TY  - JOUR
A1  - Prusty, Bhupesh K.
A1  - Chowdhury, Suvagata R.
A1  - Gulve, Nitish
A1  - Rudel, Thomas
T1  - Peptidase Inhibitor 15 (PI15) Regulates Chlamydial CPAF Activity
JF  - Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
N2  - Obligate intracellular pathogenic Chlamydia trachomatis express several serine proteases whose roles in chlamydial development and pathogenicity are not completely understood. The chlamydial protease CPAF is expressed during the replicative phase of the chlamydial developmental cycle and is secreted into the lumen of the Chlamydia-containing vacuole called inclusion. How the secreted protease is activated in the inclusion lumen is currently not fully understood. We have identified human serine peptidase inhibitor PI15 as a potential host factor involved in the regulation of CPAF activation. Silencing expression as well as over expression of PI15 affected normal development of Chlamydia. PI15 was transported into the chlamydial inclusion lumen where it co-localized with CPAF aggregates. We show that PI15 binds to the CPAF zymogen and potentially induces CPAF protease activity at low concentrations. However, at high concentrations PI15 inhibits CPAF activity possibly by blocking its protease domain. Our findings shed light on a new aspect of chlamydial host co-evolution which involves the recruitment of host cell proteins into the inclusion to control the activation of bacterial proteases like CPAF that are important for the normal development of Chlamydia.
KW  - chlamydia
KW  - CPAF activation
KW  - peptidase inhibitor PI15
KW  - chlamydial inclusion
KW  - chlamydia serine proteases
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196918
SN  - 2235-2988
VL  - 8
IS  - 183
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rasa, Santa
A1  - Nora-Krukle, Zaiga
A1  - Henning, Nina
A1  - Eliassen, Eva
A1  - Shikova, Evelina
A1  - Harrer, Thomas
A1  - Scheibenbogen, Carmen
A1  - Murovska, Modra
A1  - Prusty, Bhupesh K.
T1  - Chronic viral infections in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
JF  - Journal of Translational Medicine
N2  - Background and main text: Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a complex and controversial clinical condition without having established causative factors. Increasing numbers of cases during past decade have created awareness among patients as well as healthcare professionals. Chronic viral infection as a cause of ME/CFS has long been debated. However, lack of large studies involving well-designed patient groups and validated experimental set ups have hindered our knowledge about this disease. Moreover, recent developments regarding molecular mechanism of pathogenesis of various infectious agents cast doubts over validity of several of the past studies. 

Conclusions: This review aims to compile all the studies done so far to investigate various viral agents that could be associated with ME/CFS. Furthermore, we suggest strategies to better design future studies on the role of viral infections in ME/CFS.
KW  - ME/CFS
KW  - Viral infections
KW  - Biomarkers
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-224960
VL  - 16
IS  - 268
ER  -