The role of polyunsaturated fatty acids in bacterial pathogenesis

Abstract

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) comprise a class of essential micronutrients, which are essential for normal development, cardiovascular health, and immunity. The role of lipids, including long-chain fatty acids, in the immune response is increasingly being recognized as beneficial regulators of the immune systems. However, the mechanisms by which PUFAs modulate innate immunity are yet to be fully clarified. C. elegans has been used in several recent studies as a simple animal model for the study of host-pathogen interactions, generating important insights into both bacterial pathogenesis and host innate immunity. Many of the virulence mechanisms used by bacterial pathogens to cause disease in mammalian hosts have also been shown to be important for pathogenesis in C. elegans and, similarly, important features of the host innate immunity have been evolutionarily conserved between C. elegans and mammals. This project is focused on addressing the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids in bacterial pathogenesis using C. elegans as model system. We find that knockdown of some elongase genes increase the worms’ susceptibility towards infection with the adherent-invasive Escherichia Coli LF82, isolated from a patient suffering from Crohn’s disease. Moreover, dietary supplementation with the fatty acid γ-linolenic acid rescued the enhanced pathogen susceptibility of C. elegans lacking a Δ6 desaturase. The fatty acid profile of the nematode is altered upon infection with pathogenic LF82. qRT-PCR analysis allowed to determine that stress and autophagy genes are induced in C. elegans infected with this particular type of E. coli. Autophagy was found to be increased on C. elegans challenged with LF82, as determined by fluorescence microscopy. Collectively these results suggest an important role for PUFAS in the innate immune response and indicate that autophagy may have a contribution for C. elegans response towards the pathogen E. coli LF82.