Latent Upregulation of Nlrp3, Nlrc4 and Aim2 Differentiates between Asymptomatic and Symptomatic Trichomonas vaginalis Infection

ABSTRACT

Trichomonas vaginalis is a parasitic protozoan that causes trichomoniasis. The involvement of NLRP3 inflammasome in trichomoniasis has been discussed in recent studies. The present study aimed to find out the involvement of Nlrp3, Nlrc4, and Aim2 in the BALB/c mouse model infected with symptomatic and asymptomatic isolates of T. vaginalis by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Our results showed a significantly increased expression of Nlrp3 in the vaginal tissue of the symptomatic group on the 2^nd dpi and 14^th dpi in the asymptomatic group, respectively. The cervical tissue of asymptomatic groups expressed higher Nlrp3 on 14^th dpi than the symptomatic group. The Nlrc4 was expressed on 14^th dpi in the vaginal and cervical tissues of mice infected with asymptomatic group as compared to the symptomatic group. Aim2 expression in vaginal tissue was highest at early time points in both the infected groups as compared to controls. However, in cervical tissues, a significant increase of Aim2 expression was observed on 14^th dpi in asymptomatic as compared to the symptomatic group. The significantly higher expression of caspase-1 and caspase-4 was observed in cervical tissues of the asymptomatic group on 14^th dpi as compared to the symptomatic group, respectively. All NLRs together resulted in higher IL-1β expression in the vaginal tissues of the symptomatic and asymptomatic groups. We conclude from this study that early expression of Nlrp3, Nlrc4, and Aim2 was seen in the symptomatic group as compared to the late-onset asymptomatic in the vaginal and cervical tissues.

KEYWORDS:

• NLRs
• Nlrp3
• Aim-2
• trichomoniasis

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the Department of Science and Technology (No: SR/FT/LS-117/2011) and the Department of Biotechnology (No: BT/PR6301/GBD/27/396/2012) to MY. CSIR fellowship to SY and VV and Research and Development grant from University of Delhi, Delhi (No: RC/2015/9677) to MY is greatly acknowledged. We also thank UGC-SAP II and DST Purse grant for funding. MY is a recipient of the ICMR-DHR international fellowship.

Declarations of interest

All the authors declare no potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology [BT/PR6301/GBD/27/396/2012]; DST Purse grant, University of Delhi; UGC-SAP II, University of Delhi; Department of Science and Technology/SERB (No.SR/FT/LS-117/2011), New Delhi, India; University of Delhi [RC/2015/9677].