Biology subjects

Sixsmith, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Sixsmith, J..

7 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Antibody-Fab and -Fc features promote Mycobacterium tuberculosis restriction.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is a leading cause of death by an infectious disease globally, with no efficacious vaccine. Antibodies are implicated in Mtb control, but the mechanisms of antibody action remain poorly understood. We assembled a library of TB monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and screened for the ability to restrict Mtb in mice, identifying protective antibodies targeting known and novel antigens. To dissect the mechanism of mAb-mediated Mtb restriction, we optimized a protective lipoarabinomannan-specific mAb through Fc-swapping. In vivo analysis of these Fc-variants revealed a critical role for Fc-effector function in Mtb restriction. Restrictive Fc-variants altered distribution of Mtb across innate immune cells. Single-cell transcriptomics highlighted distinctly activated molecular circuitry within innate immune cell subpopulations, highlighting early activation of neutrophils as a key signature of mAb-mediated Mtb restriction. Therefore, improved antibody-mediated restriction of Mtb is associated with reorganization of the tissue-level immune response to infection and depends on the collaboration of antibody Fab and Fc.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2023

Development of an Engineered Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strain for a Safe and Effective Tuberculosis Human Challenge Model

Human challenge experiments could greatly accelerate the development of a tuberculosis (TB) vaccine. Human challenge for tuberculosis requires a strain that can both replicate in the host and be reliably cleared. To accomplish this, we designed Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains featuring up to three orthogonal kill switches, tightly regulated by exogenous tetracyclines and trimethoprim. The resultant strains displayed immunogenicity and antibiotic susceptibility similar to wild-type Mtb under permissive conditions. In the absence of supplementary exogenous compounds, the strains were rapidly killed in axenic culture, mice and nonhuman primates. Notably, the strain that contained three kill switches had an escape rate of less than 10-10 per genome per generation and displayed no relapse in a SCID mouse model. Collectively, these findings suggest that this engineered Mtb strain could be a safe and effective candidate for a human challenge model.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2023

Attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis Vaccine Protection in a Low Dose Murine Challenge Model

Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) remains the only clinically approved tuberculosis (TB) vaccine despite limited efficacy. Preclinical studies of next generation TB vaccines have typically used a murine aerosol challenge model that employs a high supraphysiologic challenge dose. Here we show that the protective efficacy of a live attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) vaccine candidate {Delta}LprG markedly exceeds that of BCG in a low dose murine aerosol challenge model. BCG vaccination reduced bacterial loads but failed to prevent establishment or dissemination of infection in this model. In contrast, {Delta}LprG prevented detectable infection in 61% of mice and resulted in striking anatomic containment of 100% breakthrough infections to a single lung. Protection was partially abrogated in a repeated low dose challenge model, which revealed serum IL-17A, IL-6, CXCL2, CCL2, IFN-{gamma}, and CXCL1 as correlates of protection. These data demonstrate that {Delta}LprG provides strikingly increased protection compared to BCG, including reduced detectable infection and anatomic containment, in a low dose murine challenge model.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Fc-engineered antibodies leverage neutrophils to drive control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Novel vaccination and therapeutic strategies are urgently needed to mitigate the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic. While extensive efforts have focused on potentiating cell-mediated immunity to control Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, less effort has been invested in exploiting the humoral immune system to combat Mtb. Emerging data point to a role for antibodies in microbial control of Mtb, however the precise mechanism(s) of this control remain incompletely understood. Here we took an antibody Fc-engineering approach to determine whether Fc-modifications could improve the ability of antibodies to restrict Mtb, and to define Fc-mediated mechanism(s) antibodies leverage for this restriction. Using an antibody specific to the capsular polysaccharide -glucan, we engineer a panel of Fc variants to augment or dampen select antibody effector functions, rationally building antibodies with enhanced capacity to promote Mtb restriction in a human whole blood model of infection. Surprisingly, restrictive Fc-engineered antibodies drive Mtb control in a neutrophil, not monocyte, dependent manner. Using single cell RNA sequencing, we show that restrictive antibodies promote neutrophil survival and expression of cell intrinsic antimicrobial programs. These data provide a roadmap for exploiting Fc-engineered antibodies as a novel class of TB therapeutics able to harness the protective functions of neutrophils to achieve disease control.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2022

