vitro</i> proliferation, differentiation and migration

ABSTRACTCongenital toxoplasmosis constitutes a major cause of pre- and post-natal complications. Fetal infection with Toxoplasma gondii influences development and can lead to microcephaly, encephalitis, and neurological abnormalities. Few studies have attempted to explain the impact of T. gondii infection on the physiology of mature nerve cells, and no systematic study concerning the effect of infection of neural progenitor cells by T. gondii in the biology of these progenitors is available. We infected cortical intermediate progenitor cell cultivated as neurospheres obtained from E16.5 Swiss Webster mice with T. gondii (Me49 strain) tachyzoites to mimic the developing mouse cerebral cortex in vitro. Infection decreased cell proliferation as detected by Ki67 staining at 48 and 72 hours post infection (hpi) in floating neurospheres, resulting in reduced cellularity at 96 hpi. Neurogenic and gliogenic potential, assessed in plated neurospheres, was shown to be impaired in infected cultures, as indicated by neurofilament heavy chain (NF-200) and GFAP staining, respectively. To further investigate the impact of infection on neuronal differentiation, Neuro2a neuroblasts were infected and after 24 hpi, neurogenic differentiation was induced with serum withdrawal. We confirmed that infection induces a decrease in neuroblast-neuron differentiation rates in cells stained for NF-200, with reduced neuritogenesis. Migration rates were analyzed in plated neurospheres. At 120 h after plating, infected cultures exhibited decreased overall migration rates and altered the radial migration of nestin-, GFAP- and NF-200-positive cells. These findings indicate that T. gondii infection of neural progenitor cells may lead to reduced neuro/gliogenesis due to an imbalance in cell proliferation alongside an altered migratory profile. If translated to the in vivo situation, these data could explain, in part, the cortical malformations observed in congenitally infected individuals.</jats:p

Infection of mouse neural progenitor cells by Toxoplasma gondii affects in vitro proliferation, differentiation and migration

Congenital toxoplasmosis constitutes a major cause of pre- and post-natal complications. Fetal infection with Toxoplasma gondii influences development and can lead to microcephaly, encephalitis, and neurological abnormalities. Few studies have attempted to explain the impact of T. gondii infection on the physiology of mature nerve cells, and no systematic study concerning the effect of infection of neural progenitor cells by T. gondii in the biology of these progenitors is available. We infected cortical intermediate progenitor cell cultivated as neurospheres obtained from E16.5 Swiss Webster mice with T. gondii (Me49 strain) tachyzoites to mimic the developing mouse cerebral cortex in vitro. Infection decreased cell proliferation as detected by Ki67 staining at 48 and 72 hours post infection (hpi) in floating neurospheres, resulting in reduced cellularity at 96 hpi. Neurogenic and gliogenic potential, assessed in plated neurospheres, was shown to be impaired in infected cultures, as indicated by neurofilament heavy chain (NF-200) and GFAP staining, respectively. To further investigate the impact of infection on neuronal differentiation, Neuro2a neuroblasts were infected and after 24 hpi, neurogenic differentiation was induced with serum withdrawal. We confirmed that infection induces a decrease in neuroblast-neuron differentiation rates in cells stained for NF-200, with reduced neuritogenesis. Migration rates were analyzed in plated neurospheres. At 120 h after plating, infected cultures exhibited decreased overall migration rates and altered the radial migration of nestin-, GFAP- and NF-200- positive cells. These findings indicate that T. gondii infection of neural progenitor cells may lead to reduced neuro/gliogenesis due to an imbalance in cell proliferation alongside an altered migratory profile. If translated to the in vivo situation, these data could explain, in part, the cortical malformations observed in congenitally infected individuals

Trypanosoma cruzi down-regulates mechanosensitive proteins in cardiomyocytes

Submitted by Sandra Infurna ([email protected]) on 2019-11-28T14:28:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DanielAdesse_MirianCPereira_etal_IOC_2019.pdf: 12985927 bytes, checksum: a2a1054330d0181da5d8c32fab131abd (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Sandra Infurna ([email protected]) on 2019-11-28T14:38:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DanielAdesse_MirianCPereira_etal_IOC_2019.pdf: 12985927 bytes, checksum: a2a1054330d0181da5d8c32fab131abd (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2019-11-28T14:38:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DanielAdesse_MirianCPereira_etal_IOC_2019.pdf: 12985927 bytes, checksum: a2a1054330d0181da5d8c32fab131abd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Ultraestrutura Celular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Biologia Estrutural. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Ultraestrutura Celular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Ultraestrutura Celular. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Cardiac physiology depends on coupling and electrical and mechanical coordination through the intercalated disc. Focal adhesions offer mechanical support and signal transduction events during heart contraction-relaxation processes. Talin links integrins to the actin cytoskeleton and serves as a scaffold for the recruitment of other proteins, such as paxillin in focal adhesion formation and regulation. Chagasic cardiomyopathy is caused by infection by Trypanosoma cruzi and is a debilitating condition comprising extensive fibrosis, inflammation, cardiac hypertrophy and electrical alterations that culminate in heart failure