ORCiD

David M. Ojcius: 0000-0003-1461-4495

Department

Biomedical Sciences

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

PLoS One

ISSN

1932-6203

Volume

4

Issue

12

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0008299

First Page

1

Last Page

7

Publication Date

12-14-2009

Abstract

Infections with intracellular bacteria such as chlamydiae affect the majority of the world population. Infected tissue inflammation and granuloma formation help contain the short-term expansion of the invading pathogen, leading also to local tissue damage and hypoxia. However, the effects of key aspects of damaged inflamed tissues and hypoxia on continued infection with intracellular bacteria remain unknown. We find that development of Chlamydia trachomatis is reversibly retarded by prolonged exposure of infected cells to extracellular adenosine, a hallmark of hypoxia and advanced inflammation. In epithelial cells, this effect was mediated by the A2b adenosine receptor, unique in the adenosine receptor family for having a hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF1-α) binding site at its promoter region, and was dependent on an increase in the intracellular cAMP levels, but was independent of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). Further study of adenosine receptor signaling during intracellular bacterial infection could lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of persistent infections with these ubiquitous pathogens.

Comments

Article e8299

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