Publications

Title:

An endogenous biological clock, the circadian clock, coordinates life with the 24-hour day/night cycle of the environment. The unit of this circadian clock is the cell but in multicellular organisms, such as mammals, a circadian timing system (CTS) with a central pacemaker orchestrates peripheral clocks and the overall finely tuned temporal order. For example, the CTS changes immune responses to infections depending on time-of-day, however, its role in controlling bacterial infections at a cellular level is not understood.

In this study, we investigated the role of the host cellular clock during infection by Staphylococcus aureus, a highly drug-resistant, facultatively intracellular human pathogen. Our findings revealed that S. aureus invasion into epithelial cells is dependent on the cellular circadian phase. Interestingly, in BMAL1, an essential clock protein, deficient cells bacterial uptake was significantly higher compared to parental A549 cells. RNA sequencing of BMAL1 knockdown (KD) cells showed a significant upregulation of GP340, coding for the receptor of SraP, an S. aureus adhesin. An S. aureus mutant lacking SraP did not exhibit a circadian rhythm of uptake into A549 cells nor an increased uptake into BMAL1 KD compared to the parental A549 cells. Of note, bacterial mutants for other adhesins continued to show a rhythmic and higher uptake in BMAL1 KD cells.

Hence, we report that S. aureus invasion of epithelial cells is clock-modulated and mediated through S. aureus SraP, suggesting potential for host clock-directed therapy against this pathogen.

Soraia shows how time of day significantly influences how much of the antidepressant SSRI paroxetine gets into the brain after intranasal application.

The circadian rhythm influences homeostatic functions such as sleep, physical activity and food intake as well as pharmacotherapy, namely pharmacokinetics. To investigate the impact of the circadian rhythm on the pharmacokinetics of paroxetine, in vitro synchronized permeability studies were carried out in a tri-culture blood-brain barrier model. Paroxetine demonstrated lower apparent permeability when the cells were incubated at 24 h post-synchronization than at 36 h. Additionally, in vivo chronopharmacokinetic studies were performed in CD-1 female mice administered with paroxetine (5 mg/kg) by intranasal route in the early morning or evening. Paroxetine exposure in the brain was higher when it was administered at the beginning of the active phase (ZT13) compared with the rest phase (ZT1) (p<0.001), probably owing to the lower levels of P-glycoprotein expressed in the brain at the active phase (p<0.05). Since melatonin production depends on serotonin, its plasma concentrations were also assessed in vivo. The results demonstrated that melatonin concentrations increased 12 h after paroxetine nasal instillation at ZT13 (p<0.05), but remained unchanged at ZT1, suggesting that the drug effect is influenced by administration time.

In conclusion, the circadian rhythm impacted the pharmacokinetics of paroxetine, especially its distribution into the brain, the target organ. This emphasizes the importance of the time of administration in antidepressant dosing, highlighting its relevance for future studies.