Graphical summary. Credit score: Cell Host & Microbe (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2025.02.003
Assistant Professor Andrew Monteith’s lab within the Division of Microbiology is documenting how key immune cells detect an infection and the way that fails to occur in individuals with lupus.
Analysis Affiliate Ashley Clever led a examine centered on neutrophils, probably the most ample sort of immune cell, and the way their mitochondria perform as sensory organelles to detect lactate launched by micro organism equivalent to Staphylococcus aureus.
“If I were to ask what the role of mitochondria is, most people would respond with them being ‘the powerhouse of the cell.’ However, in neutrophils that is not the case,” Monteith defined. “Rather than letting the bacteria continue to replicate, the mitochondria sense bacterial metabolites in the phagosome and trigger the neutrophil to undergo NETosis—an antimicrobial cell death process—that removes the bacteria from the intracellular niche.”
“We also collaborated with the University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC) to identify that neutrophils from people with the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are incapable of detecting bacterial lactate through their mitochondria,” he stated. “As a result, they cannot undergo NETosis when appropriate, which explains why this patient population experiences more frequent and severe bacterial infections.”
Their analysis seems within the March 12 challenge of Cell Host & Microbe, in an article titled, “Mitochondria sense bacterial lactate and drive release of neutrophil extracellular traps.”
College of Tennessee Assistant Professor Andrew Monteith (proper) and Analysis Affiliate Ashley Clever in Monteith’s lab within the Division of Microbiology. Credit score: College of Tennessee
5 UT undergraduates additionally made substantial contributions to the paper, Sarah McDaniel, Ellie Mennen, Eva Belevska, Madalyne Marshall, and Nicole Vaccaro.
Monteith had a historical past of learning SLE when he joined UT in 2023 and was all in favour of alternatives to translate the findings to human sufferers. He met with Jeffry Bieber, a rheumatologist and chief of the division of rheumatology at UTMC.
Monteith stated the success of their collaboration was a part of the inspiration for beginning the Neighborhood of Students for Immunology and Irritation (CoSI2), a part of the Workplace of Analysis, Innovation and Financial Growth.
“The collaboration has been excellent, and we hope to have some exciting new data in future,” Monteith stated.
Initiatives underway in his lab are looking for to grasp the processes that dictate NETosis, in addition to how neutrophils in SLE sufferers reply in ways in which exacerbate irritation.
“In addition,” Monteith stated, “the graduate students in my lab are taking a slightly different approach and trying to understand how metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity dysregulate neutrophils and leave these patient population more susceptible to bacterial infection.”
Extra data:
Ashley D. Clever et al, Mitochondria sense bacterial lactate and drive launch of neutrophil extracellular traps, Cell Host & Microbe (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2025.02.003
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Neutrophils’ mitochondrial sensing disrupted in lupus sufferers, examine finds (2025, March 25)
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