The overlapping host responses to bacterial cyclic dinucleotides

Macrophages respond to infection with Legionella pneumophila by the induction of inflammatory mediators, including type I Interferons (IFN-Is). To explore whether the bacterial second messenger cyclic 3′-5′ diguanylate (c-diGMP) activates some of these mediators, macrophages were infected with L. pneumophila strains in which the levels of bacterial c-diGMP had been altered. Intriguingly, there was a positive correlation between c-diGMP levels and IFN-I expression. Subsequent studies with synthetic derivatives of c-diGMP, and newly described cyclic 3′-5′ diadenylate (c-diAMP), determined that these molecules activate overlapping inflammatory responses in human and murine macrophages. Moreover, UV crosslinking studies determined that both dinucleotides physically associate with a shared set of host proteins. Fractionation of macrophage extracts on a biotin-c-diGMP affinity matrix led to the identification of a set of candidate host binding proteins. These studies suggest that mammalian macrophages can sense and mount a specific inflammatory response to bacterial dinucleotides.