Adenylate cyclase toxin of Bordetella parapertussis disrupts the epithelial barrier granting the bacterial access to the intracellular space of epithelial cells

GORGOJO, JUAN PABLO; CARRICA, MARIELA DEL CARMEN; BAROLI, CARLOS MANUEL; VALDEZ, HUGO ALBERTO; ALVAREZ HAYES, JIMENA; RODRIGUEZ, MARIA EUGENIA

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Año: 2023 vol. 18

1932-6203

B. parapertussis is one of the etiological agents of whooping cough. Once inhaled, the bacteria bind to the respiratory epithelium and start the infection. Little is known about this firststep of host colonization and the role of the human airway epithelial barrier on B. parapertussis infection. We here investigated the outcome of the interaction of B. parapertussis with apolarized monolayer of respiratory epithelial cells. Our results show that B. parapertussispreferentially attaches to the intercellular boundaries, and causes the disruption of the tightjunction integrity through the action of adenylate cyclase toxin (CyaA). We further found evidence indicating that this disruption enables the bacterial access to components of thebasolateral membrane of epithelial cells to which B. parapertussis efficiently attaches andgains access to the intracellular location, where it can survive and eventually spread backinto the extracellular environment. Altogether, these results suggest that the adenylatecyclase toxin enables B. parapertussis to overcome the epithelial barrier and eventuallyestablish a niche of persistence within the respiratory epithelial cells.