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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Presence of bacterial DNA and bacterial peptidoglycans in joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other arthritides.

OBJECTIVE: The continuous presence of bacteria or their degraded antigens in the synovium may be involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to determine the presence of bacterial nucleic acids and bacterial cell wall constituents in the joints of patients with RA and other forms of arthritis. METHODS: Joint samples were obtained from patients with RA (n = 26), septic arthritis (n = 2), inflammatory osteoarthritis (n = 5), and gout (n = 6), and joint trauma (n = 1). Universal 16S-ribosomal RNA primers were used to detect the presence of bacterial DNA in these samples, using stringent regimens for sample collection and molecular microbiologic analysis. Automated sequencing and comparative data analysis were performed to identify the species. The presence of bacterial peptidoglycan-polysaccharide complexes in synovial tissue was detected by immunohistologic analysis with a specific antibody. RESULTS: The bacterial species cultured from the synovium could be identified in both of the patients with septic arthritis. DNA amplicons were also detected in the synovial fluid and/or tissue samples from 5 patients with RA and 2 patients with crystal-induced arthritis; these originated from multiple bacterial species. Staining for peptidoglycan-polysaccharide complexes was positive in the synovial tissue of both patients with septic arthritis, 16 with RA, 4 with inflammatory osteoarthritis, 4 with crystal-induced arthropathy, and 1 with joint trauma. The staining was mainly found in cells in the synovial sublining, including macrophages. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that bacterial DNA and bacterial cell wall constituents are retained in the joints of some patients with arthritis, where they might enhance synovial inflammation.

Adult↗

The irreversible binding of azacytosine-containing DNA fragments to bacterial DNA(cytosine-5)methyltransferases.

DNA containing 5-azacytosine is an irreversible inhibitor of DNA(cytosine-5)methyltransferase. This paper describes the binding of DNA methyltransferase to 32P-labeled fragments of DNA containing 5-azacytosine. The complexes were identified by gel electrophoresis. The EcoRII methyltransferase specified by the R15 plasmid was purified from Escherichia coli B(R15). This enzyme methylates the second C in the sequence CCAGG and has a molecular mass of 60,000 Da. Specific binding of enzyme to DNA fragments could be detected if either excess unlabeled DNA or 0.8% sodium dodecyl sulfate was added to the reaction mixture prior to electrophoresis. Binding was dependent upon the presence of both the CCAGG sequence and azacytosine in the DNA fragment. S-Adenosylmethionine stimulated the formation of the complex. The complex was stable to 6 M urea but could be digested with pronase. These DNA fragments could be used to detect the presence of several different methyltransferases in crude extracts of E. coli. No DNA protein complexes could be detected in E. coli B extracts, a strain that contains no DNA(cytosine-5)methyltransferases. The chromosomally determined methylase with the same specificity as the purified EcoRII methylase could be detected in crude extracts of E. coli K12 strains. The MspI methylase cloned in E. coli HB101 could also be detected in crude extracts. These enzymes are the only proteins that bind azacytosine-containing DNA in crude extracts of E. coli.

Cytosine↗

Stimulation of DNA synthesis in bacterial DNA--membrane complexes after low doses of ionizing radiation.

DNA--membrane complexes from three strains of E. coli were irradiated and changes in the rates of DNA synthesis were observed. Doses from 1--10 krad to complexes from W3110 and pol A1 strains gave up to a 100 per cent increase in DNA synthesis; under the same conditions, no change was observed in Bs-1. The degree of stimulation did not depend on the presence of oxygen during irradiation, and a post-irradiation incubation was necessary to achieve activation. The properties of all three complexes were similar when unirradiated. Irradiation of intact organisms under conditions which produced marked, oxygen-dependent inhibition of the Bs-1 complex had no significant effect on those from W3110 and Pol A1. Enhanced DNA synthesis is concluded to be due wholly to repair of preexisting DNA. It is further postulated that DNA synthesis in untreated complexes (E. coli B's, W3110 and Pol A1) is mainly of the repair-type and does not necessarily take place at the site of DNA--membrane attachment.

Animals↗

[Detection of bacterial DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)].

