Encephalitozoon microsporidia modulates p53-mediated apoptosis in infected cells

Microsporidia are intracellular obligate parasites which have recently been found to be related to fungi. They have a unique extrusion apparatus that is able to inject the sporoplasm directly into the target cell without using receptors. Encephalitozoon microsporidia are a source of morbidity and mortality in humans. It has been suggested that microsporidia may modulate the host cell cycle and apoptosis. We report here that caspase-3 cleavage is inhibited at different times of Vero cell infection by Encephalitozoon microsporidia and that the phosphorylation and translocation of p53 to the nucleus, previous steps for the activation of this protein, do not occur after infection of Vero cells. Consequently, the transcriptional function of p53 is impaired during the infection cycle as demonstrated by luciferase reporter assays. Thus, to our knowledge, for the first time it is shown that an intracellular parasite may be able to multiply in the host cell without activating the p53 apoptotic pathway of that cell. However, changes in the expression of Bcl-2 or Bax levels were not observed.