Staphylococcus aureus survives in cystic fibrosis macrophages forming a reservoir for chronic pneumonia.

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Staphylococcus aureus survives in cystic fibrosis macrophages forming a reservoir for chronic pneumonia.

Infect Immun. 2017 Mar 13;:

Authors: Li C, Wu Y, Riehle A, Ma J, Kamler M, Gulbins E, Grassmé H

Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) plays an important role in sepsis, pneumonia, wound infections and cystic fibrosis (CF), which is caused by mutations of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (Cftr). Pulmonary S. aureus infections in CF often occur very early and prior to colonization with other pathogens, in particular Pseudomonas aeruginosa Here, we demonstrate that CF mice are highly susceptible to pulmonary infections with S. aureus and fail to clear the pathogen during infection. S. aureus is internalized by Cftr-deficient macrophages in the lung, but these macrophages are unable to kill intracellular bacteria. This failure might be caused by a defect in fusion of phagosomes with lysosomes, while this process rapidly occurs in wild-type macrophages and serves to kill intracellular pathogens. Transplantation of infected Cftr-deficient alveolar macrophages into the lung of non-infected CF mice is sufficient to induce pneumonia. This suggests that intracellular survival of S. aureus in macrophages may serve the pathogen to chronically infect CF lungs.

PMID: 28289144 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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