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RED CELLS
From the Department of Microbiology and Infectious
Diseases and Immunology Research Group, University of Calgary, Calgary,
Alberta, Canada; the Division of Infection and Immunity, The Walter and
Eliza Hall of Medical Research, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The malarial protein Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte
membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) is a parasite protein that is exported to
the surface of the infected erythrocyte, where it is inserted into the
red cell cytoskeleton in the second half of the parasite life cycle.
The surface expression of PfEMP1 coincides with the occurrence of the
adhesion of infected erythrocytes to vascular endothelium. This protein
has been shown to interact with CD36, intercellular adhesion molecule-1
(ICAM-1) and chondroitin sulfate A (CSA). In this study, it is
demonstrated by affinity purification and western blot analysis that
PfEMP1 also functions as a cell surface ligand for P-selectin, an
adhesion molecule that has been shown to mediate the rolling of
infected erythrocytes under physiologic flow conditions, leading to a
significant increase in adhesion to CD36 on activated platelets and
microvascular endothelium.
(Blood. 2001;98:3132-3135) There has been increasing recognition that
Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes interact with a
number of adhesion molecules on microvascular endothelium in a
synergistic fashion under flow conditions.1-5 Infected
erythrocytes tether and roll on CD36, intercellular adhesion molecule-1
(ICAM-1), P-selectin, and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1),
whereas adhesion is mainly to CD36. In both in vitro and in vivo
models, there is strong evidence that the rolling interaction enhances
subsequent adhesion, either by increasing the arrest of rolling cells
(ICAM-1 and VCAM-1),4,5 or by actually increasing the
number of infected erythrocytes recruited from the bloodstream to
vascular endothelium (P-selectin).4 These findings suggest
that P-selectin may play an important role in the recruitment of
infected erythrocytes in the pathogenesis of severe falciparum malaria.
P-selectin is a 140 kd glycoprotein that has a critical role in
leukocyte recruitment in mediating the initial tethering of leukocytes
to endothelium through interaction with its natural ligand P-selectin
glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) on leukocytes.6,7 The
extracellular domain of P-selectin consists of a lectin domain, EGF
domain, and 9 short consensus repeats. In previous studies, we have
shown that as with leukocytes, infected erythrocyte rolling on
immobilized P-selectin is Ca++-dependent, and
neuraminidase- and trypsin-sensitive.3
Furthermore, rolling can be competitively inhibited by the sulfated
fucose polymer fucoidin and the tetrasaccharide sialyl Lewis x
(sLex). These findings suggest that infected erythrocytes
may interact with the lectin domain of P-selectin via a sialylated
glycoprotein expressed on the surface of infected erythrocytes.
The parasite protein Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte
membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) is expressed on the surface of infected erythrocytes in the second half of the parasite life
cycle.8 It is a variant protein both in terms of
antigenicity9 and molecular size.8 The
protein is encoded by a large family of var
genes.10,11 The molecule consists of 2 to 7 Duffy-binding like (DBL) domains, each containing 5 consensus motifs rich in cysteine
residues. There is a single transmembrane domain, followed by an
intracytoplasmic domain. Different domains on PfEMP1 have been shown to
bind CD36,12 ICAM-1,13 and chondroitin
sulfate A.14 In the present report, we investigated
whether PfEMP1 binds P-selectin.
