Host cell response and distinct gene expression profiles at different stages of Chlamydia trachomatis infection reveals stage-specific biomarkers of infection

作者：Emmanuel Enoch Dzakah, Liping Huang, Yaohua Xue, Shuai Wei, Xiaolin Wang, Hongliang Chen, Jingwei Shui, Foster Kyei, Farooq Rashid, Heping Zheng, Bing Yang, Shixing Tang · 发表于：BMC Microbiology · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1186/s12866-020-02061-6 · 被引用次数：19 · 研究领域：Reproductive tract infections research、Reproductive System and Pregnancy、Cervical Cancer and HPV Research

BACKGROUND: Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common sexually transmitted infection and the bacterial agent of trachoma globally. C. trachomatis undergoes a biphasic developmental cycle involving an infectious elementary body and a replicative reticulate body. Little is currently known about the gene expression dynamics of host cell mRNAs, lncRNAs, and miRNAs at different stages of C. trachomatis development. RESULTS: Here, we performed RNA-seq and miR-seq on HeLa cells infected with C. trachomatis serovar E at 20 h post-infection (hpi) and 44 hpi with or without IFN-γ treatment. Our study identified and validated differentially expressed host cell mRNAs, lncRNAs, and miRNAs during infection. Host cells at 20 hpi showed the most differential upregulation of both coding and non-coding genes while at 44 hpi in the presence of IFN-γ resulted in a dramatic downregulation of a large proportion of host genes. Using RT-qPCR, we validated the top 5 upregulated mRNAs and miRNAs, which are specific for different stages of C. trachomatis development. One of the commonly expressed miRNAs at all three stages of C. trachomatis development, miR-193b-5p, showed significant expression in clinical serum samples of C. trachomatis-infected patients as compared to sera from healthy controls and HIV-1-infected patients. Furthermore, we observed significant upregulation of antigen processing and presentation, and T helper cell differentiation pathways at 20 hpi whereas T cell receptor, mTOR, and Ra...