Identification of N-formylated peptides as the neutrophilic chemotactic factors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

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Abstract Since tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of human death, it is urgent to understand the pathology of TB. Lung neutrophil infiltration initiates granuloma formation and is associated with disease severity. Though several cytokines and chemokines are associated with neutrophil infiltration in chronic inflammation, neutrophil chemotactic factors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remain unexplored. Thus, we performed neutrophil chemotactic assays by culturing neutrophils of healthy human blood samples and mouse bone marrow in the upper chamber of a transwell plate with 5–8 μm pores with the culture filtrates of Mtb H37Rv (CF) in the lower chamber using N-formyl-met-leu-phe (fMLF), a bacterial neutrophil chemotactic tripeptide, as a positive control. The cell numbers in the lower chamber were determined by flow cytometry as a chemotactic indicator. Our results show that CF induced chemotaxis of both human and mouse neutrophils in an Mtb culture period dependent manner. Testing CF of 11 clinical isolates of Mtb also showed neutrophil chemotactic activity. Sulfasalazine, a formylated peptide receptor inhibitor, blocked chemotaxis of neutrophils, indicating the involvement of fPRs in CF induces chemotaxis of neutrophils. Mass spectrometry analysis of CF identified three candidate N-formylated heptapeptides. Authentication of the chemotactic activities of the identified peptides with synthetic mimetics confirmed their neutrophil chemotactic activities and indicated the requirement of N-formylation for their chemotactic activities. Thus, we have identified novel formylated peptides of Mtb with neutrophil chemotactic activities, and further studies are in progress to determine their significance in TB infection.