Marked and rapid effects of pharmacological HIF-2α antagonism on hypoxic ventilatory control

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Abstract

Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is strikingly upregulated in many types of cancer and there is great interest in applying inhibitors of HIF as anti-cancer therapeutics. The most advanced of these are small molecules that target the HIF-2 isoform through binding the PAS-B domain of HIF-2α. These molecules are undergoing clinical trials with promising results in renal and other cancers where HIF-2 is considered to be driving growth. Nevertheless, a central question remains as to whether such inhibitors impact on physiological responses to hypoxia at relevant doses. Here we show that pharmacological HIF-2α inhibition with PT2385, at doses similar to those reported to inhibit tumour growth, rapidly impaired ventilatory responses to hypoxia, abrogating both ventilatory acclimatisation and carotid body cell proliferative responses to sustained hypoxia. Mice carrying a HIF-2α PAS-B S305M mutation that disrupts PT2385 binding, but not dimerisation with HIF-1β, did not respond to PT2385 indicating that these effects are on target. Furthermore, the finding of a hypomorphic ventilatory phenotype in untreated HIF-2α S305M mutant mice suggests a function for the HIF-2α PAS-B domain beyond heterodimerisation with HIF-1β. Although PT2385 was well-tolerated, the findings indicate the need for caution in patients who are dependent on hypoxic ventilatory drive.

Authors

Xiaotong Cheng, Maria Prange-Barczynska, James W. Fielding, Minghao Zhang, Alana L. Burrell, Joanna D.C.C. Lima, Luise Eckardt, Isobel L.A. Argles, Christopher W. Pugh, Keith J. Buckler, Peter A. Robbins, Emma J. Hodson, Richard K. Bruick, Lucy M. Collinson, Fraydoon Rastinejad, Tammie Bishop, Peter J. Ratcliffe

TGFβ-induced epigenetic deregulation of SOCS3 facilitates STAT3-signaling to promote fibrosis

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Abstract

Fibroblasts are key-effector cells in tissue remodeling. They remain persistently activated in fibrotic diseases, resulting in progressive deposition of extracellular matrix. Although fibroblast activation maybe initiated by external factors, prolonged activation can induce an “autonomous”, self-maintaining pro-fibrotic phenotype in fibroblasts. Accumulating evidence suggests that epigenetic alterations play a central role to establish this persistently activated pathologic phenotype of fibroblasts. We demonstrated that in fibrotic skin of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), a prototypical idiopathic fibrotic disease, transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) induced the expression of DNA-methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) and DNMT1 in fibroblasts in a SMAD-dependent manner to silence the expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) by promoter hypermethylation. Downregulation of SOCS3 facilitated activation of signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) to promote fibroblast-to–myofibroblast transition, collagen release and fibrosis in vitro and in vivo. Re-establishment of the epigenetic control of STAT3 signaling by genetic or pharmacological inactivation of DNMT3A reversed the activated phenotype of SSc fibroblasts in tissue culture, inhibited TGFβ-dependent fibroblast activation and ameliorated experimental fibrosis in murine models. These findings identify a novel pathway of epigenetic imprinting of fibroblasts in fibrotic disease with translational implications for the development of new targeted therapies in fibrotic diseases.

Authors

Clara Dees, Sebastian Pötter, Yun Zhang, Christina Bergmann, Xiang Zhou, Markus Luber, Thomas Wohlfahrt, Emmanuel Karouzakis, Andreas Ramming, Kolja Gelse, Akihiko Yoshimura, Rudolf Jaenisch, Oliver Distler, Georg Schett, Jörg H.W. Distler

IL-17 producing γδ T cells protect against Clostridium difficile infection

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Abstract

Colitis caused by C. difficile infection is an increasing cause of human morbidity and mortality, especially after antibiotic use in healthcare settings. The natural immunity of newborn infants and protective host immune mediators against C. difficile infection are not fully understood, with data suggesting that inflammation can be either protective or pathogenic. Here we show an essential role for IL-17A produced by γδ T cells in host defense against C. difficile infection. Fecal extracts of children with C. difficile infection showed increased IL-17A and T cell receptor γ-chain expression, and IL-17 production by intestinal γδ T cells was efficiently induced after infection in mice. C. difficile induced tissue inflammation and mortality were each significantly increased in mice deficient in IL-17A or γδ T cells. neonatal mice, with naturally expanded ROR-γ+ γδ T cells poised for IL-17 production were resistant to C. difficile infection, whereas eliminating γδ T cells or IL-17A each efficiently overturned neonatal resistance against infection. These results reveal an expanded role for IL-17 producing γδ T cells in neonatal host defense against infection and provide a mechanistic explanation for the clinically observed resistance of infants to C. difficile colitis.

