{"doi":"10.3389/fcimb.2022.884065","title":"Phenol-Soluble Modulins From Staphylococcus aureus Biofilms Form Complexes With DNA to Drive Autoimmunity","abstract":"The bacterial amyloid curli, produced by Enterobacteriales including Salmonella species and Escherichia coli , is implicated in the pathogenesis of several complex autoimmune diseases. Curli binds to extracellular DNA, and these complexes drive autoimmunity via production of anti-double-stranded DNA autoantibodies. Here, we investigated immune activation by phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs), the amyloid proteins expressed by Staphylococcus species. We confirmed the amyloid nature of PSMs expressed by S. aureus using a novel specific amyloid stain, ( E , E) -1-fluoro-2,5-bis(3-hydroxycarbonyl-4-hydroxy) styrylbenzene (FSB). Direct interaction of one of the S. aureus PSMs, PSMα3, with oligonucleotides promotes fibrillization of PSM amyloids and complex formation with bacterial DNA. Finally, utilizing a mouse model with an implanted mesh-associated S. aureus biofilm, we demonstrated that exposure to S. aureus biofilms for six weeks caused anti-double-stranded DNA autoantibody production in a PSM-dependent manner. Taken together, these results highlight how the presence of PSM-DNA complexes in S. aureus biofilms can induce autoimmune responses, and suggest an explanation for how bacterial infections trigger autoimmunity.","journal":"Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology","year":2022,"id":245140,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":24,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9572,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":291650,"name":"Lauren K. Nicastro","orcid":"0000-0001-7676-3694","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293507,"name":"Sarah A. Tursi","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":310263,"name":"Jaime de Anda","orcid":"0000-0003-2129-0775","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":310614,"name":"Ernest Y. Lee","orcid":"0000-0001-5144-2552","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":278681,"name":"Gerard C. L. Wong","orcid":"0000-0003-0893-6383","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":291657,"name":"Çağla Tükel","orcid":"0000-0001-7073-0226","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":633536,"name":"Kaitlyn Grando","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":84,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:23:34.974895Z","pmid":"35646719","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}