Materials
Antibodies and immunoblotting
PfEMP1 extraction SDS soluble PfEMP1 extracts were prepared from a clinical isolate of P falciparum (P98-23) as previously described.16 A membrane extract of infected erythrocytes from a laboratory parasite line D10, which did not roll on immobilized rhP-selectin in a flow chamber assay,3 was prepared by the same protocol and used as a control. An extract from normal group O erythrocytes was also prepared by ultracentrifugation (100 000g) at all steps of the procedure.Preparation of anti-ATS-coated sepharose beads Cyanogen bromide-activated sepharose beads (Pharmacia Biotech, Upsala, Sweden) coated with bovine serum albumin (BSA) or anti-ATS antibody were prepared by adding 50 mL of 1 mM HCl to 0.5 g beads and rocked for 15 minutes. The beads were spun and the supernatant removed. Three mL of anti-ATS at 0.4 mg/mL was added to 1.5 mL beads and mixed on a rotating wheel at 4°C for 2 hours. The supernatant was removed and measured at 280 nm in a spectrophotometer to ensure that 70% to 90% of the antibodies had bound to the beads. Five mL of 0.1 M Tris buffer, pH 8.0 was added to the antibody-coated beads and put on a rotating wheel for 2 hours at 4°C. The beads were spun and the supernatants removed. The beads were washed alternately with 5 mL 0.1 M Na acetate, pH 4, in 0.5 M NaCl and 5 mL 0.1 M Tris-HCl, pH 4.0, in 0.5 M NaCl for a total of 6 washes. Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was added at a 1-to-1 ratio and a final NaN3 concentration of 0.05%. Control beads coated with BSA at 5 mg/mL were prepared by the same protocol.Affinity purification of P-selectin with immobilized PfEMP1 on anti-ATS sepharose beads Twenty µL sepharose 4B beads coated with BSA were incubated with 100 µL of PfEMP1 extract diluted 1-to-10 in TPP (1% Triton X-100 in PBS with protease inhibitor "Complete") for 2 hours at 4°C on a rotating device (Thermolyne, Labuquake-Barnstead, Dubuque, IA). This step was done to absorb out any nonspecific protein-protein interactions. Subsequently, the beads were pelleted and the supernatant was incubated with 20 µL of anti-ATS-sepharose beads for 2 hours at 4°C on a rotating device. This step was followed by pelleting the beads, washes with TPP, and incubation with 400 µL rhP-selectin at 2 µg/mL of a buffer containing 20 mM Tris, 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM CaCl2, pH 7.4,10 for 2 hours at 4°C. Beads were washed and 20 µL beads were loaded with an equal volume of 2x sample buffer in each lane of an SDS-PAGE gel. After transfer, the blot was probed with anti-P-selectin followed by peroxidase-labeled secondary antibody and ECL system.Neuraminidase digestion The interaction of P-selectin with its natural ligand PSGL-1 on leukocytes is sialic acid-dependent. To determine if P-selectin recognition of PfEMP1 also requires sialyl residues, immobilized PfEMP1 was digested at 37°C for 1 hour with neuraminidase from V cholerae at a final concentration of 0.5 U/mL in 50mM sodium acetate, pH 5.5, 154 mM NaCl, 9 mM CaCl2, and 25 µg/mL human serum albumin (HSA). A second aliquot of immobilized PfEMP-1 was treated with the buffer alone. After extensive washes to remove the enzyme, the beads were incubated with rhP-selectin and then probed with anti-P-selectin.To determine if the neuraminidase treatment produced any change in the size or amount of PfEMP1 protein, enzyme-treated immobilized PfEMP1 on anti-ATS beads was run on an SDS-PAGE gel. A second lane in the gel contained an aliquot of immobilized PfEMP1 treated with the buffer alone. After transfer, the blot was probed with anti-ATS and developed with ECL. The bands were scanned and individual bands were quantified after background subtraction using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Image 1.61 program. Competitive inhibition of P-selectin binding by sLex and fucoidin To further characterize the interaction between PfEMP1 and P-selectin, 10 µL anti-ATS beads with immobilized PfEMP1 were incubated with rhP-selectin (2 µg/mL) in the presence or absence of 2.5 mM sLex, or in the presence of fucoidin or dextran. The beads were then pelleted, washed, and analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting.
Detection of PfEMP1 with anti-ATS The PfEMP1 extracts from the parasite isolate P98-23 and parasite line D10 were electrophoretically separated by means of SDS-PAGE and transferred to immobilon-P. Probing with anti-ATS revealed a number of prominent bands above 220 kd (Figure 1). Weaker bands of approximately 220 kd were also seen. The bands were specific for parasite proteins, as none of them was present in the extract of noninfected erythrocytes.
Affinity purification of P-selectin by PfEMP1 PfEMP1 bound to anti-ATS-coated beads were allowed to interact with rhP-selectin. As controls, extracts of infected eythrocytes from a noninteracting line D10 and noninfected erythrocytes were subjected to the same experimental procedure. During the subsequent SDS-PAGE, a protein of approximately 120 kd was solubilized from only the PfEMP1 beads from P98-23 which, on probing with anti-P-selectin, comigrated with rhP-selectin (Figure 2). No protein was solubilized from anti-ATS beads incubated with an extract of D10 or noninfected erythrocytes, although PfEMP1 was detectable in the D10 lane when probed with anti-ATS (data not shown).
