Abstract

Inflammasome activation is a critical defense mechanism against bacterial infection. Previous studies suggest that inflammasome activation protects against Salmonella oral infection. Here we find inflammasome activation plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of Salmonella systemic infection. We show that in a systemic infection model by i.p. injection of Salmonella, deficiency of caspase-1 or gasdermin-D prolonged survival time, reduced plasma concentrations of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNFα. These deficiencies also protected against coagulopathy during Salmonella infection as evidenced by diminished prolongation of prothrombin time and increase in plasma thrombin-antithrombin complex concentrations in the caspase-1 or gasdermin-D deficient mice. Activation of the NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome by flagellin and/or the components of the SPI1 type 3 secretion system played a critical role in Salmonella-induced coagulopathy. In the absence of flagellin and SPI1, the Salmonella mutant strain still triggered coagulopathy through the caspase-11/NLRP3 pathway. Our results reveal a previously undisclosed role of the inflammasomes and pyroptosis in the pathogenesis of Salmonella systemic infection.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2023

Notes/Citation Information

0944-5013/© 2023 Elsevier GmbH. This article is made available under the Elsevier license (http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micres.2023.127460

Funding Information

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R00HL145117 to C.W., R01 HL142640 and GM132443 to Y.W. and Z. L., R01HL146744 to Z.L).

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