Oxidative stress caused by excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) accelerates telomere erosion and mitochondrial injury, leading to impaired cellular functions and cell death. Whether oxidative ...stress‐mediated telomere erosion induces mitochondrial injury, or vice versa, in human T cells—the major effectors of host adaptive immunity against infection and malignancy—is poorly understood due to the pleiotropic effects of ROS. Here we employed a novel chemoptogenetic tool that selectively produces a single oxygen (1O2) only at telomeres or mitochondria in Jurkat T cells. We found that targeted 1O2 production at telomeres triggered not only telomeric DNA damage but also mitochondrial dysfunction, resulting in T cell apoptotic death. Conversely, targeted 1O2 formation at mitochondria induced not only mitochondrial injury but also telomeric DNA damage, leading to cellular crisis and apoptosis. Targeted oxidative stress at either telomeres or mitochondria increased ROS production, whereas blocking ROS formation during oxidative stress reversed the telomeric injury, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cellular apoptosis. Notably, the X‐ray repair cross‐complementing protein 1 (XRCC1) in the base excision repair (BER) pathway and multiple mitochondrial proteins in other cellular pathways were dysregulated by the targeted oxidative stress. By confining singlet 1O2 formation to a single organelle, this study suggests that oxidative stress induces dual injury in T cells via crosstalk between telomeres and mitochondria. Further identification of these oxidation pathways may offer a novel approach to preserve mitochondrial functions, protect telomere integrity, and maintain T cell survival, which can be exploited to combat various immune aging‐associated diseases.
Oxidative stress caused by excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) accelerates telomere erosion and mitochondrial injury, leading to impaired cellular functions and cell death. By selectively producing singlet 1O2 to a single organelle, Wang and Lu et al. demonstrate that oxidative stress induces dual injury in T cells via crosstalk between telomeres and mitochondria, and also explore potential molecules and pathways that promote this dual‐damage.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
According to the WHO, 38 million individuals were living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), 25.4 million of which were using antiretroviral therapy (ART) at the end of 2019. Despite ...ART-mediated suppression of viral replication, ART is not a cure and is associated with viral persistence, residual inflammation, and metabolic disturbances. Indeed, due to the presence of viral reservoirs, lifelong ART therapy is required to control viremia and prevent disease progression into acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Successful ART treatment allows people living with HIV (PLHIV) to achieve a similar life expectancy to uninfected individuals. However, recent studies have illustrated the presence of increased comorbidities, such as accelerated, premature immune aging, in ART-controlled PLHIV compared to uninfected individuals. Studies suggest that both HIV-infection and ART-treatment lead to mitochondrial dysfunction, ultimately resulting in cellular exhaustion, senescence, and apoptosis. Since mitochondria are essential cellular organelles for energy homeostasis and cellular metabolism, their compromise leads to decreased oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), ATP synthesis, gluconeogenesis, and beta-oxidation, abnormal cell homeostasis, increased oxidative stress, depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential, and upregulation of mitochondrial DNA mutations and cellular apoptosis. The progressive mitochondrial damage induced by HIV-infection and ART-treatment likely contributes to accelerated aging, senescence, and cellular dysfunction in PLHIV. This review discusses the connections between mitochondrial compromise and cellular dysfunction associated with HIV- and ART-induced toxicities, providing new insights into how HIV and current ART directly impact mitochondrial functions and contribute to cellular senescence and aging in PLHIV. Identifying this nexus and potential mechanisms may be beneficial in developing improved therapeutics for treating PLHIV.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Effectively treating infectious diseases often requires a multi-step approach to target different components involved in disease pathogenesis. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a global ...health crisis that requires a comprehensive understanding of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection to develop effective therapeutics. One potential strategy to instill greater immune protection against COVID-19 is boosting the innate immune system. This boosting, termed trained immunity, employs immune system modulators to train innate immune cells to produce an enhanced, non-specific immune response upon reactivation following exposure to pathogens, a process that has been studied in the context of
and
clinical studies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Evaluation of the underlying pathways that are essential to inducing protective trained immunity will provide insight into identifying potential therapeutic targets that may alleviate the COVID-19 crisis. Here we review multiple immune training agents, including Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), β-glucan, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and the two most popular cell types involved in trained immunity, monocytes and natural killer (NK) cells, and compare the signaling pathways involved in innate immunity. Additionally, we discuss COVID-19 trained immunity clinical trials, emphasizing the potential of trained immunity to fight SARS-CoV-2 infection. Understanding the mechanisms by which training agents activate innate immune cells to reprogram immune responses may prove beneficial in developing preventive and therapeutic targets against COVID-19.
