Mycobacterium tuberculosis modifies cell wall carbohydrates during biofilm growth with a concomitant reduction in complement activation

Abstract

There is an urgent need for drugs, new vaccines, and diagnostics for TB. It is recognised that research needed for the development of new vaccines for TB needs to be underpinned by understanding both the molecular and cellular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions and how the immune response can be modulated to achieve protection with the use of a new vaccine for TB. Complement interacts with and orchestrates many aspects of the innate and adaptive immune responses and activation by Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be triggered by all three pathways. However, little is known about the contribution of each of these pathways during TB disease, particularly with respect to mycobacterial phenotype. There is strong evidence for extracellular communities of M. tuberculosis during TB disease (biofilms) that are found in the acellular rim of granulomas. These biofilms have been observed in cavities in lung resections from TB patients and are likely to be present in post-primary TB episodes in necrotic lesions. Our study aimed to understand more about the interactions between M. tuberculosis biofilms and complement activation, to determine which mycobacterial cell wall components are altered during biofilm growth, and how their alteration contributes to modulation of the complement response. We show that the lectin pathway has a reduced role compared to the classical pathway in initiating complement activation in biofilm bacteria. Analyses of the M. tuberculosis biofilm cell wall carbohydrate fractions revealed that there was reduced α-glucan compared to planktonically-grown bacteria. Reduced C3b/iC3b deposition directly onto biofilm carbohydrates was observed which was consistent with both the observed reduction of C3b/iC3b deposition on biofilm bacilli and a reduction in the contribution of the lectin pathway in initiating complement activation on whole bacteria from biofilms, compared to planktonically-grown bacteria.