BRUCELLA ABORTUS-ACTIVATED MICROGLIA INDUCE NEURONAL DEATH THROUGH PRIMARY PHAGOCYTOSIS

ANA M. RODRÍGUEZ; MARIA CRUZ MIRAGLIA; MIRIAM M. COSTA; PAULA BARRIONUEVO; VIDA A. DENNIS; SERGIO C. OLIVEIRA; M. VICTORIA DELPINO; GUILLERMO H. GIAMBARTOLOMEI

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Simposio; The Role of Glia in Health and Disease of the Nervous System: Clinical and Basic Science Walking Together; 2017

Southamerican Neuroglia/ISN

Central nervous system invasion by bacteria of the genus Brucella results in an inflammatory disorder called neurobrucellosis. B. abortus infects microglia, eliciting their activation and production of pro-inflammatory mediators. Evidence of neurological involvement occurs to varying degrees in nervous systems of patients with neurobrucellosis. The aim of this work was to determine the putative mechanisms involved in this phenomenon. For this, we used murine primary cultures of neurons and microglia to demonstrate that, due to B. abortus infection, microglial primary phagocytosis actively induces neuronal death, without inducing neuronal apoptosis. This phenomenon was due to microglia-TLR2 activation by Brucella lipoproteins. We demonstrated that B. abortus-activated microglia secrete nitric oxide (NO) and increase their phagocytic ability and proliferation (p