The effector protein ExoY secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa augments the inflammatory reaction in the respiratory tract of mice

Infection with the gram-negative opportunistic pathogen P. aeruginosa causes serious pulmonary, urogenital and systemic inflammation in immunodeficient patients. Most prominently, P. aeruginosa is the key organism responsible for pneumonia in cystic fibrosis patients, defining the course of the disease as well as its prognosis. P. aeruginosa produces a wide variety of effector proteins and injects them into host cells via the type III secretion system [1]. One of the effectors, injected by this needle-like structure is ExoY, which can be found in 90% of clinical isolates from P. aeruginosa. Despite of the highly…