Loss of RNase J leads to multi-drug tolerance and accumulation of highly structured mRNA fragments in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Despite the existence of well-characterized, canonical mutations that confer high-level drug resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), there is evidence that drug resistance mechanisms are more complex than simple acquisition of such mutations. Recent studies have shown that Mtb can acquire non-canonical resistance-associated mutations that confer survival advantages in the presence of certain drugs, likely acting as stepping-stones for acquisition of high-level resistance. Rv2752c/rnj, encoding RNase J, is disproportionately mutated in drug-resistant clinical Mtb isolates. Here we show that deletion of rnj confers increased tolerance to lethal concentrations of several drugs. RNAseq revealed that RNase J affects expression of a subset of genes enriched for PE/PPE genes and stable RNAs and is key for proper 23S rRNA maturation. Gene expression differences implicated two sRNAs and ppe50-ppe51 as important contributors to the drug tolerance phenotype. In addition, we found that in the absence of RNase J, many short RNA fragments accumulate because they are degraded at slower rates. We show that the accumulated transcript fragments are targets of RNase J and are characterized by strong secondary structure and high G+C content, indicating that RNase J has a rate-limiting role in degradation of highly structured RNAs. Taken together, our results demonstrate that RNase J indirectly affects drug tolerance, as well as reveal the endogenous roles of RNase J in mycobacterial RNA metabolism.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Multiplexed strain phenotyping defines consequences of genetic diversity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis for infection and vaccination outcomes

There is growing evidence that genetic diversity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis, contributes to the outcomes of infection and public health interventions, such as vaccination. Epidemiological studies suggest that among the phylogeographic lineages of Mtb, strains belonging to Lineage 2 (L2) are associated with concerning clinical features including hypervirulence, treatment failure, and vaccine escape. The global expansion and increasing prevalence of L2 has been attributed to the selective advantage conferred by these characteristics, yet confounding host and environmental factors make it difficult to identify the bacterial determinants driving these associations in human studies. Here, we developed a molecular barcoding strategy to facilitate high-throughput, experimental phenotyping of Mtb clinical isolates. This approach allowed us to characterize growth dynamics for a panel of genetically diverse Mtb strains during infection and after vaccination in the mouse model. We found that L2 strains exhibit distinct growth dynamics in vivo and are resistant to the immune protection conferred by Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination. The latter finding corroborates epidemiological observations and demonstrates that mycobacterial features contribute to vaccine efficacy. To investigate the genetic and biological basis of L2 strains distinctive phenotypes, we performed variant analysis, transcriptional studies, and genome-wide transposon sequencing. We identified functional genetic changes across multiple stress- and host-response pathways in a representative L2 strain that are associated with variants in regulatory genes. These adaptive changes may underlie the distinct clinical characteristics and epidemiological success of this lineage.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2018

Rifampicin and rifabutin resistance in 1000 Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates

SynopsisDrug resistant tuberculosis (TB) remains a public health challenge with limited treatment options and high associated mortality. Rifamycins are among the most potent anti-TB drugs, and the loss of susceptibility to these agents, a hallmark of MDR TB, is considered a substantial therapeutic challenge. Rifamycins are known to target the RpoB subunit of RNA polymerase; however, our understanding of how rifamycin resistance is genetically encoded remains incomplete. Here we investigated rpoB genetic diversity and cross resistance between the two rifamycin drugs rifampicin (RIF) and rifabutin (RFB). We performed whole genome sequencing of 1005 MTB clinical isolates and measured minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to both agents on 7H10 agar using the indirect proportion method. Of the 1005 isolates, 767 were RIF resistant, and of these, 211 (27%) were sensitive to RFB at the critical concentration of 0.5ug/ml; 101/211 isolates had the rpoB mutation D435V (E.coli D516V). Isolates with discrepant resistance (RIF R and RFB S) 16.9 times more likely to harbor a D435V mutation as those resistant to both agents (OR 95% CI 10.5-27.9, P-value <10-40). To further understand this discrepancy, we generated both D435V and S450L (E.coli S531L) rpoB mutants in a laboratory strain and measured their antibiotic susceptibility using the alamar blue reduction assay. Compared with wildtype, D435V increased the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) to both RIF and RFB, however in both cases to a lesser degree than the S450L mutation. The observation that the rpoB D435V mutation produces an increase in the IC50 for both drugs contrasts with findings from previous smaller studies that suggested that isolates with D435V mutation remain RFB susceptible despite being RIF resistant. Our finding thus suggests that the recommended critical testing concentration for RFB should be revised.

evolutionary biology↗