P-selectin recognizes a neuraminidase-sensitive determinant Pretreatment of immobilized PfEMP1 with neuraminidase from V cholerae, which specifically cleaves both 2-3 and 2-6
linkages of sialic acids, totally abolished the binding of rhP-selectin (Figure 3A). Furthermore, immobilized PfEMP1 did not bind
P-selectin in the presence of fucoidin (Figure 3B) or sLex
(data not shown), but binding was not affected by an irrevelant sugar dextran. Neuraminidase-treated immobilized PfEMP1 separated on
SDS-PAGE gel displayed the same bands as buffer-treated protein on
probing with anti-ATS (Figure 3C).
Densitometry readings of the major bands were 194.88 (doublet) and
206.12 in the enzyme-treated lane, and 213.31 (doublet) and 225.39 in
the buffer-treated lane. The 9% difference after subtracting for
background is within experimental variation in the amount of beads
loaded in the 2 lanes.
In this report, we demonstrated that PfEMP1 from a clinical P falciparum isolate can function as a ligand for P-selectin. The specific affinity of the receptor molecule to the beads with immobilized PfEMP1 and the absence of any effect in all controls were clear and direct proof of the receptor-ligand interaction. This was further supported by corroborating evidence such as the abrogation of the P-selectin-PfEMP1 interaction by the sulfated glycoconjugate fucoidin, which inhibits the binding of PSGL-1 on leukocytes to the lectin domain of P-selectin.17 Our data also suggest that sialic acid residues may possibly be involved in the interaction between PfEMP1 and P-selectin. However, glycosylation by P falciparum remains controversial.18 Currently there is no evidence that the parasite either makes sialic acid or possesses trans-sialidase activity.19,20 Conclusive evidence for the involvement of sialic acid residues can be obtained only when a single PfEMP1 species that binds P-selectin is cloned and sialylation identified. In our experiments, we have not exhaustively excluded a nonspecific effect of neuraminidase on PfEMP1 or the binding domain for P-selectin on the protein. It is also conceivable that a sialoglycoprotein of host cell origin could have coprecipitated with the PfEMP1 in our experiments, and mediated the interaction with P-selectin. Host cell proteins by themselves were obviously insufficient to mediate binding of P-selectin, as a membrane extract of noninfected erythrocytes did not bind any receptor protein, and noninfected erythrocytes did not roll on immobilized P-selectin in a flow chamber assay.3 Similarly, the membrane extract of the parasite line D10, which did not roll on immobilized P-selectin in the flow chamber assay, also did not bind P-selectin. The dissociation constant (Kd) of P-selectin for sLex is in the millimolar range.21 Despite the low affinity and high on-off rate, this interaction is critical for the initial tethering and rolling of leukocytes on venular endothelium. The binding affinity of P-selectin for PfEMP1 is not known. However, the interaction between P falciparum-infected erythrocytes and P-selectin under physiologic flow conditions is also one of tethering and rolling.3 As in the case of leukocytes, these adhesive interactions are physiologically significant. On oncostatin M-stimulated human dermal microvascular endothelium, the induction of P-selectin expression resulted in an increase in the number of rolling cells in a parallel plate flow chamber, leading to an increase in the number of adherent cells to CD36.4 Recent investigations by intravital microscopy in a human/severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mouse chimera model confirmed that rolling and adhesion of infected erythrocytes do indeed occur in a human microvasculature in vivo, and that the rolling component can enhance subsequent adhesion.5 In leukocyte recruitment, the steps of the adhesive cascade are restricted, inasmuch as no adhesion occurs unless there is prior rolling on selectins22 or VCAM-1.23 In comparison, infected erythrocytes can roll on a number of adhesion molecules all of which can contribute to the eventual arrest of the cells on CD36. Understanding the molecular basis of the interaction between the parasite and each of the adhesion molecules will provide crucial information for the design of antiadhesive therapy.
The authors would like to thank Tim Byrne, Division of Infections and Immunity, The Walter and Eliza Hall of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia, for technical assistance; and Dr Dror I. Baruch, Laboratory for Parasitic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, for helpful discussions.
Submitted December 14, 2000; accepted July 13, 2001.
Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, Alberta, Canada.
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. Therefore, and solely to indicate this fact, this article is hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. section 1734.
Reprints: May Ho, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 3330 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1; e-mail: mho{at}ucalgary.ca.
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© 2001 by The American Society of Hematology.
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