Authors

Yee-Shiuan Chen, Iuan-Bor Chen, Giang Pham, Tzu-Yu Shao, Hansraj Bangar, Sing Sing Way, David B. Haslam

Phase-I trial of donor-derived modified immune cell infusion in kidney transplantation

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Abstract

Background. Preclinical experiments have shown that donor blood cells, modified in vitro by an alkylating agent (MIC, modified immune cells), induced long-term specific immunosuppression against the allogeneic donor. Methods. In this phase-I trial, patients received either 1.5x106 MIC per kg b.w. on day -2 (N=3, group A), or 1.5x108 MIC per kg b.w. on day -2 (N=3, group B) or day -7 (N=4, group C) before living donor kidney transplantation in addition to post-transplant immunosuppression. Primary outcome measure was the frequency of adverse events (AE) until day 30 (study phase) with follow-up to day 360. Results. MIC infusions were extremely well tolerated. During the study phase, a total of 69 AE occurred in 10 treated patients which were unlikely/not related to MIC infusion. No donor-specific human leukocyte antigen antibodies or rejection episodes were noted even though the patients received up to 1.3x1010 of donor mononuclear cells prior to transplantation. Group C patients with low immunosuppression during follow-up showed no in vitro reactivity against stimulatory donor blood cells on day 360 while reactivity against third party cells was preserved. Frequencies of CD19+CD24highCD38high transitional B lymphocytes (Breg) increased from a median of 6% before MIC infusion to 20% on day 180, which was 19- and 68-fold higher, respectively, than in two independent cohorts of transplanted controls. The majority of Breg produced immunosuppressive cytokine IL-10. MIC-treated patients showed the Immune Tolerance Network operational tolerance signature. Conclusion. MIC administration was safe and could be a future tool for the targeted induction of tolerogenic Breg.

Authors

Christian Morath, Anita Schmitt, Christian Kleist, Volker Daniel, Gerhard Opelz, Caner Süsal, Eman H. Ibrahim, Florian Kälble, Claudius Speer, Christian Nusshag, Luiza Pego da Silva, Claudia Sommerer, Lei Wang, Ming Ni, Angela Hückelhoven-Krauss, David Czock, Uta Merle, Arianeb Mehrabi, Anja Sander, Matthes Hackbusch, Christoph Eckert, Rüdiger Waldherr, Paul Schnitzler, Carsten Müller-Tidow, Jörg D. Hoheisel, Shakhawan A. Mustafa, Mohamed S.S. Alhamdani, Andrea S Bauer, Jochen Reiser, Martin Zeier, Michael Schmitt, Matthias Schaier, Peter Terness

Cytotoxic CD4+ T lymphocytes may induce endothelial cell apoptosis in systemic sclerosis

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Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune fibrotic disease whose pathogenesis is poorly understood and lacks effective therapies. We undertook quantitative analyses of T cell infiltrates in the skin of thirty-five untreated patients with early diffuse SSc and here show that CD4+ cytotoxic T cells and CD8+ T cells contribute prominently to these infiltrates. We also observed an accumulation of apoptotic cells in SSc tissues, suggesting that recurring cell death may contribute to tissue damage and remodeling in this fibrotic disease. HLA-DR expressing endothelial cells were frequent targets of apoptosis in SSc, consistent with the prominent vasculopathy seen in patients with this disease. A circulating effector population of cytotoxic CD4+ T cells, which exhibited signatures of enhanced metabolic activity, was clonally expanded in systemic sclerosis patients. These data suggest that cytotoxic T cells may induce the apoptotic death of endothelial and other cells in systemic sclerosis. Cell loss driven by immune cells may be followed by overly exuberant tissue repair processes that lead to fibrosis and tissue dysfunction..

Authors

Takashi Maehara, Naoki Kaneko, Cory Adam Perugino, Hamid Mattoo, Jesper Kers, Hugues Allard-Chamard, Vinay S. Mahajan, Hang Liu, Samuel J.H. Murphy, Musie Ghebremichael, David A. Fox, Aimee S. Payne, Robert Lafyatis, John H. Stone, Dinesh Khanna, Shiv Pillai

Local microvascular leakage promotes trafficking of activated neutrophils to remote organs

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Abstract

Increased microvascular permeability to plasma proteins and neutrophil emigration are hallmarks of innate immunity and key features of numerous inflammatory disorders. Whilst neutrophils can promote microvascular leakage, the impact of vascular permeability on neutrophil trafficking is unknown. Here, through the application of confocal intravital microscopy, we reported that vascular permeability enhancing stimuli caused a significant frequency of neutrophil reverse transendothelial cell migration (rTEM). Furthermore, mice with a selective defect in microvascular permeability enhancement (VEC-Y685F-ki) showed reduced incidence of rTEM. Mechanistically, elevated vascular leakage promoted movement of interstitial chemokines into the blood stream, a response that supported abluminal-to-luminal neutrophil TEM. Through development of an in vivo cell labelling method we provided direct evidence for the systemic dissemination of rTEM neutrophils, showed them to exhibit an activated phenotype and capable of trafficking to the lungs where their presence was aligned with regions of vascular injury. Collectively, we demonstrated that increased microvascular leakage reverses the localisation of directional cues across venular walls, thus causing neutrophils engaged in diapedesis to re-enter the systemic circulation. This cascade of events offers a mechanism to explain how local tissue inflammation and vascular permeability can induce downstream pathological effects in remote organs, most notably in the lungs.

