摘要
The fungus Trichophyton schoenleinii(T.schoenleinii)is the causative agent of Trichophytosis and Tinea favosa of the scalp in certain regions of Eurasia and Africa.Hu-man innate immune system plays an important role in combating with various pathogens including fungi.The inflammasome is one of the most critical arms of host innate immunity,which is a protein complex controlling maturation of IL-1β.To clarify whether T.schoenleinii is able to activate the infl ammasome,we analyzed human monocytic cell line THP-1 for IL-1βproduction upon infec-tion with T.schoenleinii strain isolated from Tinea favosa patients,and rapid IL-1βsecretion from THP-1 cells was observed.Moreover,applying competitive inhibitors and gene specifi c silencing with shRNA,we found that T.sch-oenleinii induced IL-1βsecretion,ASC pyroptosome for-mation as well as caspase-1 activation were all dependent on NLRP3.Cathepsin B activity,ROS production and K+effl ux were required for the infl ammasome activation by T.schoenleinii.Our data thus reveal that the NLRP3 infl am-masome plays an important role in host defense against T.schoenleinii,and suggest that manipulating NLRP3 signaling can be a novel approach for control of diseases caused by T.schoenleinii infection.
基金
100 Talent Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,the National Natu-ral Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.81160190,91029707,31170868,812111134 and 31100622)
Shanghai Natural Science foun-dation(No.11ZR1442600)
SA-SIBS Scholarship Program,Chinese Post-doctoral Science Foundation(No.20110490752)
Post-doctoral research foundation of Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences(No.2011KIP513).