PKIB, a Novel Target for Cancer Therapy Musket, Anna; Moorman, Jonathan P; Zhang, Jinyu ...
International journal of molecular sciences,
05/2024, Volume:
25, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The serine-threonine kinase protein kinase A (PKA) is a cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent intracellular protein with multiple roles in cellular biology including metabolic and transcription regulation ...functions. The cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor β (PKIB) is one of three known endogenous protein kinase inhibitors of PKA. The role of PKIB is not yet fully understood. Hormonal signaling is correlated with increased PKIB expression through genetic regulation, and increasing PKIB expression is associated with decreased cancer patient prognosis. Additionally, PKIB impacts cancer cell behavior through two mechanisms; the first is the nuclear modulation of transcriptional activation and the second is the regulation of oncogenic AKT signaling. The limited research into PKIB indicates the oncogenic potential of PKIB in various cancers. However, some studies suggest a role of PKIB in non-cancerous disease states. This review aims to summarize the current literature and background of PKIB regarding cancer and related issues. In particular, we will focus on cancer development and therapeutic possibilities, which are of paramount interest in PKIB oncology research.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Regulation of pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory innate immune responses by Tim‐3 in macrophages.
Tim‐3 and PD‐1 are powerful immunoinhibitory molecules involved in immune tolerance, autoimmune responses, ...and antitumor or antiviral immune evasion. A current model for Tim‐3 regulation during immune responses suggests a divergent function, such that Tim‐3 acts synergistically with TLR signaling pathways in innate immune cells to promote inflammation, yet the same molecule terminates Th1 immunity in adaptive immune cells. To better understand how Tim‐3 might be functioning in innate immune responses, we examined the kinetics of Tim‐3 expression in human CD14+ M/MФ in relation to expression of IL‐12, a key cytokine in the transition of innate to adaptive immunity. Here, we show that Tim‐3 is constitutively expressed on unstimulated peripheral blood CD14+ monocytes but decreases rapidly upon TLR stimulation. Conversely, IL‐12 expression is low in these cells but increases rapidly in CD14+ M/MФ in correlation with the decrease in Tim‐3. Blocking Tim‐3 signaling or silencing Tim‐3 expression led to a significant increase in TLR‐mediated IL‐12 production, as well as a decrease in activation‐induced up‐regulation of the immunoinhibitor, PD‐1; TNF‐α production was not altered significantly, but IL‐10 production was increased. These results suggest that Tim‐3 has a role as a regulator of pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory innate immune responses.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
DNA damage response (DDR) and selective autophagy both can be activated by reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS), and both are of paramount importance in cancer development. The selective ...autophagy receptor and ubiquitin (Ub) sensor p62 plays a key role in their crosstalk. ROS production has been well documented in latent infection of oncogenic viruses including Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). However, p62-mediated selective autophagy and its interplay with DDR have not been investigated in these settings. In this study, we provide evidence that considerable levels of p62-mediated selective autophagy are spontaneously induced, and correlate with ROS-Keap1-NRF2 pathway activity, in virus-transformed cells. Inhibition of autophagy results in p62 accumulation in the nucleus, and promotes ROS-induced DNA damage and cell death, as well as downregulates the DNA repair proteins CHK1 and RAD51. In contrast, MG132-mediated proteasome inhibition, which induces rigorous autophagy, promotes p62 degradation but accumulation of the DNA repair proteins CHK1 and RAD51. However, pretreatment with an autophagy inhibitor offsets the effects of MG132 on CHK1 and RAD51 levels. These findings imply that p62 accumulation in the nucleus in response to autophagy