Shigella Pathogenesis Modeling with Tissue Culture Assays.

Shigella is an enteroinvasive human pathogen that infects the colonic epithelium and causes Shigellosis, an infectious diarrheal disease. There is no vaccine for the prevention or treatment of Shigellosis and antibiotic-resistant strains of Shigella are increasing, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of Shigella pathogenesis in order to design effective antimicrobial therapies. Small animal models do not recapitulate Shigellosis, therefore tissue-cultured cells have served as model systems to study Shigella pathogenesis. Here, protocols to enumerate Shigella invasion, cell-cell spread, and plaque formation in the tissue-cultured cell lines Henle-407 and CoN-841 are described. Additionally, a new method to study Shigella invasion in primary intestinal enteroids is described. These protocols can be used to examine different aspects of Shigella virulence.