Autophagy plays a protective role against Trypanosoma cruzi infection in mice

ABSTRACT

Autophagy is a catabolic pathway required for cellular and organism homeostasis. Autophagy participates in the innate and adaptive immune responses at different levels. Xenophagy is a class of selective autophagy that involves the elimination of intracellular pathogens. Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas, a disease that affects 8 million individuals worldwide. Previously, our group has demonstrated that autophagy participates in the invasion of T. cruzi in non-phagocytic cells. In this work we have studied the involvement of autophagy in the development of T. cruzi infection in mice. Beclin-1 is a protein essential for autophagy, required for autophagosome biogenesis and maturation. We have performed an acute model of infection on the autophagic deficient Beclin-1 heterozygous knock-out mice (Bcln^±) and compared to control Bcln^+/+ animals. In addition, we have analyzed the infection process in both peritoneal cells and RAW macrophages. Our results have shown that the infection was more aggressive in the autophagy-deficient mice, which displayed higher numbers of parasitemia, heart´s parasitic nests and mortality rates. We have also found that peritoneal cells derived from Bcln^± animals and RAW macrophages treated with autophagy inhibitors displayed higher levels of infection compared to controls. Interestingly, free cytosolic parasites recruited LC3 protein and other markers of xenophagy in control compared to autophagy-deficient cells. Taken together, these data suggest that autophagy plays a protective role against T. cruzi infection in mice, xenophagy being one of the processes activated as part of the repertoire of immune responses generated by the host.

KEYWORDS:

• Autophagy
• xenophagy
• T. cruzi infection
• Beclin-1
• Beclin-1 heterozygous knockout mice

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Julieta Scelta, Adrián Fernández and Alejandra Medero for their technical assistance. We also want to thank Dr. David Engman, who shared with us his knowledge about T. cruzi strains.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica. Agencia Nacional de PromociónCientífica y Tecnológica [PICT 2013-2757]; Fundación Bunge y Born [Subsidio para investigación de la enfermedad de Chagas (2008-2009)].