Abstract

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Viral-bacterial coinfections, such as with influenza A virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae (S.p.), are known to cause severe pneumonia. It is well known that the host response has an important role in disease. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) is an important immune signaling cytokine responsible for inflammation and has been previously shown to contribute to disease severity in numerous infections. Other studies in mice indicate that IL-1β levels are dramatically elevated during IAV-S.p. coinfection. However, the regulation of IL-1β during coinfection is unknown. Here, we report the NLRP3 inflammasome is the major inflammasome regulating IL-1β activation during coinfection. Furthermore, elevated IL-1β mRNA expression is due to enhanced TLR2-MYD88 signaling, which increases the amount of pro-IL-1β substrate for the inflammasome to process. Finally, NLRP3 and high IL-1β levels were associated with increased bacterial load in the brain. Our results show the NLRP3 inflammasome is not protective during IAV-S.p. coinfection.

Department(s)

Biology

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212236

Rights Information

© 2019 Rodriguez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Publication Date

2-1-2019

Journal Title

PLoS ONE

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