inhibition promotes proteasome-mediated CHK1 and RAD51 protein instability. This claim is further supported by the findings that transient expression of a p62 mutant, which is constitutively localized in the nucleus, in B cell lines with low endogenous p62 levels recaptures the effects of autophagy inhibition on CHK1 and RAD51 protein stability. These results indicate that proteasomal degradation of RAD51 and CHK1 is dependent on p62 accumulation in the nucleus. However, small hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated p62 depletion in EBV-transformed lymphoblastic cell lines (LCLs) had no apparent effects on the protein levels of CHK1 and RAD51, likely due to the constitutive localization of p62 in the cytoplasm and incomplete knockdown is insufficient to manifest its nuclear effects on these proteins. Rather, shRNA-mediated p62 depletion in EBV-transformed LCLs results in significant increases of endogenous RNF168-γH2AX damage foci and chromatin ubiquitination, indicative of activation of RNF168-mediated DNA repair mechanisms. Our results have unveiled a pivotal role for p62-mediated selective autophagy that governs DDR in the setting of oncogenic virus latent infection, and provide a novel insight into virus-mediated oncogenesis.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We have previously demonstrated mitochondrial dysfunction in aging CD4 T cells from antiretroviral therapy (ART)-controlled people living with HIV (PLWH). However, the underlying mechanisms by which ...CD4 T cells develop mitochondrial dysfunction in PLWH remain unclear. In this study, we sought to elucidate the mechanism(s) of CD4 T cell mitochondrial compromise in ART-controlled PLWH. We first assessed the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and we observed significantly increased cellular and mitochondrial ROS levels in CD4 T cells from PLWH compared to healthy subjects (HS). Furthermore, we observed a significant reduction in the levels of proteins responsible for antioxidant defense (superoxide dismutase 1, SOD1) and ROS-mediated DNA damage repair (apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1, APE1) in CD4 T cells from PLWH. Importantly, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockdown of SOD1 or APE1 in CD4 T cells from HS confirmed their roles in maintaining normal mitochondrial respiration via a p53-mediated pathway. Reconstitution of SOD1 or APE1 in CD4 T cells from PLWH successfully rescued mitochondrial function as evidenced by Seahorse analysis. These results indicate that ROS induces mitochondrial dysfunction, leading to premature T cell aging via dysregulation of SOD1 and APE1 during latent HIV infection.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The goal of this project was to establish the effect of alcohol consumption on the circulating levels of the adipose tissue derived protein C1q TNF Related Protein 3 (CTRP3). Adipose tissue secretes ...several adipokines, such as adiponectin and leptin, which exert a multitude of biological effects important for human health. However, adipose tissue is extremely sensitive to alcohol consumption, leading not only to disrupted fat storage, but also to disruptions in adipokine production. Changes to adipokine secretion could have widespread biological effects and potentially contribute to alcohol-induced ailments, such as alcoholic fatty liver disease (ALD). CTRP3 has been previously demonstrated to attenuate fatty liver disease, and suppression of CTRP3 with alcohol consumption could contribute to development of and progression to alcoholic fatty liver disease. To examine the effect of ethanol consumption on circulating adipokine levels, male and female mice were fed an ethanol containing diet (Lieber-DeCarli 5% (v/v) ethanol diet) for 10-days followed by a single gavage of 5 g/kg ethanol (the NIAAA model), or for 6-weeks with no binge added (chronic model). In female mice, adiponectin levels increased ~2-fold in both models of ethanol feeding, but in male mice increased adiponectin levels were only observed after chronic ethanol feeding. On the other hand, in female mice, circulating CTRP3 levels decreased by ~75% and ~50% in the NIAAA and chronic model, respectively, with no changes observed in the male mice in either feeding model. Leptin levels were unchanged with ethanol feeding