Abstract
DNA methylation has been introduced as a promising biomarker for different diseases. Alterations in macrophage DNA methylation status have been documented during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. We conducted this study using a human methylation PCR array kit, which comprised a panel of 22 genes in TLR2 signaling pathway, in order to gain insights into epigenetic interactions between drug-susceptible and -resistant Mtb strains and THP-1-derived macrophages (one of the main host immunity cells during TB infection). We also evaluated the expression of Rv1988 gene in the studied isolates. It was found that the methylation level of all of the studied inflammatory genes, except Irak-2 and Tbk-1, increased in THP-1 macrophages, which were infected by extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Mtb strains, compared with the mock cells (P < 0.05). In susceptible strains, we only found hypomethylation in Irak-2 gene, in addition to a slight increase in the methylation levels of Ubev, Ube2n, and Traf6 genes. The present findings provide new insights into the potential role of resistant and susceptible Mtb strains in promoting aberrant epigenetic modifications in macrophages. Further investigations on the host epigenomes, infected with different Mtb isolates, are needed to elucidate their functions in immunological responses and to introduce new effective tools against Mtb infection.
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Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
Abbreviations
- Mtb:
-
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- TLR:
-
Toll-like receptor
- MYD88:
-
Myeloid differentiation primary response 88
- IRAK:
-
Interleukin receptor-associated
- TRAF:
-
Tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6
- TOLLIP:
-
Toll interacting protein
- FADD:
-
Foreign animal disease diagnostician
- IRF:
-
Interferon regulatory factor
- MAP3K7:
-
Mitogen-activated protein kinase 7
- MIRU-VNTR:
-
Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units–variable number tandem repeat
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the personnel of Mycobacteriology and Pulmonary Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, for their assistance in this project.
Funding
This study was financially supported by Pasteur Institute of Iran (Grant No. 1006).
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AB practical work, data analysis, prepare and collection of main data. SH wrote the main manuscript text. AA contributed to practical work. FR contributed to data analysis. FV edit of final manuscript. SD design of project and edit of final manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Behrouzi, A., Hadifar, S., Amanzadeh, A. et al. Aberrant methylation of host macrophages induced by tuberculosis infection. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 35, 168 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-019-2733-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-019-2733-7