Trichomonas vaginalis Exosomes Deliver Cargo to Host Cells and Mediate Host:Parasite Interactions

Olivia Twu, Natalia de Miguel, Gila Lustig, Grant C. Stevens, Ajay A. Vashisht, James A. Wohlschlegel, Patricia J. Johnson.

PLoS Pathog (2013) 9(7): e1003482

Speaker: Jian-Ming Huang (黃建銘)           Time: 15:00~16:00, Dec. 18, 2013

Commentator: Dr. Chih-Li Hsu (胥直利 老師)  Place: Room 601

Abstract:

        Trichomonas vaginalis is an anaerobic and a common sexually transmitted protozoan with an estimated 275 million people infected each year. By and large, Trichomonas vaginalis lives in the female vagina and the male urethra to adhere to epithelial so that it can cause vaginal inflammation or asymptomatic according to host and the parasite strain.¹ Moreover, a recent analysis of the surface membrane proteome of T. vaginalis revealed at least three tetraspanin (Tsp) proteins which are involved in attachment, fusion and migration and also present in all examined mammalian exosomes.² Hence, the authors inferred whether T. vaginalis produces exosomes to enhance their ability and effect between host cells and T. vaginalis. The authors have observed that Trichomonasvaginalis secretes microvesicles through cultivated in TYM medium. First of all, in order to realize the composition and character of microvesicles of T. vaginalis, the authors used Agilent 2100Bioanalyzer and MudPIT analyses to detect physical and biochemical properties containing the presence of RNA as well as the orthologs of mammalian exosome proteomes. In the second place, the authors demonstrate that T. vaginalis exosomes are capable of mediating cell:cell communication to fuse with and deliver protein to host cells. The authors hypothesized that T. vaginalisexosomes may modulate immune response of the ectocervical cells (Ects) involved in host innate immunity. On the other hand, T. vaginalis exosomes influence parasite:parasite interaction so that the poorly adherent parasite strains contacting exosomes from highly adherent parasite strains increase adherence to vaginal and proatate epithelial cells. In conclusion, T. vaginalis exosomesincrease parasite adherence to host cells and modulate host cell response.

References:

1.         Swygard H, Sena AC, Hobbs MM, Cohen MS (2004) Trichomoniasis: clinical manifestations, diagnosis and management. Sex Transm Infect 80: 91–95.

2.         de Miguel N, Riestra A, Johnson PJ (2012) Reversible association of tetraspanin with Trichomonas vaginalis flagella upon adherence to host cells. Cell Microbiol 14: 1797–1807.