regardless of model or sex of mice. Lastly, chronic ethanol feeding led to a significant increase in mortality (~50%) in female mice, with no difference in relative ethanol consumption. These findings indicate that ethanol consumption can dysregulate adipokine secretion, but that the effects vary by sex of animal, method of ethanol consumption, and adipokine examined. These findings also indicate that female mice are more sensitive to the chronic effects of ethanol than male mice. Notably, this is the first study to document the effects of ethanol consumption on the circulating levels of CTRP3. Understanding the impact of excessive alcohol consumption on adipokine production and secretion could identify novel mechanisms of alcohol-induced human disease. However, the mechanism responsible for the increased sensitivity remains elusive.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The lymphocyte-specific transcription factor Interferon (IFN) Regulatory Factor 4 (IRF4) is implicated in certain types of lymphoid and myeloid malignancies. However, the molecular mechanisms ...underlying its interactions with these malignancies are largely unknown. In this study, we have first profiled molecular signatures associated with IRF4 expression in associated cancers, by analyzing existing gene expression profiling datasets. Our results show that IRF4 is overexpressed in melanoma, in addition to previously reported contexts including leukemia, myeloma, and lymphoma, and that IRF4 is associated with a unique gene expression pattern in each context. A pool of important genes involved in B-cell development, oncogenesis, cell cycle regulation, and cell death including BATF, LIMD1, CFLAR, PIM2, and CCND2 are common signatures associated with IRF4 in non-Hodgkin B cell lymphomas. We confirmed the correlation of IRF4 with LIMD1 and CFLAR in a panel of cell lines derived from lymphomas. Moreover, we profiled the IRF4 transcriptome in the context of EBV latent infection, and confirmed several genes including IFI27, IFI44, GBP1, and ARHGAP18, as well as CFLAR as novel targets for IRF4. These results provide valuable information for understanding the IRF4 regulatory network, and improve our knowledge of the unique roles of IRF4 in different hematological malignancies.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (Tim-3) is a newly identified negative immunomodulator that is up-regulated on dysfunctional T cells during viral infections. The ...expression and function of Tim-3 on human innate immune responses during HCV infection, however, remains poorly characterized. In this study, we report that Tim-3 is constitutively expressed on human resting CD14(+) monocyte/macrophages (M/M(Ø)) and functions as a cap to block IL-12, a key pro-inflammatory cytokine linking innate and adaptive immune responses. Tim-3 expression is significantly reduced and IL-12 expression increased upon stimulation with Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) ligand--lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and TLR7/8 ligand--R848. Notably, Tim-3 is over-expressed on un-stimulated as well as TLR-stimulated M/M(Ø), which is inversely associated with the diminished IL-12 expression in chronically HCV-infected individuals when compared to healthy subjects. Up-regulation of Tim-3 and inhibition of IL-12 are also observed in M/M(Ø) incubated with HCV-expressing hepatocytes, as well as in primary M/M(Ø) or monocytic THP-1 cells incubated with HCV core protein, an effect that mimics the function of complement C1q and is reversible by blocking the HCV core/gC1qR interaction. Importantly, blockade of Tim-3 signaling significantly rescues HCV-mediated inhibition of IL-12, which is primarily expressed by Tim-3 negative M/M(Ø). Tim-3 blockade reduces HCV core-mediated expression of the negative immunoregulators PD-1 and SOCS-1 and increases STAT-1 phosphorylation. Conversely, blocking PD-1 or silencing SOCS-1 gene expression also decreases Tim-3 expression and enhances IL-12 secretion and STAT-1 phosphorylation. These findings suggest that Tim-3 plays a crucial role in negative regulation of innate immune responses, through crosstalk with PD-1 and SOCS-1 and limiting STAT-1 phosphorylation, and may be a novel target for immunotherapy to HCV infection.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK