Infection and Immunity, January 2000, p. 165-169, Vol. 68, No. 1
0019-9567/0/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Department of Pathology, Haartman Institute,1 and Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology,2 FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, and Department of Virology, National Public Health Institute, FIN-00300 Helsinki,3 Finland
Received 20 August 1999/Returned for modification 30 September 1999/Accepted 18 October 1999
Streptomyces griseus strains isolated from indoor dust
have been shown to synthesize valinomycin. In this report, we show that
human peripheral blood lymphocytes treated with small doses (30 ng
ml
1) of pure valinomycin or high-pressure liquid
chromatography-pure valinomycin from S. griseus quickly
show mitochondrial swelling and reduced NK cell activity. Larger doses
(>100 ng/ml
1) induced NK cell apoptosis within 2 days.
Within 2 h, the toxin at 100 ng ml
1 dramatically
inhibited interleukin-15 (IL-15)- and IL-18-induced granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and gamma interferon (IFN-
) production by NK cells. However, IFN-
production induced by a combination of IL-15 and IL-18 was somewhat less sensitive to
valinomycin, suggesting a protective effect of the cytokine combination
against valinomycin. Thus, valinomycin in very small doses may
profoundly alter the immune response by reducing NK cell cytotoxicity
and cytokine production.
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