| Summary: | Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular
protozoan parasite responsible for a common infection of the central nervous system.
Interferon (IFN)γ is the key cytokine of host defence against
T. gondii. However, T. gondii strains differ in
virulence and T. gondii factors determining virulence are still poorly
understood. In astrocytes IFNγ primarily induces immunity-related GTPases
(IRGs), providing a cell-autonomous resistance system.
Here, we demonstrate that astrocytes prestimulated with IFNγ inhibit the proliferation of
various avirulent, but not virulent, T. gondii strains. The two analyzed immunity-related
GTPases Irga6 and Irgb6 accumulate at the PV only of avirulent T. gondii strains,
whereas in virulent strains this accumulation is only detectable at very low levels. Both IRG proteins
could temporarily be found at the same PV, but did only partially colocalize. Coinfection of avirulent
and virulent parasites confirmed that the accumulation of the two analyzed IRGs was a characteristic
of the individual PV and not determined by the presence of other strains
of T. gondii in the same host cell. Thus, in
astrocytes the accumulation of Irga6 and Irgb6 significantly differs between avirulent and
virulent T. gondii strains correlating with the toxoplasmacidal properties
suggesting a role for this process in parasite virulence.
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