Mouse Bone Marrow Sca-1+ CD44+ Mesenchymal Stem Cells Kill Avirulent Mycobacteria but Not Mycobacterium tuberculosis through Modulation of Cathelicidin Expression via the p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase-Dependent Pathway.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis primarily infects lung macrophages. However, a recent study showed that M. tuberculosis also infects and persists in a dormant form inside bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) even after successful antibiotic therapy. However, the mechanism(s) by which M. tuberculosis survives in BM-MSCs is still not known. Like macrophages, BM-MSCs do not contain a well-defined endocytic pathway, which is known to play a central role in the clearance of internalized mycobacteria. Here, we studied the fate of virulent and avirulent mycobacteria in Sca-1+ CD44+ BM-MSCs. We found that BM-MSCs were able to kill avirulent Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG but not the pathogenic species M. tuberculosis Further mechanistic studies revealed that pathogenic M. tuberculosis dampens the antibacterial response of BM-MSCs by downregulating the expression of the cationic antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin. In contrast, avirulent mycobacteria were effectively killed by inducing the Toll-like receptor 2/4 (TLR2/4) pathway-dependent expression of cathelicidin, while small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated cathelicidin silencing increased the survival of M. bovis BCG in BM-MSCs. We also showed that M. bovis BCG infection caused increased expression levels of MyD88, phospho-interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (pIRAK-4), and the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Further downstream investigations demonstrated that IRAK-4-p38 activation increased the nuclear translocation of NF-κB, which subsequently induced the expression of cathelicidin and the cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β), resulting in the decreased survival of M. bovis BCG. On the other hand, inhibition of TLR2/4, pIRAK-4, p38, and NF-κB nuclear translocation decreased cathelicidin and IL-1β expression levels and therefore increased the survival of avirulent mycobacteria. This is the first report that demonstrates that virulent mycobacteria manipulate the TLR2/4-MyD88-IRAK-4-p38-NF-κB-Camp-IL-1β pathway to survive inside bone marrow stem cells.