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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 19, 20127-20136, May 7, 2004
Proteomic Analysis of the Intestinal Epithelial Cell Response to Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli*
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| ABSTRACT |
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13% are expressed differentially in the presence of TTSS-delivered EPEC effector proteins. We validated these data in silico and through immunoblotting and immunofluorescence microscopy. The identified changes extend cytoskeletal observations made in less relevant cell types and generate testable hypotheses with regard to host proteins potentially involved in EPEC-induced diarrhea. These data provide a framework for future biochemical analyses of host-pathogen interactions. | INTRODUCTION |
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The bacterial factors responsible for the formation of attaching/effacing lesions and diarrheal disease are produced and regulated by a pathogenicity island described as the locus of enterocyte effacement (2). The locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) encodes a Type III secretion system (TTSS), a cellular receptor, numerous secreted/translocated proteins, and over 20 open reading frames of unknown function. The TTSS is a molecular syringe that directs the active transport of proteins from the bacterial cytoplasm across the inner and outer bacterial membranes, directly into the cytoplasm of an associated eukaryotic cell (3). TTSSs are widely conserved among a diverse array of animal and plant pathogens and critical for their virulence.
Of major interest is the TTSS-specific response of human intestinal epithelial cells to EPEC infection. Previous research has focused primarily on morphological changes to the host as inferred from immunostaining. Particular interest has developed in the elucidation of host components contributing to pedestal formation. Transcriptional profiling of the host has been attempted, although not yet in a relevant cell type (4). A fundamental understanding of how the intestinal epithelial proteome is altered by this pathogen and its TTSS effector proteins is needed, as few host pathways have been examined.
We therefore undertook a quantitative analysis of the proteome of polarized Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells infected with either wild-type or TTSS-deficient EPEC. Microcapillary liquid chromatography combined with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI µLC-MS/MS) identifies proteins from mixtures without prior electrophoretic separation. Labeling of protein lysates prior to µLC-MS/MS with isotope-coded affinity tags (ICAT) specific to sulfhydryl groups greatly reduces sample complexity, allows detection of low abundance proteins, and aids in quantification of relative protein abundance between samples (5). We employed ICAT technology to both identify and quantify TTSS-dependent alterations to host protein expression, performed in silico validation, and further confirmed our results through immunoblotting and immunofluorescence microscopy. We discuss the predominant functional categories of differentially regulated proteins and their implications to the future study of EPEC-host interactions and present novel testable hypotheses about newly identified host proteins and their potential role in diarrhea.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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escN (7). Cell CultureHuman Caco-2 cells (8) were grown at 37 °C, 5% CO2, in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% decomplemented fetal calf serum, and 1% non-essential amino acids. Cells were cultured in 24-mm diameter polyester Transwell plates (Costar) for at least 21 days prior to infection.
Infections and Protein PreparationBacterial cultures grown overnight were subcultured 1:50 into Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium and grown for 3 h at 37 °C, 5% CO2, without shaking. Bacteria were applied to Caco-2 cells for 4 h at a multiplicity of infection of 50:1. Following infection, the media was aspirated and cells were washed 8 times with PBS. Cells were lysed in 500 µl of 1% Triton X-100 in PBS and centrifuged at 12,000 x g for 5 min. The supernatant was transferred to 5 volumes of cold acetone, precipitated, and resuspended in 0.1% SDS, 6 M urea.
ICAT Labeling and AnalysisCaco-2 lysates were labeled as described in the Supplementary Materials. SEQUESTTM (Thermo Finnigan) was used to sequence the peptides and XPRESS (9) software was used to perform relative quantitation between light and heavy ICAT-tagged peptides. PeptideProphetTM (10) was used to verify correctness of peptide assignments.
Western Blot AnalysisSamples for Western blot analysis were resolved by SDS-PAGE and analyzed as described in Ref. 7. The following antibodies were utilized at a dilution of 1:1000: calpain-5 (BD Biosciences), caspase-7 (New England Biolabs), dynactin (BD Biosciences), dynamin (BD Biosciences), espin (BD Biosciences), integrin-linked protein kinase (New England Biolabs), Nod2 (Immunologicalsdirect.com), Rac1 (New England Biolabs), and talin (Sigma).
