The Journal of immunology : official journal of the American Association of Immunologists
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Listeria monocytogenes is a major cause of mortality resulting from food poisoning in the United States. In mice, C5 has been genetically linked to host resistance to listeriosis. Despite this genetic association, it remains poorly understood how C5 and its activation products, C5a and C5b, confer host protection to this Gram-positive intracellular bacterium. ⋯ Similarly, the expression of TRAIL, a type 1 IFN target gene and a proapoptotic factor, was elevated in NK cells isolated from infected C5aR1(-/-) mice. Treatment of C5aR1(-/-) mice with a type 1 IFNR blocking Ab resulted in near-complete rescue of L. monocytogenes-induced mortality. Thus, these findings reveal a critical role for C5aR1 in host defense against L. monocytogenes through the suppression of type 1 IFN expression.
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Bacterial infection and its associated sepsis are devastating clinical entities that lead to high mortality and morbidity in critically ill patients. Phagocytosis, along with other innate immune responses, exerts crucial impacts on the outcomes of these patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel class of regulatory noncoding RNAs that target specific mRNAs for modulation of translation and expression of a targeted protein. ⋯ Mechanistically, deletion of miR-15a/16 upregulated the expression of TLR4 via targeting the principle transcriptional regulator PU.1 locating on the promoter region of TLR4, and further modulated the downstream signaling molecules of TLR4, including Rho GTPase Cdc 42 and TRAF6. In addition, deficiency of miR-15a/16 also facilitated TLR4-mediated proinflammatory cytokine/chemokine release from BMDMs at the initial phase of infections. Taken together, miR-15a/16 altered phagocytosis and bacterial clearance by targeting, at least partially, on the TLR4-associated pathways, subsequently affecting the survival of septic mice.