Project description:Inhibitors of Apoptosis Proteins (IAPs) regulate apoptosis in response to various cellular assaults. Using both genetic and pharmacological approaches we demonstrate here that the IAPs not only support opportunistic survival of intracellular human pathogens like Chlamydia pneumoniae but also controls plasticity of iNOS+ M1 macrophage during the course of infection and render them refractory for immune stimulation. Treatment of Th1 primed macrophages with birinapant (IAP specific antagonist) inhibited NO generation and relevant proteins involved in innate immune signalling. Accordingly, birinapant promoted hypoxia, angiogenesis and tumor induced M2 polarization of iNOS+ M1 macrophages. Interestingly, birinapant driven changes in immune signaling was accompanied with changes in the expression of various proteins involved in the metabolism thus revealing the new role of IAP proteins on immune metabolic reprogramming in committed macrophages.
Project description:Cellular inhibitor of apoptosis proteins 1 and 2 (c-IAP1/2) play central roles in signal transduction mediated by numerous receptors that participate in inflammatory and immune responses. In certain pathways, such as activation of NF-kB, their degradation is a major regulatory event and is physiologically induced by activation of receptors. Additionally, a number of synthetic compounds have been developed that also target the c-IAPs and induce their degradation. However, the extent of a synthetic IAP antagonist’s ability to mirror the transcriptional program by a physiological signal remains unclear. Here we take a systems approach to compare the transcriptional programs triggered by activation of CD30, a well-characterized receptor previously shown to induce the degradation of the c-IAPs, to SM-164, a synthetic IAP antagonist that specifically triggers c-IAP degradation. Employing a technique that allows the specific analysis of newly transcribed RNA, we have generated comparative transcriptome profiles for CD30 activation and SM-164 treatment. Analysis of these profiles revealed that the genes regulated by each stimulus were not completely shared, indicating novel functions of IAP antagonists and consequences of c-IAP1/2 degradation. The data identified a role for c-IAP1/2 in the regulation of the ribosome and protein synthesis, which was subsequently confirmed by biological assays. These findings expand our knowledge of the roles of c-IAP1/2 in signaling and provide insight into the mechanism of synthetic IAP antagonists, furthering our understanding of their therapeutic potential. This submission contains two different experiments. In experiment 1, cells were exposed to drug treament (DMSO or SM-164) for 3 hours. In experiment 2, cells were exposed to an adherent layer of CHO cells either expressing or not CD30L. Each treatment in each experiment was conducted once, leading to a total of 4 samples.
Project description:Cellular inhibitor of apoptosis proteins 1 and 2 (c-IAP1/2) play central roles in signal transduction mediated by numerous receptors that participate in inflammatory and immune responses. In certain pathways, such as activation of NF-kB, their degradation is a major regulatory event and is physiologically induced by activation of receptors. Additionally, a number of synthetic compounds have been developed that also target the c-IAPs and induce their degradation. However, the extent of a synthetic IAP antagonist’s ability to mirror the transcriptional program by a physiological signal remains unclear. Here we take a systems approach to compare the transcriptional programs triggered by activation of CD30, a well-characterized receptor previously shown to induce the degradation of the c-IAPs, to SM-164, a synthetic IAP antagonist that specifically triggers c-IAP degradation. Employing a technique that allows the specific analysis of newly transcribed RNA, we have generated comparative transcriptome profiles for CD30 activation and SM-164 treatment. Analysis of these profiles revealed that the genes regulated by each stimulus were not completely shared, indicating novel functions of IAP antagonists and consequences of c-IAP1/2 degradation. The data identified a role for c-IAP1/2 in the regulation of the ribosome and protein synthesis, which was subsequently confirmed by biological assays. These findings expand our knowledge of the roles of c-IAP1/2 in signaling and provide insight into the mechanism of synthetic IAP antagonists, furthering our understanding of their therapeutic potential.
