Title
Sulforaphane promotes chlamydial infection by suppressing mitochondrial protein oxidation and activation of complement C3
Date Issued
01 January 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Saez D.
Dushime R.
Wu H.
Shukla K.
Brown-Harding H.
Furdui C.M.
Tsang A.W.
Wake Forest School of Medicine
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
Sulforaphane (SFN), a phytochemical found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent with reported effects in cancer chemoprevention and suppression of infection with intracellular pathogens. Here we report on the impact of SFN on infection with Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), a common sexually transmitted pathogen responsible for 131 million new cases annually worldwide. Astoundingly, we find that SFN as well as broccoli sprouts extract (BSE) promote Ct infection of human host cells. Both the number and size of Ct inclusions were increased when host cells were pretreated with SFN or BSE. The initial investigations presented here point to both the antioxidant and thiol alkylating properties of SFN as regulators of Ct infection. SFN decreased mitochondrial protein sulfenylation and promoted Ct development, which were both reversed by treatment with mitochondria-targeted paraquat (MitoPQ). Inhibition of the complement component 3 (complement C3) by SFN was also identified as a mechanism by which SFN promotes Ct infections. Mass spectrometry analysis found alkylation of cysteine 1010 (Cys1010) in complement C3 by SFN. The studies reported here raise awareness of the Ct infection promoting activity of SFN, and also identify potential mechanisms underlying this activity.
Start page
216
End page
227
Volume
28
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Biología celular, Microbiología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85058504794
PubMed ID
Source
Protein Science
ISSN of the container
0961-8368
Sponsor(s)
The authors thank Jerricka Smith and Nicole Dennis for their help during the early stages of this study. This work was supported by awards from Avon Foundation for Women to AWT and Wake Forest Center for Integrative Medicine to AWT and CMF, and Wake Forest Center for Redox Biology and Medicine to AWT and HBH. We also want to acknowledge the Kimbrell family for the support of high-end mass spectrometry instrumentation in CMF’s laboratory, Wake Forest University Biology Microscope Imaging Core, and the Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center (NIH/NCI P30 CA012197) for support of shared resource facilities. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus