Phagocytes of the innate immune system act as surveyors of their surroundings environment, patrolling the body for unwanted, unneeded, and unexpected components and eliminating them efficiently. While clearance of invading pathogens is a common and necessary function of phagocytes, the sensing, recognition, and removal of cellular corpses, a process termed efferocytosis, is also a critical role that phagocytes play during times of development, cellular homeostasis, and stress. Considering the average 50 billion adult human cells that undergo apoptosis daily and the rarity of observing an uncleared apoptotic cells under normal physiological conditions, one must truly appreciate the magnitude of the job facing phagocytes. Moreover, as this is a reoccurring and normal event in the lifespan of an organism, this process of efferocytosis must occur in a immunologically silent manner, so as to not inappropriately alert the immune system. Therefore, the response of a phagocyte must be tailored to both the cargo and the preferred outcome. The effective clearance of extracellular components (be it pathogens or dying cells) requires that phagocytes first recognize and engulf them using surface receptors, followed by processing of the cargo and orchestration of the appropriate local and systemic immune responses. The clearance of dead cells, however, is designed to be a tolerated mechanism, as cellular death is a normal, genetically programmed process designed to sculpt, control, and aid the body in its development and survival. The tightly orchestrated process of efferocytosis can be broadly organized in 4 steps: 1) the recruitment of phagocytes by find-me signals generated by dying cells, 2) the recognition and engagement of eat-me signals by receptors or bridging molecules from phagocytes, 3) the engulfment of the cellular corpse by phagocytes, and 4) the processing, degradation, and immune response to the engulfed corpse. While much work has been accomplished to characterize the molecules responsible for attracting the phagocyte and facilitating the physical engulfment, the mechanisms by which a phagocyte handles the ingested corpse in terms of its processing, degradation, and subsequent influence on the pursuant immune response is an area of growing interest. Recent studies have identified a unique process that is critical for the clearance of both pathogens and dying cells, as well as directing the subsequent immune response to each engulfed cargo. LC3-associated phagocytosis (or LAP) is a recently discovered pathway wherein a specific signaling event is sensed during phagocytosis and recruits some, but not all, members of the autophagy machinery to the phagosome. It is the activity of these autophagic players that facilitates the rapid destruction or processing of the cargo via fusion with the lysosomal pathway. Engagement of multiple types of receptors, including TLR1/2, TLR2/6, TLR4, FcR, and TIM4 has been shown to trigger LAP to form the single-membraned, cargo-containing phagosome, termed the LAPosome. LAP is a process that marries the evolutionarily conserved pathways of phagocytosis and autophagy and allows us to reimagine the impact of the autophagy machinery on innate host defense mechanisms. This paradigm-shifting realization expands the autophagy machinerys implications beyond intracellular housekeeping to host defense against extracellular threats and sheds new light on inflammation and autoimmunity.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
U.S. National Inst of Environ Hlth Scis
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
Country
Zip Code
Wong, Sing-Wai; Sil, Payel; Martinez, Jennifer (2018) Rubicon: LC3-associated phagocytosis and beyond. FEBS J 285:1379-1388
Sil, Payel; Wong, Sing-Wai; Martinez, Jennifer (2018) More Than Skin Deep: Autophagy Is Vital for Skin Barrier Function. Front Immunol 9:1376
Härtlova, Anetta; Herbst, Susanne; Peltier, Julien et al. (2018) LRRK2 is a negative regulator of Mycobacterium tuberculosis phagosome maturation in macrophages. EMBO J 37:
Sil, Payel; Muse, Ginger; Martinez, Jennifer (2018) A ravenous defense: canonical and non-canonical autophagy in immunity. Curr Opin Immunol 50:21-31
Brault, Michelle; Olsen, Tayla M; Martinez, Jennifer et al. (2018) Intracellular Nucleic Acid Sensing Triggers Necroptosis through Synergistic Type I IFN and TNF Signaling. J Immunol 200:2748-2756
Moretti, Julien; Roy, Soumit; Bozec, Dominique et al. (2017) STING Senses Microbial Viability to Orchestrate Stress-Mediated Autophagy of the Endoplasmic Reticulum. Cell 171:809-823.e13
Oguin 3rd, Thomas H; Martinez, Jennifer (2017) Gut check: dead cell samples leads to tolerant examples. Cell Death Differ 24:1471-1472
Feeley, Eric M; Pilla-Moffett, Danielle M; Zwack, Erin E et al. (2017) Galectin-3 directs antimicrobial guanylate binding proteins to vacuoles furnished with bacterial secretion systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:E1698-E1706
Parekh, Vrajesh V; Pabbisetty, Sudheer K; Wu, Lan et al. (2017) Autophagy-related protein Vps34 controls the homeostasis and function of antigen cross-presenting CD8?+ dendritic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:E6371-E6380
Daniels, Brian P; Snyder, Annelise G; Olsen, Tayla M et al. (2017) RIPK3 Restricts Viral Pathogenesis via Cell Death-Independent Neuroinflammation. Cell 169:301-313.e11

Showing the most recent 10 out of 24 publications