Protective role of autophagy against Vibrio cholerae cytolysin, a pore-forming toxin from V. cholerae.

GUTIERREZ MG (EQUALLY CONTRIBUTED); SAKA HA (EQUALLY CONTRIBUTED); CHINEN I; ZOPPINO FC; YOSHIMORI T; BOCCO JL; COLOMBO MI

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

NATL ACAD SCIENCES

Año: 2007 p. 1829 - 1829

0027-8424

utophagy is the unique, regulated mechanism for the degradation of organelles. This intracellular process acts as a prosurvival pathway during cell starvation or stress and is also involved in cellular response against specific bacterial infections. Vibrio cholerae is a noninvasive intestinal pathogen that has been studied extensively as the causative agent of the human disease cholera. V. cholerae illness is produced primarily through the expression of a potent toxin (cholera toxin) within the human intestine. Besides cholera toxin, this bacterium secretes a hemolytic exotoxin termed V. cholerae cytolysin (VCC) that causes extensive vacuolation in epithelial cells. In this work, we explored the relationship between the vacuolation caused by VCC and the autophagic pathway. Treatment of cells with VCC increased the punctate distribution of LC3, a feature indicative of autophagosome formation. Moreover, VCC-induced vacuoles colocalized with LC3 in several cell li