Project description:The proteasome is a central regulatory hub for intracellular signaling by degrading numerous signaling mediators. Immunoproteasomes are specialized types of proteasomes known to be involved in shaping adaptive immune responses, but their role for innate immune signaling is elusive. Here, we analyzed immunoproteasome function for polarization of alveolar macrophages which are highly specialized tissue macrophages of the alveolar surface of the lung. Classical activation (M1 polarization) of primary alveolar macrophages by LPS/IFNγ transcriptionally induced all three immunoproteasome subunits LMP2, LMP7, and MECL-1. In contrast, IL-4 triggered alternative (M2) activation was accompanied by posttranscriptional upregulation of LMP2 and LMP7. Accordingly, immunoproteasome activity increased in M1 cells, and to some extent under M2 conditions. Analyzing the polarization capability from LMP7 deficient mice revealed no effect on the LPS/IFNγ triggered M1 profile, but uncovered a distorted M2 profile for IL-4 stimulated LMP7-/- alveolar macrophages as characterized by increased M2 marker gene expression and CCL17 cytokine release. This shift in immunoproteasome-dependent M2 polarization was accompanied by amplified AKT/STAT6 activation and IRF4 expression in LMP7-/- alveolar macrophages. IL-13 stimulation of LMP7 deficient cells induced a similar M2 skewed profile and IL4Rα protein expression was generally elevated in LMP7-/- alveolar macrophages, indicating that amplified IL4R signaling in immunoproteasome defective cells may contribute to augmented M2 polarization. Importantly, treatment with an LMP7-specific proteasome inhibitor recapitulated the findings of genetic LMP7 inactivation. Our results thus suggest a novel role of immunoproteasome function for regulating innate immune function of macrophages by limiting IL4R expression and signaling. Expression data of M0 and M2 macrophages derived from Lmp7 k.o. and control animals
Project description:Insertions of endogenous retroviruses cause a significant fraction of mutations in inbred mice but not all strains are equally susceptible. Notably, most new Intracisternal A particle (IAP) ERV mutagenic insertions have occurred in C3H mice. We show here that strain-specific insertionally polymorphic IAPs have accumulated faster in C3H/HeJ mice relative to other strains and that IAP transcript levels are higher in C3H/HeJ embryonic stem (ES) cells compared to other ES cells. To investigate the mechanism for high IAP activity in C3H mice, we identified 61 IAP copies in C3H/HeJ ES cells enriched for H3K4me3 (a mark of active promoters) and, among those tested, all are unmethylated in C3H ES cells. Notably, 13 of the 61 are specific to C3H/HeJ and are members of the non-autonomous 1Δ1 IAP subfamily that is responsible for nearly all new insertions in C3H. One copy is full length with intact open reading frames and hence potentially capable of providing proteins in trans to other 1Δ1 elements. This potential “master copy” is present in other strains, including 129, but its 5’ long terminal repeat (LTR) is methylated in 129 ES cells. Thus, the unusual IAP activity in C3H may be due to reduced epigenetic repression coupled with the presence of a master copy.
Project description:In this study, we analyzed the DNA methylation levels of 4799 IAP LTRs in three murine cell types: AB2.2 ES cells, somatic cells and a neuroblastoma cell line Neuro2A. According to the results, half of the IAP LTR retrotransposons show constant methylation patterns between the three cell types whereas the remaining half display variable levels of methylation. About half of the variably methylated IAP LTRs tend to be hypomethylated in ES cells, and nearly all of this group are hypomethylated in Neuro2A cells. Interestingly, the observed hypomethylation in both cell types occur in a non-uniform, locus-specific manner and to various degrees of severity, with some of them being easily detectible by COBRA. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of HT-TREBS to study alterations in DNA methylation at retrotransposons in a locus-specific manner in multiple cell types and further suggests the potential utility of this technique in developing epigenetic biomarkers for tracking disease progression. HT-TREBS has been used with the Ion Torrent PGM platform to analyze the DNA methylation of 4799 IAP LTRs in a locus-specific manner in 3 cell types: somatic cells (previously submitted under GEO Accession GSE49222), AB2.2 ES cells and Neuro2A cells
Project description:The WRAMP structure is a protein network associated with tail-end actomyosin contractility, membrane retraction, and directional persistence during cell migration. A marker of WRAMP structures is melanoma cell adhesion molecule (MCAM) which dynamically polarizes to the cell rear. However, factors that mediate MCAM polarization are still unknown. In this study, BioID using MCAM as bait identifies the ERM family proteins, moesin, ezrin, and radixin, as WRAMP structure components. We also present a novel image analysis pipeline, Protein Polarity by Percentile (“3P”), which classifies protein polarization using machine learning and facilitates quantitative analysis. Using 3P, we find that depletion of moesin, and to a lesser extent ezrin, decreases the proportion of cells with polarized MCAM. Furthermore, although co-polarized MCAM and ERM proteins show high spatial overlap, 3P identifies subpopulations with ERM proteins closer to the cell periphery. Live-cell imaging confirms that MCAM and ERM protein polarization is tightly coordinated, but ERM proteins enrich at the cell edge first. Finally, deletion of a juxtamembrane segment in MCAM previously shown to promote ERM protein interactions impedes MCAM polarization. Our findings highlight the requirement for ERM proteins in recruitment of MCAM to WRAMP structures and an advanced computational tool to characterize protein polarization.
