[PDF][PDF] Group B Streptococcus evades host immunity by degrading hyaluronan

SL Kolar, P Kyme, CW Tseng, A Soliman, A Kaplan… - Cell host & …, 2015 - cell.com
SL Kolar, P Kyme, CW Tseng, A Soliman, A Kaplan, J Liang, V Nizet, D Jiang, R Murali
Cell host & microbe, 2015cell.com
In response to tissue injury, hyaluronan (HA) polymers are cleaved by host hyaluronidases,
generating small fragments that ligate Toll-like receptors (TLRs) to elicit inflammatory
responses. Pathogenic bacteria such as group B Streptococcus (GBS) express and secrete
hyaluronidases as a mechanism for tissue invasion, but it is not known how this activity
relates to immune detection of HA. We found that bacterial hyaluronidases secreted by GBS
and other Gram-positive pathogens degrade pro-inflammatory HA fragments to their …
Summary
In response to tissue injury, hyaluronan (HA) polymers are cleaved by host hyaluronidases, generating small fragments that ligate Toll-like receptors (TLRs) to elicit inflammatory responses. Pathogenic bacteria such as group B Streptococcus (GBS) express and secrete hyaluronidases as a mechanism for tissue invasion, but it is not known how this activity relates to immune detection of HA. We found that bacterial hyaluronidases secreted by GBS and other Gram-positive pathogens degrade pro-inflammatory HA fragments to their component disaccharides. In addition, HA disaccharides block TLR2/4 signaling elicited by both host-derived HA fragments and other TLR2/4 ligands, including lipopolysaccharide. Application of GBS hyaluronidase or HA disaccharides reduced pulmonary pathology and pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in an acute lung injury model. We conclude that breakdown of host-generated pro-inflammatory HA fragments to disaccharides allows bacterial pathogens to evade immune detection and could be exploited as a strategy to treat inflammatory diseases.
cell.com