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Transcriptional profiling of the peripheral blood response during tularemia

Genes & Immunity volume 7, pages 503–513 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Tularemia is a febrile disease caused by the highly contagious bacterium Francisella tularensis. We undertook an analysis of the transcriptional response in peripheral blood during the course of ulceroglandular tularemia by use of Affymetrix microarrays comprising 14 500 genes. Samples were obtained from seven individuals at five occasions during 2 weeks after the first hospital visit and convalescent samples 3 months later. In total, 265 genes were differentially expressed, 95 of which at more than one time point. The differential expression was verified with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction for 36 genes (R2=0.590). The most prominent changes were noted in samples drawn on days 2–3 and a considerable proportion of the upregulated genes appeared to represent an interferon-γ-induced response and also a proapoptotic response. Genes involved in the generation of innate and acquired immune responses were found to be downregulated, presumably a pathogen-induced event. A logistic regression analysis revealed that seven genes were good predictors of the early phase of tularemia. This is the first description of the transcriptional host response to ulceroglandular tularemia and the study has identified gene subsets relevant to the pathogenesis of the disease and subsets that may serve as early diagnostic biomarkers.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council, Samverkansnämnden, Västerbottens läns landsting, and the Medical Faculty, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden, DARPA, Grant LN00A033 from Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth, Czech Republic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Microbiology, Clinical Bacteriology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    H Andersson, B Hartmanová, M Landfors, L Näslund, P Rydén & A Sjöstedt

  2. Department of Infectious Diseases, Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden

    E Bäck & H Eliasson

  3. Faculty of Military Health Science, Proteome Center for the Study of Intracellular Parasitism of Bacteria, University of Defence, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

    B Hartmanová

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  1. H Andersson
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Correspondence to A Sjöstedt.

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Andersson, H., Hartmanová, B., Bäck, E. et al. Transcriptional profiling of the peripheral blood response during tularemia. Genes Immun 7, 503–513 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gene.6364321

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