Project description:Obesity-associated insulin resistance is characterized by a state of chronic, low-grade inflammation that is associated with the accumulation of M1 proinflammatory macrophages in adipose tissue. Although different evidence explains the mechanisms linking the expansion of adipose tissue and adipose tissue macrophage (ATM) polarization, in the current study we investigated the concept of lipid-induced toxicity as the pathogenic link that could explain the trigger of this response. We addressed this question using isolated ATMs and adipocytes from genetic and diet-induced murine models of obesity. Through transcriptomic and lipidomic analysis, we created a model integrating transcript and lipid species networks simultaneously occurring in adipocytes and ATMs and their reversibility by thiazolidinedione treatment. We show that polarization of ATMs is associated with lipid accumulation and the consequent formation of foam cell–like cells in adipose tissue. Our study reveals that early stages of adipose tissue expansion are characterized by M2-polarized ATMs and that progressive lipid accumulation within ATMs heralds the M1 polarization, a macrophage phenotype associated with severe obesity and insulin resistance. Furthermore, rosiglitazone treatment, which promotes redistribution of lipids toward adipocytes and extends the M2 ATM polarization state, prevents the lipid alterations associated with M1 ATM polarization. Our data indicate that the M1 ATM polarization in obesity might be a macrophage-specific manifestation of a more general lipotoxic pathogenic mechanism. This indicates that strategies to optimize fat deposition and repartitioning toward adipocytes might improve insulin sensitivity by preventing ATM lipotoxicity and M1 polarization. 15 samples; 2 genotypes and 2 time points
Project description:The proteasome is a central regulatory hub for intracellular signaling by degrading numerous signaling mediators. Immunoproteasomes are specialized types of proteasomes known to be involved in shaping adaptive immune responses, but their role for innate immune signaling is elusive. Here, we analyzed immunoproteasome function for polarization of alveolar macrophages which are highly specialized tissue macrophages of the alveolar surface of the lung. Classical activation (M1 polarization) of primary alveolar macrophages by LPS/IFNγ transcriptionally induced all three immunoproteasome subunits LMP2, LMP7, and MECL-1. In contrast, IL-4 triggered alternative (M2) activation was accompanied by posttranscriptional upregulation of LMP2 and LMP7. Accordingly, immunoproteasome activity increased in M1 cells, and to some extent under M2 conditions. Analyzing the polarization capability from LMP7 deficient mice revealed no effect on the LPS/IFNγ triggered M1 profile, but uncovered a distorted M2 profile for IL-4 stimulated LMP7-/- alveolar macrophages as characterized by increased M2 marker gene expression and CCL17 cytokine release. This shift in immunoproteasome-dependent M2 polarization was accompanied by amplified AKT/STAT6 activation and IRF4 expression in LMP7-/- alveolar macrophages. IL-13 stimulation of LMP7 deficient cells induced a similar M2 skewed profile and IL4Rα protein expression was generally elevated in LMP7-/- alveolar macrophages, indicating that amplified IL4R signaling in immunoproteasome defective cells may contribute to augmented M2 polarization. Importantly, treatment with an LMP7-specific proteasome inhibitor recapitulated the findings of genetic LMP7 inactivation. Our results thus suggest a novel role of immunoproteasome function for regulating innate immune function of macrophages by limiting IL4R expression and signaling.