Person:

Saghatelian, Alan

Pathogenic microbes employ a variety of methods to overcome host defenses, including the production and dispersal of molecules that are toxic to their hosts. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Gram-negative bacterium, is a pathogen of a diverse variety of hosts including mammals and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In this study, we identify three small molecules in the phenazine class that are produced by P. aeruginosa strain PA14 that are toxic to C. elegans. We demonstrate that 1-hydroxyphenazine, phenazine-1-carboxylic acid, and pyocyanin are capable of killing nematodes in a matter of hours. 1-hydroxyphenazine is toxic over a wide pH range, whereas the toxicities of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid and pyocyanin are pH-dependent at non-overlapping pH ranges. We found that acidification of the growth medium by PA14 activates the toxicity of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid, which is the primary toxic agent towards C. elegans in our assay. Pyocyanin is not toxic under acidic conditions and 1-hydroxyphenazine is produced at concentrations too low to kill C. elegans. These results suggest a role for phenazine-1-carboxylic acid in mammalian pathogenesis because PA14 mutants deficient in phenazine production have been shown to be defective in pathogenesis in mice. More generally, these data demonstrate how diversity within a class of metabolites could affect bacterial toxicity in different environmental niches.

Substance P (SP) is a prototypical neuropeptide with roles in pain and inflammation. Numerous mechanisms regulate endogenous SP levels, including the differential expression of SP mRNA and the controlled secretion of SP from neurons. Proteolysis has long been suspected to regulate extracellular SP concentrations but data in support of this hypothesis is scarce. Here, we provide evidence that proteolysis controls SP levels in the spinal cord. Using peptidomics to detect and quantify endogenous SP fragments, we identify the primary SP cleavage site as the C-terminal side of the ninth residue of SP. If blocking this pathway increases SP levels, then proteolysis controls SP concentration. We performed a targeted chemical screen using spinal cord lysates as a proxy for the endogenous metabolic environment and identified GM6001 (galardin, ilomastat) as a potent inhibitor of the SP 1–9-producing activity present in the tissue. Administration of GM6001 to mice results in a greater-than-three-fold increase in the spinal cord levels of SP, which validates the hypothesis that proteolysis controls physiological SP levels.

Genetic studies of rare diseases can identify genes of unknown function that strongly impact human physiology. Prolyl endopeptidase-like (PREPL) is an uncharacterized member of the prolyl peptidase family that was discovered because of its deletion in humans with hypotonia-cystinuria syndrome (HCS). HCS is characterized by a number of physiological changes including diminished growth and neonatal hypotonia or low muscle tone. HCS patients have deletions in other genes as well, making it difficult to tease apart the specific role of PREPL. Here, we develop a PREPL null (PREPL−/−) mouse model to address the physiological role of this enzyme. Deletion of exon 11 from the Prepl gene, which encodes key catalytic amino acids, leads to a loss of PREPL protein as well as lower Prepl mRNA levels. PREPL−/− mice have a pronounced growth phenotype, being significantly shorter and lighter than their wild type (PREPL+/+) counterparts. A righting assay revealed that PREPL−/− pups took significantly longer than PREPL+/+ pups to right themselves when placed on their backs. This deficit indicates that PREPL−/− mice suffer from neonatal hypotonia. According to these results, PREPL regulates growth and neonatal hypotonia in mice, which supports the idea that PREPL causes diminished growth and neonatal hypotonia in humans with HCS. These animals provide a valuable asset in deciphering the underlying biochemical, cellular and physiological pathways that link PREPL to HCS, and this may eventually lead to new insights in the treatment of this disease.