The streptococcal IgG degrading enzyme IdeS : studies on host-pathogen interactions

Sammanfattning: The important human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes causes both mild infections such as pharyngitis and impetigo but also severe life threatening invasive infections.  Specific antibodies (IgG) recognize pathogens and are important mediators for pathogen clearance by the immune defence. S.ipyogenes expresses a highly effective and specific IgG endopeptidase called IdeS (immunoglobulin degrading enzyme of S.ipyogenes). IdeS rescues bacteria from opsonising IgG by cleavage of IgG generating two fragments F(ab´)2 and ½Fc. Moreover, IdeS block ROS production by neutrophils. In this thesis I have studied (i) allelic variants of IdeS and their biological potential, (ii) consequences of ½Fc production for host-pathogen interactions and (iii) IdeS processing by streptococcal and neutrophil proteases. When investigating the allelic variants of IdeS we could show that in respect to IgG degradation and inhibition of ROS production the allelic variants where indistinguishable, however the allelic variant of serotype M28 appears to be an unique exception as this protein was deficient in IgG cleavage but still inhibited ROS production. Further, the ½Fc fragments produced when IgG is cleaved by IdeS were shown to prime human neutrophils and under ex vivo experimental conditions this increased the bactericidal activity of the neutrophils. Finally, we made the interesting finding that IdeS is N-terminally processed by neutrophil proteases and by the streptococcal protease SpeB, but retain enzymatic activity and was less immunogenic compared to the full length protein.