ImmunofluorescenceHeLa cells were grown on glass coverslips in 24-well tissue culture plates and infected for 4 h with 5.0 µl of bacterial overnight culture. After infection, cells were washed 3 times in PBS containing Ca2+ and Mg2+ and fixed in 2.5% paraformaldehyde in PBS for 10 min at room temperature. Cells were permeabilized in 0.1% saponin in PBS, blocked in 5% goat serum in PBS + 0.1% saponin, and incubated with the following primary antibodies diluted 1:1000 in blocking solution for 1 h at room temperature: integrin-linked protein kinase, talin, and calpain-5.
| RESULTS |
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escN; N-). Caco-2 lysates prepared after 4 h infection were differentially ICAT labeled (Fig. 1 and supporting text), and analyzed by microcapillary high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (µLC-MS/MS) (9). Relative protein abundance was determined by the ratio of signal intensities of peptide pairs using the XPRESS software tool (9). The sequence identity of the proteins in the sample was determined by correlating collision-induced dissociation mass spectra with the NCBI protein data base using the SEQUEST algorithm (12).
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13%) displayed at least 2-fold expression differences between wt- and N--infected cells (Table I). Approximately equal numbers of proteins were up- versus down-regulated. We used the bioinformatics tool GoMiner (13) to classify the differentially regulated Caco-2 proteins into functional categories based on the functional annotations assigned to these proteins (14) (Table II).
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Protein identification, abundance analysis, and validation are performed by searching each MS/MS spectrum against a data base of human protein sequences using SEQUEST. Supplementary Materials Fig. 2A displays MS/MS data derived from the fragmentation of a peptide ion unique to the cysteine protease calpain-5. Calpain-5 is instrumental for brush border effacement during EPEC pathogenesis and recruits ezrin to the brush border (17). Confidence assignments were made in PeptideProphetTM based on how closely the observed mass spectra matched the theoretical fragmentation profile (18). XPRESS software then separates the single-ion current profile of the d0- and d9-labeled peptides and calculates a peptide relative abundance ratio based on integrated peak areas. For calpain-5, the abundance ratio was 4.6 (wt:N-; Supplemental Materials Fig. 2B).
To assess the correspondence of these data with independent assays of protein abundance, we performed Western blot analysis of numerous host proteins for which we detected TTSS-dependent differential expression (Fig. 3). Caco-2 monolayers were infected with either wt or N- for 26 h and subjected to immunoblotting. Calpain-5 expression increased significantly between 2 and 4 h in cells infected with wt, whereas expression remained low in cells infected with N- (Fig. 3A). The relative difference in expression was estimated to be 68-fold, similar to the abundance ratio derived from ICAT analysis. We also examined the expression profile of ADAMTS-1, a metalloproteinase involved in proteoglycan degradation (19). ADAMTS-1 expression was not detected in wt cells by immunoblotting, but was strongly expressed in N--infected cells (Fig. 3B).
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We also used immunofluorescence microscopy to visualize the expression of Caco-2 proteins measured by ICAT to be differentially regulated during infection. HeLa cells were infected with either wt or N-, fixed, and stained against calpain-5, integrin-linked kinase (ILK), and talin (Supplementary Materials Fig. 3). After staining, exposure under identical conditions revealed that, as expected, calpain-5 expression was increased in wt-relative to N--infected cells. Surprisingly, we observed co-localization of ILK with actin (middle row), implicating this important signaling molecule as part of the EPEC pedestal. We also observed the expected increased expression and co-localization of talin with actin pedestals (bottom row).
| DISCUSSION |
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EPEC PedestalTir, a TTSS-translocated protein, initiates pedestal formation by binding the Nck adaptor protein. N-WASP is recruited, which then binds Arp2/3, resulting in de novo actin polymerization (21). We identified 12 of the 20 known pedestal components (15). It is striking that 92% of identified pedestal proteins are expressed more highly in wt- versus N--infected cells, underscoring the importance of TTSS-encoded effector proteins in establishing a cytoskeletal framework for EPEC.
