The adhesion protein of Mycoplasma genitalium inhibits urethral epithelial cell apoptosis through CypA-CD147 activating PI3K/ Akt/NF-κB pathway.

By interacting with the receptor on the host cells membrane, Mycoplasma genitalium, a prokaryotic bacterium primarily transmitted through sexual contact, can adhere to and even enter cells. The adhesion protein of M. genitalium (MgPa) plays a critical function in the adhering and subsequent invasion into host cells. Our prior studies verified that cyclophilin A (CypA) was the receptor of MgPa on human urethral epithelial cells (SV-HUC-1) membrane and could induce pro-inflammatory cytokines production through the CypA-CD147-ERK-NF-κB pathway. This research aims to understand how MgPa interacts with its membrane receptor CypA to cause apoptosis in host cells. We employed flow cytometry to see if MgPa prevents or enhances apoptosis of SV-HUC-1 cells. The apoptosis-related proteins such as Bax, caspase-3, and cleaved caspase-3 were assayed using Western blot. Results suggested that MgPa could inhibit the apoptosis of SV-HUC-1 cells. And we demonstrated that interference with the expression of CypA or CD147 significantly reversed the inhibitory effect of MgPa on SV-HUC-1 cells apoptosis, indicating that MgPa inhibited urothelial cells apoptosis through CypA/CD147. Furthermore, we discovered that MgPa regulates the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway through CypA/CD147 to inhibit SV-HUC-1 cells apoptosis. Ultimately, the inhibitory effect of MgPa on the apoptosis of the urothelial epithelial cells extracted from CypA-knockout mice was validated by Annexin V/PI assay. The results corroborated that MgPa could also inhibit mouse urothelial epithelial cells apoptosis. In summary, we demonstrated that MgPa could inhibit SV-HUC-1 cells apoptosis via regulating the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway through CypA/CD147, providing experimental evidence for elucidating the survival strategies of M. genitalium in host cells. KEY POINTS: • M. genitalium protein of adhesion inhibited human urethral epithelial cells apoptosis through CypA-CD147 activating the signal pathway of PI3K/Akt/NF-κB • The knockdown of CypA and CD147 could downregulate the M. genitalium -activated PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway in SV-HUC-1 cells • MgPa could inhibit the apoptosis of normal C57BL mouse primary urethral epithelial cells, but not for CypA-knockout C57BL mouse primary urethral epithelial cells.