Microparticles induce variable levels of activation in macrophages infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Activation of human macrophages infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis was investigated following exposure to microparticles (MP) possessing high anti-tubercular efficacy in mice. A small set of innate responses (cytokine profiles, NO production, Annexin-V staining and caspase-8, caspase-9 and caspase-3 activities) of differentiated THP-1 cells or human monocyte-derived macrophages infected 1:10 in vitro were compared. Cytokines of THP-1 macrophages were comparable in trends, but not in magnitude, with five human genotypes studied. MP reversed suppression of tumor necrosis factor induced by infection, and transiently upregulated gamma-interferon. Drug-free MP surprisingly induced gamma-interferon, but not tumor necrosis factor. Primary cells responded to MP, regardless of drug content, by upregulation of NO; but THP-1 cells did not respond to drug-free MP. About 19% of infected cells exposed to MP underwent apoptosis compared to approximately 11% cells treated otherwise. Cell death induced by drug-free MP was caspase independent. Intracellular bacterial survival varied between individuals. Untreated infection resulted in survival of 900+/-141 cfu; exposure to soluble drugs, drug-containing and blank microparticles respectively, reduced CFU counts to <10, <10 and 102+/-139. These observations indicate that despite variations in magnitude between cells from different sources, innate responses conducive to killing intracellular bacteria were evoked by inhalable MP. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.