An increase in intracellular p62/NBR1 and persistence of Burkholderia mallei and B. pseudomallei in infected mice linked to autophagy deficiency

Introduction Burkholderia mallei (B. mallei) and Burkholderia pseudomallei (B. pseudomallei), causative agents of glanders and melioidosis, respectively, are invasive intracellular pathogens that actively multiply in phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells. Activation of cell-autonomous autophagy mechanism eliminate intracellular pathogens in which p62 a cytosolic cargo protein is selectively degraded, and an accumulation of this marker occurs if autophagy is deficient. Recurrent, relapsed and reinfection of B. pseudomallei in melioidosis patients in endemic area indicative of lack of complete of clearance and persistence of the pathogen. Reasoning that abundance in the levels of p62 may provide an indication of the intracellular infection, we sought to examine whether increase in intracellular p62 and bacterial burden with Burkholderia infection are linked to autophagy deficiency. Methods In this study, we investigated cell culture and mouse models of disease to identify an association between autophagy biomarkers (p62/NBR1) accumulation and intracellular persistence of B. mallei and B. pseudomallei. Results We demonstrate, that elevated levels of intracellular p62/NBR1 correlated with bacterial persistence, while pre-treatment with a pharmacological inducer of autophagy, rapamycin, reduced both intracellular p62, and bacterial survival. Our results showed an elevated p62 levels (2-5 fold) in spleen and liver cells of Burkholderia-infected BALB/c mice, as well as in spleen cells of Burkholderia-infected C57BL/6 mice, suggesting that an increase in p62/NBR1 was due to an autophagy deficiency. Similar to p62, cytosolic LC3-I levels were also elevated, while the characteristic conversion to the autophagosome-associated membrane bound form LC3-II was low in spleens of the infected mice further supporting the conclusion that autophagy was deficient. Conclusion Taken together, our results suggest that an increase in intracellular p62/NBR1 may be a potential host cell biomarker of B. mallei or B. pseudomallei infections, and identifying autophagy manipulation may potentially aid to therapeutic approach for complete clearance of the pathogen.