A Subpopulation of Intracellular Neisseria gonorrhoeae Escapes Autophagy-Mediated Killing Inside Epithelial Cells

The bacterial pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae is able to transmigrate across the mucosal epithelia following the intracellular route and cause disseminated infections. It is currently unknown whether the autophagy pathway is able target intracellular N. gonorrhoeae for destruction in autolysosomes or whether this bacterium is able to escape autophagy-mediated killing. In this study, we demonstrate that during the early stage of epithelial cell invasion, N. gonorrhoeae is targeted by the autophagy pathway and sequestered into double-membrane autophagosomes that subsequently fuse with lysosomes for destruction. However, a subpopulation of the intracellular gonococci is able to escape early autophagy-mediated killing. N. gonorrhoeae is subsequently able to inhibit this pathway, allowing intracellular survival and exocytosis. During this stage, N. gonorrhoeae activates the autophagy repressor mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 and inhibits autophagosome maturation and lysosome fusion. Thus, our results provide novel insight into the interactions between N. gonorrhoeae and the autophagy pathway during invasion and transcytosis of epithelial cells.