The cytoskeletal protein talin couples integrins to F-actin, and also binds vinculin, a protein implicated in the negative regulation of cell motility. The attachment of Shigella flexneri to Chinese hamster ovary cells (22) elicits localized accumulation of talin, and the Yersinia enterocolitica invasin protein modulates reorganization of talin (23). In our experiments, talin expression was strongly up-regulated in wt-infected cells, and was recruited to EPEC pedestals (Supplemental Materials Fig. 3).
Cofilin and gelsolin are actin-severing components of the EPEC pedestal that were overexpressed in wt-infected cells. Cofilin has been implicated in phagocytosis (24) and both interact with and enhance the activity of the Na+,K+-ATPase, providing a link between the cytoskeleton and ion transporter activity (25). The increased abundance of actin depolymerizing agents in the pedestal suggests a complex molecular warfare between the host and a TTSS-effector protein capable of inactivating these potent depolymerizing activities.
We detected numerous other actin-binding proteins not previously implicated in EPEC pedestals whose expression was regulated in a TTSS-dependent manner (Table II). Notably, the expression of the integrin-linked kinase 2 (ILK2) was localized to pedestals, but down-regulated in wt-infected cells (Table II and Supplemental Materials Fig. 3). ILK is a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-dependent regulator of integrin-mediated cell adhesion and has recently been implicated in tumor angiogenesis (26). The host tyrosine kinase that EPEC recruits in actin pedestal formation has recently been suggested (16). It is of note that this kinase, c-Abl, was overexpressed in wt-infected cells.
Ion Transport/DiarrheaThe molecular mechanism(s) by which EPEC induces diarrhea are unknown, although several are proposed. Microvilli effacement may reduce nutrient absorption, but cannot explain the rapid kinetics of diarrheal onset (27). We found that calpain-5, a host protease involved in brush border effacement (17), was strongly up-regulated (Supplemental Materials Figs. 2 and 3), whereas the brush border dipeptidylpeptidase IV (28) was down-regulated. Sequestration of tight junctional proteins (e.g. ezrin) to the pedestal may contribute to the disruption of tight junction integrity and decrease in transepithelial resistance (29).
Host cells infected with EPEC release nucleotide mediators capable of triggering chloride secretion from neighboring cells through interaction with purinergic receptors (30). Nucleotide release is not because of apoptosis and is TTSS-dependent, probably because of the effector protein EspF (31). We hypothesized that host nucleotide biosynthesis and degradation pathways would therefore be differentially expressed in a TTSS-dependent manner during wt infection. but were unable to find significant difference between wt- and N--infected cells.
Other studies have proposed a greater dependence of EPEC-induced diarrhea upon
secretion (32), and have also implicated calcium fluxes (33). We detected large increases in expression of both the bile salt export pump (34) and calcium-activated chloride channels implicated in regulation of mucin (35).
The Nedd4 binding protein 1 was up-regulated by a TTSS-dependent factor. Nedd4 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase important to the targeting of the epithelial sodium channels for endocytosis and degradation (36). The epithelial sodium channel regulates salt and fluid homeostasis and interacts with the WW domains of Nedd4 (37). Grb10, an adaptor protein known to associate with Nedd4 and sodium channels, was also up-regulated at both the transcriptional (38) and translational level. Thus, the proteasome-mediated degradation of specific ion transporters potentially contributes to EPEC-induced diarrhea.
The plasma membrane calcium-transporting ATPase was down-regulated by a TTSS-encoded factor. Bovine ileal loop experiments with Salmonella typhimurium have suggested that plasma membrane calcium-transporting ATPase down-regulation contributes to inflammation and diarrhea (39).
G-protein SignalingG-proteins play critical roles in cell signaling and cytoskeletal rearrangement and were over-represented in our dataset of TTSS-regulated host responses. Rho GTPases regulate actin structure, primarily at sites of membrane ruffling. EspH induces Cdc42-dependent filopodia formation (40) and the mitochondrial targeted effector, Map, has also been implicated in Cdc42-dependent processes (41). However, agents that inhibit Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 do not block pedestal formation (42). Therefore, other GTPases that have yet to be identified are likely important to EPEC pathogenesis. We identified numerous G proteins differentially regulated by TTSS-dependent factors that have not previously been implicated in bacterial pathogenesis.
Fgd1 was observed only in cells infected with wt, and encodes a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that activates Cdc42, a Rho GTPase that controls the organization of the actin cytoskeleton. Fgd1 also interacts directly with cortactin, a protein essential to pedestal formation. Abnormal Fgd1 localization results in actin cytoskeletal abnormalities and significant changes in cell shape and viability (43).
TC10, a down-regulated Rho GTPase, is involved in regulating the insulin-stimulated translocation of the glucose transporter GLUT4 (44). TC10 is also able to disrupt cortical actin and regulates actin polymerization on membrane transport vesicles.
Innate ImmunityWe discovered that a large number of proteins important to innate immune function are differentially regulated by TTSS-dependent factors. In cultured epithelial cells, EPEC activates NF-
B independent lipopolysaccharide stimulation (45). This factor then stimulates the transcription of interleukin-8, to recruit polymorphonuclear leukocytes to the site of infection. Microarray analysis of EPEC-infected HeLa cells demonstrated induction of the Egr-1 transcription factor, involved in mitogen-activated protein kinase activation (4). However, few other studies have examined TTSS-dependent stimulation of innate immunity during EPEC infection.
Collectin and ficolin expression were strongly up-regulated. Collectins recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (46) and assist in bacterial killing through complement activation and phagocytosis. Ficolins have affinity for N-acetylglucosamine, act as opsonins, and activate complement via the lectin pathway (47).
We hypothesized that EPEC effectors modulate the innate immune response by down-regulating expression of host proteins involved in bacterial recognition. Accordingly, we observed that Nod2 is down-regulated during wt infection. Nod2 regulates inflammatory responses (48) through recognition of the muramyl dipeptide of bacterial peptidoglycan (49). Transfection of a Nod2 expression plasmid into Caco-2 cells reduces the number of viable internalized S. typhimurium, suggesting an additional role for Nod2 as an antibacterial factor (50). Our data indicate that a TTSS-delivered EPEC effector may modulate the expression of this important innate immunity protein.
Our proteomic analysis of the Caco-2 host response to TTSS-encoded EPEC effectors has generated novel testable hypotheses about how this enteric human pathogen causes disease. The use of quantitative mass spectrometry obviates the need for cell fractionation and increases greatly the number of proteins that can be interrogated. Our results correspond closely with more traditional analyses of protein expression, as well as previous studies of the host response to enteric pathogens. It is important to emphasize that our experiments define expression ratios in cells infected with TTSS-competent versus -deficient EPEC strains. Direct quantitative comparison of host protein expression between infection conditions controls for nonspecific epithelial interactions with bacteria (e.g. lipopolysaccharide detection), although differences in adhesion and infection kinetics may contribute to a subset of the identified epithelial responses. Post-translational regulation of protein function must also be evaluated through other means. ICAT will facilitate comparison of the host response among both diverse pathogens and specific bacterial effector molecules. We are currently conducting RNA interference experiments to assess the importance of the differentially regulated Caco-2 proteins to EPEC pathogenesis.
| FOOTNOTES |
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The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains Supplemental Figs. S1S3. ![]()
|| Canadian Institutes of Health Research Distinguished Investigator and the Peter Wall Distinguished Professor. To whom correspondence should be addressed: Biotechnology Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Rm. 237 Wesbrook Bldg., 6174 University Blvd., Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada. Tel.: 604-822-2210; Fax: 604-822-9830; E-mail: bfinlay{at}interchange.ubc.ca.
1 The abbreviations used are: EPEC, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli; TTSS, type III secretion system; wt, EPEC E2348/69; N-, EPEC E2348/69
escN; ICAT, isotope-coded affinity tag; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; ILK, integrin-linked kinase. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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