Role of cytoneme structures and extracellular vesicles in Trichomonas vaginalis parasite: parasite communication
- Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomús, Argentina
- Instituto Aggeu Magalhães, Brazil
- Estación Experimental Agropecuaria, Argentina
- University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Abstract
Trichomonas vaginalis, the etiologic agent of the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection worldwide, colonizes the human urogenital tract where it remains extracellular and adheres to epithelial cells. With an estimated annual prevalence of 276 million new cases, mixed infections with different parasite strains are expected. Although it is considered as obvious that parasites interact with their host to enhance their own survival and transmission, evidence of mixed infections call into question the extent to which unicellular parasites communicate with each other. Here, we demonstrated that different T. vaginalis strains can communicate through the formation of cytoneme-like membranous cell connections. We showed that T. vaginalis adherent strains form abundant membrane protrusions and cytonemes formation of an adherent parasite strain (CDC1132) is affected in the presence of a different strain (G3 or B7RC2). Using cell culture inserts assays, we demonstrated that the effect in cytoneme formation is contact-independent and that extracellular vesicles (EVs) are responsible, at least in part, of the communication among strains. We found that EVs isolated from G3, B7RC2, and CDC1132 strains contain a highly distinct repertoire of proteins, some of them involved in signaling and communication, among other functions. Finally, we showed that parasite adherence to host cells is affected by this communication between strains as binding of adherent T. vaginalis CDC1132 strain to prostate cells is significantly higher in the presence of G3 or B7RC2 strains. Demonstrating that interaction of isolates with distinct phenotypic characteristics may have significant clinical repercussions, we also observed that a poorly adherent parasite strain (G3) adheres more strongly to prostate cells in the presence of an adherent strain. The study of signaling, sensing, and cell communication in parasitic organisms will surely enhance our understanding of the basic biological characteristics of parasites, which may have important consequences in pathogenesis.
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All data available in the manuscript
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Author details
Funding
Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (PICT-2019-01671)
- Natalia de Miguel
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Marcio L Rodrigues, Instituto Carlos Chagas - Fiocruz PR, Brazil
Publication history
- Received: January 10, 2023
- Preprint posted: January 19, 2023 (view preprint)
- Accepted: May 1, 2023
- Accepted Manuscript published: May 2, 2023 (version 1)
Copyright
© 2023, Salas et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Role of cytoneme structures and extracellular vesicles in Trichomonas vaginalis parasite: parasite communication
eLife 12:e86067.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86067
Further reading
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- Cell Biology
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
African trypanosomes proliferate as bloodstream forms (BSFs) and procyclic forms in the mammal and tsetse fly midgut, respectively. This allows them to colonise the host environment upon infection and ensure life cycle progression. Yet, understanding of the mechanisms that regulate and drive the cell replication cycle of these forms is limited. Using single-cell transcriptomics on unsynchronised cell populations, we have obtained high resolution cell cycle regulated (CCR) transcriptomes of both procyclic and slender BSF Trypanosoma brucei without prior cell sorting or synchronisation. Additionally, we describe an efficient freeze–thawing protocol that allows single-cell transcriptomic analysis of cryopreserved T. brucei. Computational reconstruction of the cell cycle using periodic pseudotime inference allowed the dynamic expression patterns of cycling genes to be profiled for both life cycle forms. Comparative analyses identify a core cycling transcriptome highly conserved between forms, as well as several genes where transcript levels dynamics are form specific. Comparing transcript expression patterns with protein abundance revealed that the majority of genes with periodic cycling transcript and protein levels exhibit a relative delay between peak transcript and protein expression. This work reveals novel detail of the CCR transcriptomes of both forms, which are available for further interrogation via an interactive webtool.
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- Epidemiology and Global Health
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Background:
Dog-mediated rabies is endemic across Africa causing thousands of human deaths annually. A One Health approach to rabies is advocated, comprising emergency post-exposure vaccination of bite victims and mass dog vaccination to break the transmission cycle. However, the impacts and cost-effectiveness of these components are difficult to disentangle.
Methods:
We combined contact tracing with whole-genome sequencing to track rabies transmission in the animal reservoir and spillover risk to humans from 2010-2020, investigating how the components of a One Health approach reduced the disease burden and eliminated rabies from Pemba Island, Tanzania. With the resulting high-resolution spatiotemporal and genomic data we inferred transmission chains and estimated case detection. Using a decision tree model we quantified the public health burden and evaluated the impact and cost-effectiveness of interventions over a ten-year time horizon.
Results:
We resolved five transmission chains co-circulating on Pemba from 2010 that were all eliminated by May 2014. During this period, rabid dogs, human rabies exposures and deaths all progressively declined following initiation and improved implementation of annual islandwide dog vaccination. We identified two introductions to Pemba in late 2016 that seeded re-emergence after dog vaccination had lapsed. The ensuing outbreak was eliminated in October 2018 through reinstated islandwide dog vaccination. While post-exposure vaccines were projected to be highly cost-effective ($256 per death averted), only dog vaccination interrupts transmission. A combined One Health approach of routine annual dog vaccination together with free post-exposure vaccines for bite victims, rapidly eliminates rabies, is highly cost-effective ($1657 per death averted) and by maintaining rabies freedom prevents over 30 families from suffering traumatic rabid dog bites annually on Pemba island.
Conclusions:
A One Health approach underpinned by dog vaccination is an efficient, cost-effective, equitable and feasible approach to rabies elimination, but needs scaling up across connected populations to sustain the benefits of elimination, as seen on Pemba, and for similar progress to be achieved elsewhere.
Funding:
Wellcome [207569/Z/17/Z, 095787/Z/11/Z, 103270/Z/13/Z], the UBS Optimus Foundation, the Department of Health and Human Services of the National Institutes of Health [R01AI141712] and the DELTAS Africa Initiative [Afrique One-ASPIRE/DEL-15-008] comprising a donor consortium of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), the New Partnership for Africa's Development Planning and Coordinating (NEPAD) Agency, Wellcome [107753/A/15/Z], Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Small Grant 2017 [GR000892] and the UK government. The rabies elimination demonstration project from 2010-2015 was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [OPP49679]. Whole-genome sequencing was partially supported from APHA by funding from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Scottish government and Welsh government under projects SEV3500 & SE0421.
