Biology subjects

MOLLE, V.

Publications and source records attributed to MOLLE, V..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

The Staphylococcus aureus prophage-encoded SSBP attenuates virulence and enhances IL-6-mediated macrophage clearance

Pathogens often manipulate host immune responses to promote infection. Here, we describe a novel mechanism by which a secreted prophage-encoded single-stranded DNA-binding protein (SSBP) attenuates Staphylococcus aureus virulence while enhancing host immune defenses. SSBP, encoded by the ROSA-like prophage in a colonizing, reduced-virulence strain of S. aureus (NSA1385), significantly increases bacterial susceptibility to macrophage-mediated killing in vitro and reduces pathogenicity in a zebrafish infection model. Treatment with purified recombinant SSBP decreases bacterial survival within macrophages and demonstrates therapeutic potential. Notably, SSBP activates macrophages via interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine that promotes bacterial clearance and macrophage activation. These findings uncover an unexpected prophage-derived mechanism in a colonizing S. aureus strain that attenuates virulence while stimulating host immunity, offering promising avenues for anti-infective therapies and immunomodulatory strategies.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2021

Cancer cell hyper-proliferation disrupts the topological invariance of epithelial monolayers

Although the polygonal shape of epithelial cells has drawn the attention of scientists for several centuries, only recently, it has been demonstrated that distributions of polygon types (DOPTs) are similar in proliferative epithelia of many different plant and animal species. In this study we show that hyper-proliferation of cancer cells disrupts this universality paradigm and results in random epithelial structures. Examining non-synchronized and synchronized HeLa cervix cells, we suppose that the cell size spread is the single parameter controlling the DOPT in these monolayers. We test this hypothesis by considering morphologically similar random polygonal packings. By analyzing the differences between tumoral and non-tumoral epithelial monolayers, we uncover that the latter have more ordered structures and argue that the relaxation of mechanical stresses associated with cell division induces more effective ordering in the epithelia with lower proliferation rates. The proposed theory also explains the specific highly ordered structures of some post-mitotic unconventional epithelia.

biophysics↗