Enzymatic amplification of DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a very sensitive and rapid way of detecting specific DNA sequences. Bacterial DNA can be detected in a wide variety of samples provided at least partial sequence information is available. For a great number of bacteria PCR detection methods have been published. Most important for the pathologist are mycobacteriae (M. tuberculosis, avium, etc.). Borellia burgdorferi, Listeria monozytogenes and chlamydiae (Ce. trachomatis, C. psittaci). Fresh or fixed paraffin embedded tissues, exfoliated cells, whole blood, serum, sputum, urine, ascites or pleural fluid etc. can be analyzed. The time needed to perform the analysis varies between 5 hours and 2 days mostly depending on the DNA extraction method. Several potential pitfalls have to be avoided. The most common problem is contamination of reagents with target DNA. Amplification of DNA from biological samples may be prevented by enzyme inhibitors (salts, proteins). This problem can at least partially be avoided by changing the DNA purification method. Several additional problems may arise if bacterial DNA has to be amplified. Bacterial walls may have to be disrupted using heat or detergent for accessibility of target DNA. Positive results have to be judged carefully. Unlike the situation in retroviral infections with the virus sometimes present in the absence of disease, in the majority of bacterial infections the presence of bacteria signals manifest disease. A possible exception may be the finding of mycobacterial DNA in sarcoidosis patients who can be treated with steroids without provoking tuberculosis. PCR is especially useful in situations where rapid results are necessary or only fixed tissue is available.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Bacteria↗

Minicircle DNA vectors devoid of bacterial DNA result in persistent and high-level transgene expression in vivo.

The loss of transgene expression has been a major obstacle to the development of nonviral vectors for the treatment of human diseases. We previously demonstrated that bacterial DNA linked to a mammalian expression cassette resulted in transcriptional silencing of the transgene in vivo. To confirm these studies and develop a means to produce a robust DNA vector that is not silenced in vivo, we developed a phage phiC31 integrase-mediated intramolecular recombination technology to prepare minicircle vector DNA devoid of the bacterial backbone and then compared the transgene expression profile of the minicircle with different molecular forms of plasmid DNAs in mice. We demonstrate that minicircular DNAs devoid of bacterial sequences expressed 45- and 560-fold more serum human factor IX and alpha1-antitrypsin, respectively, compared to standard plasmid DNAs transfected into mouse liver. Our data suggest that minicircles are capable of expressing high and persistent levels of therapeutic products in vivo and have a great potential to serve as episomal vectors for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases.

Animals↗

Inflammatogenic properties of bacterial DNA following cutaneous exposure.

Bacterial DNA and oligodeoxynucleotides containing cytosine-phosphate-guanosine sequences and thereby mimicking prokaryotic DNA, have recently been shown to exert potent immunostimulatory properties. As skin normally harbors bacteria, and as the bacterial content and the levels of bacterial degradation products increase during skin infection, we analyzed the potential inflammatogenic role of bacterial DNA and oligodeoxynucleotides in a mouse model of cutaneous inflammation. Bacterial DNA from Staphylococcus aureus was injected intradermally into mice and its inflammatogenic properties were compared with synthetic phosphodiester and phosphorothioate cytosine-phosphate-guanosine- or GpC-containing oligodeoxynucleotides. A peak inflammatory infiltrate in the skin was seen already 2 d after injection with either bacterial DNA or the phosphodiester cytosine-phosphate-guanosine-oligodeoxynucleotides. In contrast, nuclease-resistant phosphorothioate cytosine-phosphate-guanosine-induced dermatitis peaked 7 d after intradermal injection. The inflammatory infiltrates consisted mainly of macrophages, and depletion of this cell population resulted in a significant (p=0.0001) decrease in the severity of inflammation, which suggests that macrophages play a central part in inflammatory responses in the skin following exposure to cytosine-phosphate-guanosine-containing oligodeoxynucleotides. A significant decrease in local inflammatory infiltrate was also seen in mice with deficiencies in neutrophil or lymphocyte populations, which indicates that these cell populations may also be involved in mediating inflammatory signals after the injection of immunostimulatory DNA sequences. In summary, our results suggest that bacterial DNA is an important virulence determinant and inflammatory stimulus during skin infections.

Administration, Topical↗

Effect of sex on the induction of anti-DNA antibodies in normal mice immunized with bacterial DNA.

Immunization of normal mice with bacterial DNA elicits a significant IgG anti-DNA response and has been explored as a model of systemic lupus erythematosus. To determine whether this induced response is influenced by sex, we have measured anti-DNA levels in normal male and female BALB/c mice immunized with single stranded DNA from E. coli as complexes with methylated bovine serum albumin (mBSA) in adjuvant. By ELISA assays, anti-DNA levels of immunized females were approximately 16-fold higher than those of immunized males; levels of antibodies to the mBSA carrier were similar, however. The antibodies from females and males showed a similar degree of cross-reactivity when assayed using other natural and synthetic DNA antigens, including mammalian DNA. These findings suggest the potentiation of anti-DNA production in females by antigen-specific mechanisms and provide further evidence that immunization with bacterial DNA replicates features of autoantibody production in SLE.

