Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2) is an emerging human pathogen worldwide. A large outbreak occurred in the summer of 2005 in China. Serum samples from this outbreak revealed that levels of the main proinflammatory cytokines were significantly higher in patients with streptococcal toxic-shock-like syndrome (STSLS) than in patients with meningitis only. However, the mechanism underlying the cytokine storm in STSLS caused by SS2 remained unclear. In this study, we found that suilysin (SLY) is the main protein inflammatory stimulus of SS2 and that native SLY (nSLY) stimulated cytokines independently of its haemolytic ability. Interestingly, a small amount of SLY (Å Mol/L) induced strong, long-term TNF-α release from human PBMCs. We also found that nSLY stimulated TNF-α in wild-type macrophages but not in macrophages from mice that carried a spontaneous mutation in TLR4 (P712H). We demonstrated for the first time that SLY stimulates immune cells through TLR4. In addition, the Myd88 adaptor-p38-MAPK pathway was involved in this process. The present study suggested that the TLR4-dependent inflammatory responses induced by SLY in host might contribute to the STSLS caused by SS2 and that p38-MAPK could be used as a target to control the release of excess TNF-α induced by SS2.
Keywords: MAPK; SLY; TLR4; inflammation.