瑞士巴塞尔大学Knut Drescher研究组发现，在人类免疫细胞上形成生物膜是霍乱弧菌的一种多细胞捕食策略。该项研究成果发表在2023年6月8日出版的《细胞》杂志上。

研究人员表明，对于人类病原体霍乱弧菌来说，生物膜的形成不仅是一种保护性的特征，也是一种攻击性的特征，可以集体捕杀不同的免疫细胞。研究人员发现，霍乱弧菌在真核细胞表面形成生物膜，使用的细胞外基质主要包括甘露糖敏感的血凝素纤毛、毒素调节的纤毛和分泌的定植因子TcpF，这与其他表面的生物膜的基质组成不同。这些生物膜包裹着免疫细胞，并在生物膜以c-di-GMP依赖性的方式散开之前，建立一个高浓度的局部分泌溶血素以杀死免疫细胞。这些结果共同揭示了细菌如何利用生物膜的形成作为一种多细胞策略，从而颠覆人类免疫细胞作为猎人和细菌作为猎物的典型关系。

据悉，生物膜的形成被普遍认为是细菌对环境威胁的一种防御机制，包括抗生素、噬菌体和人类免疫系统的白细胞。

附：英文原文

Title: Biofilm formation on human immune cells is a multicellular predation strategy of Vibrio cholerae

Author: Lucia Vidakovic, Sofya Mikhaleva, Hannah Jeckel, Valerya Nisnevich, Kerstin Strenger, Konstantin Neuhaus, Keerthana Raveendran, Noa Bossel Ben-Moshe, Marina Aznaourova, Kazuki Nosho, Antje Drescher, Bernd Schmeck, Leon N. Schulte, Alexandre Persat, Roi Avraham, Knut Drescher

Issue&Volume: 2023/06/08

Abstract: Biofilm formation is generally recognized as a bacterial defense mechanism against environmental threats, including antibiotics, bacteriophages, and leukocytes of the human immune system. Here, we show that for the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae, biofilm formation is not only a protective trait but also an aggressive trait to collectively predate different immune cells. We find that V. cholerae forms biofilms on the eukaryotic cell surface using an extracellular matrix comprising primarily mannose-sensitive hemagglutinin pili, toxin-coregulated pili, and the secreted colonization factor TcpF, which differs from the matrix composition of biofilms on other surfaces. These biofilms encase immune cells and establish a high local concentration of a secreted hemolysin to kill the immune cells before the biofilms disperse in a c-di-GMP-dependent manner. Together, these results uncover how bacteria employ biofilm formation as a multicellular strategy to invert the typical relationship between human immune cells as the hunters and bacteria as the hunted.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.05.008

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00527-5