Broad spectrum activity of a lectin-like bacterial serine protease family on human leukocytes

The serine protease autotransporter from Enterobacteriaceae (SPATE) family, which number more than 25 proteases with apparent diverse functions, have been phylogenetically divided into two distinct classes, designated 1 and 2. We recently demonstrated that Pic and Tsh, two members of the class-2 SPATE family produced by intestinal and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli, were able to cleave a number of O-glycosylated proteins on neutrophils and lymphocytes resulting in impaired leukocyte functions. Here we show that most members of the class-2 SPATE family have lectin-like properties and exhibit differential protease activity reliant on glycoprotein type and cell lineage. Protease activity was seen in virtually all tested O-glycosylated proteins including CD34, CD55, CD164, TIM1, TIM3, TIM4 and C1-INH. We also show that although SPATE proteins bound and cleaved glycoproteins more efficiently on granulocytes and monocytes, they also targeted glycoproteins on B, T and natural killer lymphocytes. Finally, we found that the characteristic domain-2 of class-2 SPATEs is not required for glycoprotease activity, but single amino acid mutations in Pic domain-1 to those residues naturally occurring in domain-1 of SepA, were sufficient to hamper Pic glycoprotease activity. This study shows that most class-2 SPATEs have redundant activities and suggest that they may function as immunomodulators at several levels of the immune system.