Selective autophagy gets more selective: Uncoupling of autophagy flux and xenophagy flux in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected macrophages

Pallavi Chandra, Dhiraj Kumar

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debate

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

Abstract: Induction of autophagy has been reported as a potential means to eliminate intracellular pathogens. Corroborating that, many studies report inhibition of autophagy as a survival strategy of bacterial pathogens. Incidentally, autophagy at the basal level is critical for survival of host cells including macrophages. We asked how a bacterial pathogen could inhibit autophagy for its survival if the inhibition resulted in cell death. In a recent study we show distinct regulation of autophagy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-infected macrophages where Mtb containing- and nonMtb-containing autophagosomes show different fates in terms of maturation. We show that upon Mtb infection, there is no dramatic change in the autophagy flux in macrophages. However, autophagosomes that contain the virulent strains of Mtb show selective resilience to the maturation phase of autophagy. Surprisingly, nonMtb-containing autophagosomes in the infected cells continue to mature into autolysosomes. The block in the xenophagy flux is missing in the case of avirulant infections. We show that this selectivity is achieved through selective exclusion of RAB7 from virulent Mtb-containing autophagosomes, thereby restricting the formation of amphisomes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)608-609
Number of pages2
JournalAutophagy
Volume12
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Keywords

  • LC3
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis
  • RAB7
  • amphisomes
  • autophagy flux
  • macrophages
  • xenophagy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Selective autophagy gets more selective: Uncoupling of autophagy flux and xenophagy flux in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected macrophages'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this