Typhoid toxin hijacks Wnt5a to potentiate TGFβ-mediated senescence and Salmonella infections

Damage to our genome causes acute senescence in mammalian cells, which undergo growth arrest and release a secretome that elicits cell cycle arrest in bystander cells through the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Thus, acute senescence is a powerful tumour suppressor. Salmonella enterica hijacks senescence through its typhoid toxin, which usurps unidentified factors in the stress secretome of senescent cells to mediate intracellular infections. Here, transcriptomics of toxin-induced senescent cells (txSCs) and proteomics of their secretome identified secreted ligands that activate the TGFβ pathway through SMAD transcription factors. The ligand Wnt5a established a self-amplifying positive feedback loop driving TGFβ signalling, which enforced autocrine senescence in txSCs and paracrine senescence in naive bystander cells by activation of DDRs. Wnt5a and GDF15 increased host cell susceptibility to infection. The study reveals how an innate defence against cancer is co-opted by a bacterial pathogen to cause widespread damage and mediate infections.