Animals↗

Bacterial DNA as an evolutionary conserved ligand signalling danger of infection to immune cells.

During infection, the innate limb of the immune system senses danger (pathogens) via constitutively expressed pattern-recognition receptors, and responds with activation and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cell-wall components of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, such as peptidoglycan, endotoxin or lipoteichoic acid, activate via CD14, a prototypic pattern-recognition receptor for carbohydrates. This review article focuses on an alternative recognition system of the innate immune system for the recognition of bacterial DNA. Bacterial DNA differs from eukaryotic DNA in its frequency of the dinucleotides CG and its lack of methylation. These structural differences appear to be sensed by cells of the innate immune system such as antigen-presenting cells. As a consequence bacterial DNA serves as an alternate ligand to signal danger of infection. Bacterial DNA and (synthetic) oligonucleotides (ODN) derived thereof are as efficient as endotoxin in activating macrophages and dendritic cells and in triggering release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. In mice sensitized with D-galactosamine (D-GalN), high doses of bacterial DNA from either gram-positive or gram-negative pathogens induce a lethal cytokine syndrome (lethal shock). Therefore, bacterial DNA may represent a hitherto unrecognized pathophysiological entity in host-parasite interactions. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that bacterial DNA or immunostimulating ODN triggers the immunostimulation of antigen-presenting cells, and can be utilized as adjuvant to enhance immune responses of the adaptive immune system towards poorly immunogenic antigens. In fact, foreign DNA might be useful as immunotherapeutically active adjuvant to direct adaptive immune responses towards Thl-dominated immune reactions. If these findings are operative in humans, immunostimulating ODN might be used to influence Th2-dominated diseases such as allergy.

Animals↗

The fine specificity of monoclonal anti-DNA antibodies induced in normal mice by immunization with bacterial DNA.

To evaluate further bacterial DNA immunization as a model to study antigen drive in the anti-DNA response, the specificity of induced monoclonal anti-DNA antibodies was characterized. A panel of IgM and IgG monoclonal anti-DNA antibodies was produced from spleen cells of BALB/c mice immunized with single-stranded DNA from E. coli complexed to methylated bovine serum albumin in complete Freund's adjuvant. The binding of these antibodies to DNA and non-DNA antigens was tested by ELISA to assess their range of polyspecificity. These monoclonal antibodies were found to bind to nucleic acid as well as non-nucleic acid antigens, such as beta-galactosidase, cardiolipin, Ro, La and Sm. These studies demonstrate that anti-DNA antibodies from normal mice, although induced by bacterial DNA, may display a broad range of antigen recognition and thus resemble lupus anti-DNA antibodies, many of which are polyspecific, in their pattern of cross-reactivity.

Animals↗

Molecular properties of anti-DNA induced in preautoimmune NZB/W mice by immunization with bacterial DNA.

To elucidate the mechanism of Ag drive in the anti-DNA response, the Ab response to bacterial DNA has been analyzed in normal and autoimmune mice. Preautoimmune NZB/W mice immunized with Escherichia coli dsDNA produce Abs that resemble spontaneous autoantibodies and bind mammalian dsDNA. In contrast, normal mice, when immunized similarly, produce Abs that bind only bacterial dsDNA. To characterize further the responsiveness of NZB/W mice to bacterial DNA, we determined the molecular properties of mAbs from preautoimmune NZB/W mice immunized with E. coli DNA. Of nine Abs studied, all were IgM and all bound mammalian ssDNA, while four had appreciable reactivity with mammalian dsDNA. The induced anti-dsDNA resembled spontaneous anti-DNA from autoimmune mice in V gene utilization and V(H) CDR3 arginine content. These Abs lacked evidence of somatic mutation, however, indicating that affinity maturation via somatic mutation is not essential for dsDNA reactivity. The findings suggest that preautoimmune NZB/W mice have immunoregulatory defects that allow activation of mammalian dsDNA reactive B cells by bacterial DNA.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Specificity of anti-DNA antibodies induced in normal mice by immunization with bacterial DNA.

To determine the specificity of anti-DNA antibodies induced in normal mice by immunization with bacterial DNA, sera from BALB/c mice immunized with single-stranded DNA from Escherichia coli (EC) were tested for binding to a panel of synthetic DNA and RNA homopolymers as well as duplexes. Results of these studies indicate that sera from EC DNA immunized mice preferentially bind certain DNA and RNA homopolymers as well as DNA duplexes. Furthermore, the specificity of the antibodies from immunized mice resembled those of sera from autoimmune MRL-lpr/lpr mice in terms of the synthetic antigens recognized, although some differences were noted in the magnitude of the response to individual duplexes. These results suggest that anti-DNA antibodies induced by bacterial DNA bind to DNA structures dependent on both the base and the sugar phosphate moieties of the nucleic acid antigen and may resemble some anti-DNA antibodies expressed in spontaneous autoimmune disease in these binding properties.

