16 - Iron Uptake & Motility Flashcards
Bacterial virulence factors
Molecules produced by bacteria, or strategies used by bacteria to cause disease
Pathogens must be able to
- Attach to host cells for colonisation
- Evade host immune system
- Obtain nutrients (e.g. iron)
- Spread within host (some)
- Produce disease symptoms (to be considered pathogen)
- Spread to other hosts (survival of species)
Iron acquisition as bacterial virulence factors
- Nearly all bacteria require iron for growth
- Iron deprivation is bacteriostatic, extreme deficiency is bactericidal
Why do bacteria require iron for growth
Iron is a central trace element in respiration and a cofactor in many enzymes
Example of genera that don’t need iron for growth
Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease)
Iron in mammalian hosts
Tightly sequestered by iron binding proteins
Three iron binding proteins
- Transferrin (made in liver, the serum protein responsible for iron transport)
- Lactoferrin (protein secreted at mucosal surfaces, found in milk, salvia, tears)
- Hemoglobin (contain heme, 70% of total body iron is in RBCs)
Three main mechanisms of iron uptake by bacteria
- Hemolysins (iron source = heme)
- Siderophores (iron source = transferrin and lactoferrin)
- Direct contact (iron source = transferrin and lactoferrin)
Hemolysins
- The pathogen hemolysin lyses erythrocytes, then digests the hemoglobin and assimilates the heme which contains iron
- E.g. Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumolysin)
Pneumolysin
Binds cholesterol in host cell membranes and disrupts them by forming pores
Steps of heme uptake into bacterial cell
- Heme is bound to an OM receptor
- Heme is released to carrier protein in periplasm
- Heme is delivered to an ABC transporter in the inner membrane which uses ATP to import heme into cytoplasm
- Bacterial heme oxygenase degrades heme to release iron
Two minor proteins complexed with heme
Hemopexin and haptoglobulin
Siderophores
- Low molecular weight compounds that chelate iron with very high affinity
- Best studied
- Wide spread among species
- Two main chemical types
What are the type main chemical types of Siderophores
- Catechols (e.g. E. coli enterobactin)
- Hydroxamates (e.g. E. coli aerobactin)
How do siderophores work
- Siderophore is secreted via T1SS
- Complexes with Fe3+, removing it from host protein due to siderophore’s higher affinity for iron
- iron-siderophore complex taken into bacterial cell
- Iron released from complex as Fe2+ via ferric reductase
Release of iron from complex as Fe2+ with non re usable siderophores
Siderophore is degraded by protease to release the iron
Regulation of siderophore and membrane transport proteins by iron levels
- Low iron = synthesised
- High iron = repressed
- As siderophore and iron transport proteins are burden for pathogen to produce