Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Jul;5(7):455-68.
doi: 10.1046/j.1462-5822.2003.00292.x.

Cytoplasmic bacteria can be targets for autophagy

Kathryn A Rich  1 , Chelsea Burkett, Paul Webster
Affiliations

Cytoplasmic bacteria can be targets for autophagy

Kathryn A Rich et al. Cell Microbiol. 2003 Jul.

Abstract

Autophagy is an important constitutive cellular process involved in size regulation, protein turnover and the removal of malformed or superfluous subcellular components. The process involves the sequestration of cytoplasm and organelles into double-membrane autophagic vacuoles for subsequent breakdown within lysosomes. In this work, we demonstrate that the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes can also be a target for autophagy. If infected macrophages are treated with chloramphenicol after phagosome lysis, the bacteria are internalized from the cell cytoplasm into autophagic vacuoles. The autophagic vacuoles appear to form by fusion of small cytoplasmic vesicles around the bacteria. These vesicular structures immunolabel with antibodies to protein disulphide isomerase, a marker for the rough ER. Internalization of metabolically arrested cytoplasmic L. monocytogenes represents an autophagic process as the vacuoles have double membranes and the process can be inhibited by the autophagy inhibitors 3-methyladenine and wortmannin. Additionally, the rate of internalization can be accelerated under starvation conditions and the vacuoles fuse with the endocytic pathway. Metabolic inhibition of cytoplasmic bacteria prevents them from adapting to the intracellular niche and reveals a host mechanism utilizing the autophagic pathway as a defence against invading pathogens by providing a route for their removal from the cytoplasm and subsequent delivery to the endocytic pathway for degradation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

  • A guide to cell death pathways.
    Yuan J, Ofengeim D. Yuan J, et al. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2024 May;25(5):379-395. doi: 10.1038/s41580-023-00689-6. Epub 2023 Dec 18. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2024. PMID: 38110635 Review.
  • Unveiling the therapeutic potential of exogenous β-hydroxybutyrate for chronic colitis in rats: novel insights on autophagy, apoptosis, and pyroptosis.
    Abdelhady R, Saber S, Ahmed Abdel-Reheim M, Mohammad S Alamri M, Alfaifi J, I E Adam M, A Saleh L, I Farag A, A Elmorsy E, S El-Wakeel H, S Doghish A, E Shaker M, H Hazem S, A Ramadan H, S Hamad R, A Mohammed O. Abdelhady R, et al. Front Pharmacol. 2023 Sep 28;14:1239025. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1239025. eCollection 2023. Front Pharmacol. 2023. PMID: 37841914 Free PMC article.
  • How autophagy, a potential therapeutic target, regulates intestinal inflammation.
    Chen SL, Li CM, Li W, Liu QS, Hu SY, Zhao MY, Hu DS, Hao YW, Zeng JH, Zhang Y. Chen SL, et al. Front Immunol. 2023 Apr 24;14:1087677. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1087677. eCollection 2023. Front Immunol. 2023. PMID: 37168865 Free PMC article. Review.
  • Human Listeriosis.
    Koopmans MM, Brouwer MC, Vázquez-Boland JA, van de Beek D. Koopmans MM, et al. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2023 Mar 23;36(1):e0006019. doi: 10.1128/cmr.00060-19. Epub 2022 Dec 8. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2023. PMID: 36475874 Free PMC article. Review.
  • Autophagy in healthy aging and disease.
    Aman Y, Schmauck-Medina T, Hansen M, Morimoto RI, Simon AK, Bjedov I, Palikaras K, Simonsen A, Johansen T, Tavernarakis N, Rubinsztein DC, Partridge L, Kroemer G, Labbadia J, Fang EF. Aman Y, et al. Nat Aging. 2021 Aug;1(8):634-650. doi: 10.1038/s43587-021-00098-4. Epub 2021 Aug 12. Nat Aging. 2021. PMID: 34901876 Free PMC article. Review.
See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources

-