A. pleuropneumoniae infection interferes the levels of APP in iPAMs and PAMs
To examine the expression of APP during A. pleuropneumoniae infection, iPAMs and PAMs were cultured and infected with A. pleuropneumoniae at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10, and cells were lysed in ice-cold RIPA buffer at different time points. APP levels first increased and then decreased (Fig. 1A, B).
Amyloid precursor protein upregulates IL-1β expression in A. pleuropneumoniae-infected porcine alveolar macrophages
Previous studies showed that APP upregulates IL-1β expression. To test whether APP is associated with IL-1β expression in iPAMs and PAMs, cells were transfected with plasmid pCAGGS-N-Flag encoding APP or siRNA against APP followed by infected with or without A. pleuropneumoniae. Cells and supernatants were collected at 3 h post infection. The expressions of IL-1β were determined by qRT-PCR.
The mRNA levels of IL-1β increased in APP overexpressing cells and A. pleuropneumoniae-infected APP overexpressing cells (Fig. 2A, B). The mRNA levels of IL-1β decreased in APP knockout iPAMs, APP knockdown PAMs and A. pleuropneumoniae-infected these cells (Fig. 2C, D).
Concentrations of IL-1β in the supernatants were determined by ELISA. Overexpressing APP promoted, but deleting or silencing APP inhibited, the secreation of IL-1β in cells infected with A. pleuropneumoniae (Fig. 2E-H). Overexpressing APP promoted the secreation of IL-1β in uninfected cells (Fig. 2E-F). No significant differences were observed between control cells and APP knockout or APP knockdown cells which uninfected with A. pleuropneumoniae (Fig. 2G-H).
A. pleuropneumoniae infection promotes APP cleavage in porcine alveolar macrophages
Previous studies showed that APP can be cleaved by different secretases to generate different fragments.
To investigate whether APP processing is altered during A. pleuropneumoniae infection, cells were transfected with APP-overexpression vector followed by infected with or without A. pleuropneumoniae. Results showed that the level of APP in infected cells was less than that of uninfected cells (Fig. 3A, B). The γ-secretase inhibitor (Semagacestat) was used to investigate whether the level of APP in infected cells decreased due to A. pleuropneumoniae infection promotes the cleavage of APP. Decreased APP levels in the infected cells was reversed in the presence of γ-secretase inhibitor (Fig. 3A, B).
A. pleuropneumoniae infection promotes APP cleavage and Aβ42 generation via increase β-secretase exprseeion in porcine alveolar macrophages
Before cleaved by γ-secretase, APP can be cleaved by α- or β-secretase. A disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 10 (ADAM10) is a key α-secretase. BACE1 is β-site APP cleaving enzyme (β-secretase). We measured ADAM10 and BACE1 mRNA levels in infected and uninfected cells. There was no significant difference in ADAM10 mRNA levels between infected and uninfected cells (Fig. 3C, E). The expression of BACE1 was increase in infected cells (Fig. 3D, F). LY2811376 is β-secretase inhibitor. The decreased APP levels of the infected cells were reversed in the presence of LY2811376 (Fig. 3G, H). These results indicate that A. pleuropneumoniae infection promotes APP cleavage by β-secretase.
Results showed that levels of Aβ42 increased in cell lysates and culture supernatants (Fig. 3I).
Aβ42 induce IL-1β expression in porcine alveolar macrophages through activation of NF-κB pathway
Aβ42 induce microglial activation and generation of IL-1β [22, 23].To investigate whether Aβ42 can induce IL-1β transcription and release in iPAMs and PAMs, cells were treated with Aβ42, the expression levels of IL-1β mRNA were measured by qRT-PCR and the concentrations of IL-1β in the supernatants were determined by ELISA. The expression and release of IL-1β were increased (Fig. 4A-D). Results indicated that Aβ42 induce IL-1β expression and release in iPAMs and PAMs.
Furthermore, the expression and release of IL-1β were reversed by β-secretase inhibitor and γ-secretase inhibitor in infected APP-overexpressing cells (Fig. 4E, F). These results indicated that APP is cleaved into Aβ42 via β-secretase and γ-secretase, and Aβ42 induce IL-1β production in A. pleuropneumoniae infected porcine alveolar macrophages.
Aβ can activate NF-κB pathway and increase inflammatory cytokines production.To investigate whether Aβ42 is able to activate NF-κB pathway in iPAMs and PAMs, cells were treated with Aβ42 for 24h. Results showed that P65 increased in nuclear (Fig. 5A, B, C). These results indicated that Aβ42 is able to activate NF-κB pathway in porcine alveolar macrophages. Furthermore, cells were pretreated with NF-κB inhibitor APDC, decreased the IL-1β production induced by Aβ42 (Fig. 5D, E).
CpxAR TCS and WecA contribute to A. pleuropneumoniae induce APP expression in porcine alveolar macrophages
TCSs play a crucial role in bacteria infection. To investigate whether TCSs of A. pleuropneumoniae influence the APP expression of iPAM during interaction of A. pleuropneumoniae and iPAM, iPAMs were treated with wild-type, ΔphoBR, ΔcpxAR,ΔnarPQ, ΔqseBC, and ΔarcA strains, the expression levels of APP were measured by western blot. The expression of APP in ΔcpxAR treated cells was less than that of other groups (Fig. 6A, B). A. pleuropneumoniae could increase β-secretase exprseeion to enhance APP cleavage. To exclude the influence of β-secretase, PAMs were pretreated with LY2811376 before incubate with strains. Similar results were obtained (Fig. 6C, D). These results indicated that CpxAR promotes APP expression during A. pleuropneumoniae interactive with iPAMs. Our previous studies showed that CpxAR could regulate the expression of wecA[24], pilM and apfA (unpublished).To investigate whether CpxAR promotes APP expression by regulates these genes expression, iPAMs were treated with wild type, ΔpilM, ΔwecA and ΔapfA strains. The expression of APP inΔwecA treated cells was less than that of other groups (Fig. 6E, F). Complementation strain CΔwecA treated iPAMs restored the expression level of APP (Fig. 6G, H). After interact with iPAM, the mRNA expression of wecA in A. pleuropneumoniae were increased (Figure S1). WecA is involved in lipopolysaccharide(LPS) O-antigen repeating unit biosynthesis[24]. These results indicated that CpxAR might be through increase LPS expression to induce APP expression during the interaction of A. pleuropneumoniae and iPAMs.
LPS modulates APP expression and metabolism
LPS caused an increase in APP level in iPAMs compared to control; when pretreated with LY2811376, the APP level in LPS treated iPAMs was higher than that of untreated with LY2811376 cells (Fig. 7A). Similar results were obtained in PAMs (Fig. 7B). Results of qRT-PCR showed that LPS enhanced BACE1 expression (Fig. 7D). The plasmid pCAGGS-N-Flag encoding APP was transfected into APP-KO iPAMs, 24 hours later, cells were treated with or without LPS. The APP level in LPS treated cells decreased compare to that of control and were reversed in the presence of LY2811376 (Fig. 7C). These results indicated that lipopolysaccharide can promote APP production and cleavage.