Animals↗

DNA polymerase I: structure, activity, and function in bacterial DNA replication and repair.

Faithful replication and repair of the genome are essential processes for all life. Genome maintenance is coordinated by a complex suite of proteins, with bacteria evolving intricate systems despite their relatively simplistic genomes. DNA polymerases are a key class of proteins that mediate genome maintenance. DNA polymerases are all capable of extending nascent strands of DNA but contribute to DNA replication and repair in distinct ways depending on their active site and substrate specificity. The first discovered polymerase, bacterial DNA polymerase I (Pol I), has long been considered the primary enzyme responsible for Okazaki fragment maturation and resynthesis in many DNA repair pathways. These conclusions derive primarily from studies using the gram-negative bacterium, Escherichia coli. Given that some bacterial lineages diverged from E. coli over a billion years ago, these assumptions may not account for evolution in functional diversity. In this review, we examine the structural features of bacterial Pol I and discuss how each of its distinct enzymatic activities contribute to genome maintenance. Throughout, we introduce differences that have been discovered between gram-negative and gram-positive species and explore how activity differences may translate to functional adaptations in replication or repair. We focus on evidence from gram-positive bacteria, particularly Bacillus subtilis and Geobacillus stearothermophilus, that challenges the universality of Pol I's functions and reveals lineage-specific adaptations in replication and repair mechanisms. By synthesizing historical perspectives with recent discoveries, this review underscores both the importance of Pol I and the evolutionary diversification of Pol I in bacterial DNA metabolism.

Bacterial DNA replication↗

Specificity of antibodies to bacterial DNA in the sera of healthy human subjects and patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the epitope structure to DNA by identifying antigenic determinants on bacterial DNA bound by anti-DNA antibodies from normal human subjects (NHS) and patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: Sera from NHS and patients with SLE were tested by ELISA for the presence of antibodies to single stranded DNA from calf thymus, Micrococcus lysodeikticus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Clostridium perfringens, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. To assess binding to conserved and nonconserved determinants, sera were absorbed on DNA-cellulose affinity columns bearing each of the bacterial DNA and then tested for binding to the other DNA antigens. RESULTS: Absorption of SLE sera with any of the bacterial DNA caused a loss of binding to all other bacterial DNA as well as calf thymus DNA. In contrast, absorption of NHS sera with bacterial DNA caused a loss of binding to the DNA on the affinity column with much less effect on binding to the other DNA antigens. CONCLUSION: These results indicate a marked difference in the specificity of antibodies to bacterial DNA in NHS and patients with SLE. The binding of SLE anti-DNA to predominantly conserved determinants suggests that a shift in patterns of anti-DNA specificity may be associated with the autoimmune state.

Antibody Specificity↗

Macrophages ingest and are activated by bacterial DNA.

Recent evidence suggests that bacterial DNA activates immune responses. Here we showed that TNF-alpha mRNA was induced in bone marrow-derived macrophages and the macrophage cell line RAW 264 by plasmid DNA, but not by DNaseI-digested plasmid, plasmid methylated on CpG dinucleotides, or by vertebrate genomic DNA, which is naturally largely methylated on these sequences. Synthetic polynucleotides poly d(I-C) and poly I x poly C also induced TNF-alpha. IL-1 beta and plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 mRNAs were induced by plasmid DNA, and IFN-gamma-pretreated macrophages responded to DNA with induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase. The HIV-1 long terminal repeat was activated by exogenous DNA in a manner similar to TNF-alpha, and was also activated by a CpG-containing oligonucleotide. Transcription factor nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) is involved in regulation of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat and many inflammatory response genes. NF-kappa B binding activity was increased by plasmid DNA. An important question is whether these effects involve DNA binding to a cell surface receptor that signals to the interior, or whether internalization is necessary. Here we found that plasmid was taken up by RAW 264 cells and remained sufficiently intact to code for luciferase protein. Results suggest that DNA is taken up by macrophages and characteristic bacterial DNA sequences, which include an unmethylated CpG sequence, activate a signaling cascade leading to activation of NF-kappa B and inflammatory gene induction. Relevance to DNA vaccination, gene therapy, antisense, and transfection studies is discussed.

Animals↗