Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

BACTERIAL PATHOGENESIS

Chronic infection by controlling inflammation

Nature Microbiology volume 4, pages 378–379 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Molecular players involved in systemic and acute infections are relatively easy to pinpoint, whereas bacterial resilience during chronic infections remains less well understood. Pseudomonas aeruginosa encodes a quorum-regulated virulence factor, TesG, that promotes chronic lung infection by suppressing host inflammatory responses.

The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most feared pathogens in hospitals and intensive care units, as it can be devastating for certain groups of patients. Whereas P. aeruginosa causes particularly severe acute infections, including bacteremia and sepsis in such settings, it also has the ability to hide and persist chronically in its host. Clinically, chronic P. aeruginosa infection is seen most commonly in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF)1, who produce an abnormal volume and composition of secretions on epithelial surfaces. This particularly impairs the lungs’ primary defence mechanisms and predisposes patients to bacterial lung infection early in life. Anti-pseudomonal antibiotic treatment is successful in the majority of patients experiencing their first infection, but recurrence is common and, ultimately, progression to ineradicable chronic infection occurs in most adults. The adaptive strategy and decision-making process between P. aeruginosa acute and chronic infection can be assigned to complex regulatory networks2,3 that modulate bacterial gene expression and favour the production of molecules that would be toxic or anti-inflammatory in different infection stages. In this issue of Nature Microbiology, Zhao et al.4 use RNA sequencing to profile in situ gene expression in two distinct mouse models of infection and provide ground-breaking insights on the molecular determinants that are specifically required for chronic versus acute infection.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: Model for TesG suppression of inflammation.

References

  1. Smith, W. D. et al. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 364, fnx121 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Goodman, A. L. et al. Gene. Dev. 23, 249–259 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Moradali, M. F., Ghods, S. & Rehm, B. H. Front. Cell. Infect. Mi. 7, 39 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Zhao, K. et al. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0322-4 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Holland, I. B. et al. EcoSal Plus https://doi.org/10.1128/ecosalplus.ESP-0019-2015 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Jimenez, P. N. et al. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. R. 76, 46–65 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Valentini, M., Gonzalez, D., Mavridou, D. A. & Filloux, A. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 41, 15–20 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Mikkelsen, H. et al. Microbiology 155, 687–698 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Jorth, P. et al. Cell Host Microbe 18, 307–319 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Cantin, A. M., Hartl, D., Konstan, M. W. & Chmiel, J. F. J. Cyst. Fibros. 14, 419–430 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, MRC Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, Imperial College, London, UK

    Alain Filloux

  2. The Cystic Fibrosis and Chronic Infection Group, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK

    Jane C. Davies

  3. The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Jane C. Davies

Authors
  1. Alain Filloux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jane C. Davies
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alain Filloux or Jane C. Davies.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Filloux, A., Davies, J.C. Chronic infection by controlling inflammation. Nat Microbiol 4, 378–379 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0397-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0397-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing