Acute innate immune activation in silkworm by the human commensal bacterium Cutibacterium acnes

Cutibacterium acnes is a pathogenic bacterium that cause inflammatory diseases of the skin and intervertebral discs. The immune activation induced by C. acnes requires multiple cellular responses in the host. Silkworm, an invertebrate, generates melanin by phenoloxidase upon recognizing bacterial or fungal components. Therefore, the melanization reaction can be used as an indicator of innate immune activation. A silkworm infection model was developed for evaluating the virulence of C. acnes, but a system for evaluating the induction of innate immunity by C. acnes using melanization as an indicator has not yet been established. Here we demonstrated that C. acnes rapidly causes melanization of the silkworm hemolymph within 3 h. On the other hand, Staphylococcus aureus, a gram-positive bacterium identical to C. acnes, does not cause immediate melanization. Even injection of heat-killed C. acnes cells caused melanization of the silkworm hemolymph. DNase, RNase, and protease treatment of the heat-treated C. acnes cells did not decrease the silkworm hemolymph melanization. Treatment with peptidoglycan-degrading enzymes, such as lysostaphin and lysozyme, however, decreased the induction of melanization by the heat-treated C. acnes cells. These findings suggest that silkworm hemolymph melanization may be a useful indicator to evaluate innate immune activation by C. acnes and that C. acnes peptidoglycans are involved in the induction of innate immunity in silkworms.