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Haemophilus influenzae Survival during Complement-Mediated Attacks Is Promoted by Moraxella catarrhalis Outer Membrane Vesicles.

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Author

Summary, in English

Moraxella catarrhalis causes respiratory tract infections in children and in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is often isolated as a copathogen with Haemophilus influenzae. The underlying mechanism for this cohabitation is unclear. Here, in clinical specimens from a patient with M. catarrhalis infection, we document that outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) carrying ubiquitous surface protein (Usp) A1 and UspA2 (hereafter, UspA1/A2) were secreted. Further analyses revealed that OMVs isolated in vitro also contained UspA1/A2, which mediate interactions with, among other proteins, the third component of the complement system (C3). OMVs from M. catarrhalis wild-type clinical strains bound to C3 and counteracted the complement cascade to a larger extent than did OMVs without UspA1/A2. In contrast, UspA1/A2-deficient OMVs were significantly weaker inhibitors of complement-dependent killing of H. influenzae. Thus, our results suggest that a novel strategy exists in which pathogens collaborate to conquer innate immunity and that the M. catarrhalis vaccine candidates UspA1/A2 play a major role in this interaction.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

1661-1670

Publication/Series

Journal of Infectious Diseases

Volume

195

Issue

11

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Infectious Medicine

Status

Published

Research group

  • Clinical Microbiology, Malmö

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1537-6613