The Role of Chemotaxis in Helicobacter pylori Distribution in the Host

描述（由申请人提供）：幽门螺杆菌是一种人类胃病原体，在世界一半人口中定植，并引起多种疾病，包括胃炎、溃疡和癌症。细菌在胃中的分布与疾病结果相关，但决定这种分布的因素尚不清楚。我们假设，趋化性，细菌的能力，感觉和定向其运动，以响应化学梯度在其环境中是一个关键的决定因素。幽门螺杆菌在胃中的分布。H.幽门螺杆菌理想地适合于测试细菌趋化性在组织分布中的作用，因为它具有仅具有三个核心化学感受器的简单趋化性系统，并且它以极端的化学梯度定殖器官。这一建议建立在我们对H配体和传感机制的新见解的基础上。幽门化学感受器在这个建议中，我们将使用结构，生物物理和生物化学的方法来了解H。幽门化学感受器感测三种关键化学物质，它们定义了胃环境中的三个重要轴：尿素（从胃上皮分泌，定义上皮到腔轴），细菌产生的群体感应分子自诱导物-2（定义胃腺相对于上覆粘膜中的高细菌密度区域），和酸（由前体区域中的壁细胞产生，限定了体到窦，以及体中的上皮到腔轴）。我们已经改造了变种人H。幽门螺杆菌在检测这三种化学物质中的一种方面有特异性缺陷，我们已经开发了高度灵敏的检测方法来定量H。幽门趋化反应。我们将使用这些现有的突变体，以及我们基于对化学传感机制的新见解设计的其他突变体，以了解H。幽门螺杆菌细胞响应于培养的上皮单层上的化学信号和在小鼠胃感染期间进行自我组织。从这些研究中获得的知识将导致预防和治疗H。通过改变细菌在胃中的分布来预防幽门螺杆菌感染。更一般地说，这些研究将为细菌病原体如何感知和导航宿主环境提供新的见解，这些知识对于设计专门针对细菌入侵者的宿主内特性的下一代抗生素至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Helicobacter pylori is a human gastric pathogen that colonizes half the world's population and causes a wide range of diseases including gastritis, ulcers, and cancer. The distribution of the bacteria in the stomach is correlated with disease outcomes, but the factors that determine this distribution are unknown. We hypothesize that chemotaxis, the ability of bacteria to sense and orient their movement in response to chemical gradients in their environment is a key determinant of H. pylori distribution in the stomach. H. pylori is ideally suited for testing the role of bacterial chemotaxis in tissue distribution, becaue it has a simple chemotaxis system with only three core chemoreceptors and it colonizes an organ with extreme chemical gradients. This proposal builds on our novel insights into the ligands and sensing mechanisms of H. pylori chemoreceptors. In this proposal, we will use structural, biophysical, and biochemical approaches to understand the precise mechanisms by which H. pylori chemoreceptors sense three key chemicals that define three important axes in the stomach environment: urea (secreted from the gastric epithelium, defining the epithelial to luminal axis), the bacterial-produced quorum sensing molecule autoinducer-2 (defining regions of high bacterial density in the gastric glands versus the overlying mucosa), and acid (produced by the parietal cells in the anterior corpus region, defining the corpus to antrum, as well as the epithelial to luminal axis in the corpus). We have engineered mutant H. pylori that are specifically defective in sensing one of these three chemicals and we have developed highly sensitive assays for quantifying H. pylori chemotactic responses. We will use these existing mutants, and others that we engineer based on our new insights into the chemosensing mechanisms, to understand how H. pylori cells organize themselves in response to chemical signals on cultured epithelial monolayers and during infection of the mouse stomach. Knowledge gained from these studies will lead to new strategies for preventing and treating H. pylori infections by altering the bacteria's distribution in the stomach. More generally, these studies will provide novel insights into how bacterial pathogens perceive and navigate the host environment, knowledge which will be crucial for designing the next generation of antibiotics that specifically target within-host properties of bacterial invaders.