Dual RNA sequencing of Helicobacter pylori and host cell transcriptomes reveals ontologically distinct host-pathogen interaction

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a highly successful pathogen that constitutes a serious threat to human health. However, the dynamic interaction between H. pylori and human gastric epithelium has not been fully documented. Here, by leveraging the advantage of dual RNA sequencing technology, we characterized a cytotoxin-associated genes A (CagA)-modulated bacterial adoption strategy by reinforcing the expression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter-related genes, metQ and HP_0888 upon co-culturing with human gastric epithelial cells (GES-1), thus, to benefit intracellular H. pylori survival through facilitating the uptake of host-provided nutrients. We further detected a generally repressed impact on electron transportation-associated genes by CagA, leading to the activation of oxidative phosphorylation. Temporal profiling of host mRNA signatures revealed down-regulation of multiple splicing regulators elicited by bacterial infection. Consequently, aberrant pre-mRNA splicing of functional genes that were involved in cell cycle process in response to H. pylori infection were identified. Moreover, we verified a protective effect for gastric H. pylori colonization against chronic dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Mechanistically, we profiled a cluster of short chain fatty acids (SCFA)-producing bacteria, Muribaculaceae that was selectively enriched in H. pylori-pre-colonized mice colon, contributing to the restoration of intestinal barrier function damaged by DSS treatment. Taken together, this study represents the first dual-transcriptome analysis of H. pylori during dynamic interaction with gastric epithelium and provide new insights into H. pylori pathogenesis. GES-1 cells were infected with H. pylori with a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 1:100 for 3 h, then exposed to gentamycin (100 μg/ml; Sigma-Aldrich, 345814-M) for 1 h to kill the extracellular bacteria. Cells were washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; 137 mM NaCl, 2.7 mM KCl, 10 mM Na2HPO4, 1.8 mM KH2PO4) buffer 3 times, then incubated in fresh medium for another 12 h or 24h. Cells were extracted using Trizol reagent kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA,USA) to obtain total RNA according to the manufacturer’s protocol. RNA quality was assessed on an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA, USA) and checked using RNase free agarose gel electrophoresis. rRNA is removed by Ribo-ZeroTM Magnetic Kit (Epicentre, Madison, WI, USA).Then the enriched mRNA was fragmented into short fragments using fragmentation buffer and reversly transcribed into cDNA by using NEBNext Ultra RNA Library Prep Kit for Illumina(NEB #7530,New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA, USA).The purified double-stranded cDNA fragments were end repaired, A base added, and ligated to Illumina sequencing adapters.The ligation reaction was purified with the AMPure XP Beads(1.0X).And polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified.The resulting cDNA library was sequenced using Illumina Novaseq6000 by Gene Denovo Biotechnology Co. (Guangzhou, China).