CD271+ Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a Possible Infectious Niche for Leishmania infantum

Carolina S Lopes; Nada Daifalla; Bikul Das; Valdo Dias da Silva; Antonio Campos-Neto

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162927

CD271+ Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a Possible Infectious Niche for Leishmania infantum

PLoS One. 2016 Sep 13;11(9):e0162927. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162927. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Carolina S Lopes^{1

2}, Nada Daifalla¹, Bikul Das¹, Valdo Dias da Silva², Antonio Campos-Neto¹

Affiliations

¹ The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge Massachusetts, United States of America.
² Department of Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Physiology and Molecular Biology, Institute for Biological and Natural Sciences, Triângulo Mineiro Federal University, Uberaba, MG, Brazil.

Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a serious and fatal disease. Therapeutic drugs are toxic and non-sterilizing. The etiological agents Leishmania infantum and Leishmania donovani cause active and asymptomatic diseases. Effective drugs to treat VL exist but unfortunately, post-treatment relapses are common. Little is known why drugs are non-sterilizing or how these intracellular pathogens can escape treatment. Here, using a murine model of VL we found that CD271+/Sca1+ bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) are readily infected in vitro and in vivo by L. infantum. Because BM-MSCs express potent drug efflux pumps, e.g., ABCG2 it is possible that this unique intracellular infectious niche could allow L. infantum to escape anti-parasite drugs.

MeSH terms

Animals
Disease Models, Animal
Humans
Leishmania infantum / pathogenicity*
Leishmaniasis, Visceral / metabolism
Leishmaniasis, Visceral / parasitology*
Leishmaniasis, Visceral / pathology*
Male
Mesenchymal Stem Cells / metabolism
Mesenchymal Stem Cells / parasitology*
Mesenchymal Stem Cells / pathology
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor / metabolism
Stem Cell Niche

Substances

Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor
Ngfr protein, mouse

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), a Brazilian Government for Education and Scientific Research - Fellowship awarded to CSL. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.