A truncated lipoglycan from mycobacteria with altered immunological properties.
Maintenance of cell-wall integrity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is essential and is the target of several antitubercular drugs. For example, ethambutol targets arabinogalactan and lipoarabinomannan (LAM) biosynthesis through the inhibition of several arabinofuranosyltransferases. Apart from their role in cell-wall integrity, mycobacterial LAMs also exhibit important immunomodulatory activities. Here we report the isolation and detailed structural characterization of a unique LAM molecule derived from Mycobacterium smegmatis deficient in the arabinofuranosyltransferase AftC (AftC-LAM). This mutant LAM expresses a severely truncated arabinan domain completely devoid of 3,5-Araf-branching residues, revealing an intrinsic involvement of AftC in the biosynthesis of LAM. Furthermore, we found that ethambutol efficiently inhibits biosynthesis of the AftC-LAM arabinan core, unambiguously demonstrating the involvement of the arabinofuranosyltransferase EmbC in early stages of LAM-arabinan biosynthesis. Finally, we demonstrate that AftC-LAM exhibits an enhanced proinflammatory activity, which is due to its ability to activate Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). Overall, our efforts further describe the mechanism of action of an important antitubercular drug, ethambutol, and demonstrate a role for specific arabinofuranosyltransferases in LAM biosynthesis. In addition, the availability of sufficient amounts of chemically defined wild-type and isogenic truncated LAMs paves the way for further investigations of the structure-function relationship of TLR2 activation by mycobacterial lipoglycans.
School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
Helen L
HL
Birch
Luke J
LJ
Alderwick
Ben J
BJ
Appelmelk
Janneke
J
Maaskant
Apoorva
A
Bhatt
Albel
A
Singh
Jerome
J
Nigou
Lothar
L
Eggeling
Jeroen
J
Geurtsen
Gurdyal S
GS
Besra
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002460:Cell Line; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D004977:Ethambutol / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D016209:Interleukin-8 / Q000378:metabolism; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D009154:Mutation; D020102:Mycobacterium smegmatis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010430:Pentosyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2 / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D000995:Antitubercular Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D016209:Interleukin-8; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; C495342:TLR2 protein, human; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; C050016:lipoarabinomannan; D004977:Ethambutol; D010430:Pentosyltransferases; C101967:arabinosyltransferase