title: Lipomannan and lipoarabinomannan from a clinical isolate of Mycobacterium kansasii: novel structural features and apoptosis-inducing properties.
abstract: Although Mycobacterium kansasii has emerged as an important pathogen frequently encountered in immunocompromised patients, little is known about the mechanisms of M. kansasii pathogenicity. Lipoarabinomannan (LAM), a major mycobacterial cell wall lipoglycan, is an important virulence factor for many mycobacteria, as it modulates the host immune response. Therefore, the detailed structures of the of M. kansasii LAM (KanLAM), as well as of its biosynthetic precursor lipomannan (KanLM), were determined in a clinical strain isolated from a human immunodeficiency virus-positive patient. Structural analyses revealed that these lipoglycans possess important differences as compared with those from other mycobacterial species. KanLAM carries a mannooligosaccharide cap but is devoid of the inositol phosphate cap present in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Characterization of the mannan core of KanLM and KanLAM demonstrated the following occurrences: 1) alpha1,2-oligo-mannopyranosyl side chains, contrasting with the single mannopyranosyl residues substituting the mannan core in all the other structures reported so far; and 2) 5-methylthiopentose residues that were described to substitute the arabinan moiety from Mycobacterium tuberculosis LAM. With respect to the arabinan domain of KanLAM, succinyl groups were found to substitute the C-3 position on 5-arabinofuranosyl residues, reported to be linked to the C-2 of the 3,5-arabinofuranose in Mycobacterium bovis bacillus calmette-guerin LAM. Because M. kansasii has been reported to induce apoptosis, we examined the possibility of the M. kansasii lipoglycans to induce apoptosis of THP-1 cells. Our results indicate that, in contrast to KanLAM, KanLM was a potent apoptosis-inducing factor. This work underlines the diversity of LAM structures among various pathogenic mycobacterial species and also provides evidence of LM being a potential virulence factor in M. kansasii infections by inducing apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, CNRS UMR8576, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guérardel
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Briken
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chirat
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Leroy
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Locht
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Strecker
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kremer
mesh_terms: D000631:Aminopyridines / Q000737:chemistry; D017209:Apoptosis; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D006679:HIV Seropositivity; D006801:Humans; D007295:Inositol Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000382:microbiology; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008745:Methylation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D019909:Mycobacterium kansasii / Q000378:metabolism*; D020102:Mycobacterium smegmatis / Q000378:metabolism; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
chemical_list: D000631:Aminopyridines; D007295:Inositol Phosphates; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D009844:Oligosaccharides; C050016:lipoarabinomannan; C064351:lipomannan; C032439:alpha-aminopyridine