Authors

Charlotte Owen-Woods, Régis Joulia, Anna Barkaway, Loïc Rolas, Bin Ma, Astrid Fee Nottebaum, Kenton P. Arkill, Monja Stein, Tamara Girbl, Matthew Golding, David O. Bates, Dietmar Vestweber, Mathieu-Benoit Voisin, Sussan Nourshargh

Steroid-resistance in Diamond Blackfan anemia associates with p57^Kip2 dysregulation in erythroid progenitors

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Abstract

Despite the effective clinical use of steroids for the treatment of Diamond Blackfan anemia (DBA), the mechanistic bases via which glucocorticoids regulate human erythropoiesis remain poorly understood. Here, we report that the sensitivity of erythroid differentiation to dexamethasone (Dex) is dependent on the developmental origin of human CD34+ progenitor cells, specifically increasing the expansion of CD34+ progenitors from peripheral blood (PB) but not cord blood (CB). Dexamethasone treatment of erythroid-differentiated PB, but not CB, CD34+ progenitors resulted in the expansion of a novel CD34+CD36+CD71hiCD105med immature colony-forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E) population. Furthermore, proteomics analyses revealed the induction of distinct proteins in dexamethasone-treated PB and CB erythroid progenitors. Dexamethasone treatment of PB progenitors resulted in the specific upregulation of p57Kip2, a Cip/Kip cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, and we identified this induction as critical; shRNA-mediated downregulation of p57Kip2, but not the related p27Kip1, significantly attenuated the impact of dexamethasone on erythroid differentiation and inhibited the expansion of the immature CFU-E subset. Notably, in the context of DBA, we found that steroid resistance was associated with a dysregulated p57Kip2 expression. Altogether, these data identify a novel glucocorticoid-responsive human erythroid progenitor and provide new insights into glucocorticoid-based therapeutic strategies for the treatment of patients with DBA.

Authors

Ryan J. Ashley, Hongxia Yan, Nan Wang, John Hale, Brian M Dulmovits, Julien Papoin, Meagan E. Olive, Namrata D Udeshi, Steven A. Carr, Adrianna Vlachos, Jeffrey M. Lipton, Lydie Da Costa, Christopher D. Hillyer, Sandrina Kinet, Naomi Taylor, Narla Mohandas, Anupama Narla, Lionel Blanc

Donor glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency decreases blood quality for transfusion

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Abstract

BACKGROUND. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency decreases the ability of red blood cells (RBCs) to withstand oxidative stress. Refrigerated storage of RBCs induces oxidative stress. We hypothesized that G6PD-deficient donor RBCs would have inferior storage quality for transfusion as compared to G6PD-normal RBCs. METHODS. Male volunteers were screened for G6PD deficiency; 27 control and 10 G6PD-deficient volunteers each donated one RBC unit. After 42 days of refrigerated storage, autologous 51-Chromium 24-hour post-transfusion RBC recovery (PTR) studies were performed. Metabolomics analyses of these RBC units were also performed. RESULTS. The mean 24-hour PTR for G6PD-deficient subjects was 78.5 ± 8.4% (mean ± SD), which was significantly lower than that for G6PD-normal RBCs (85.3 ± 3.2%; P = 0.0009). None of the G6PD-normal volunteers (0/27) and three G6PD-deficient volunteers (3/10) had PTR results below 75%, a key FDA acceptability criterion for stored donor RBCs. As expected, fresh G6PD-deficient RBCs demonstrated defects in the oxidative phase of the pentose phosphate pathway. During refrigerated storage, G6PD-deficient RBCs demonstrated increased glycolysis, impaired glutathione homeostasis, and increased purine oxidation, as compared with G6PD-normal RBCs. In addition, there were significant correlations between PTR and specific metabolites in these pathways. CONCLUSIONS. Based on current FDA criteria, RBCs from G6PD-deficient donors would not meet the requirements for storage quality. Metabolomics assessment identified markers of PTR and G6PD deficiency (e.g., pyruvate/lactate ratios), along with potential compensatory pathways that could be leveraged to ameliorate the metabolic needs of G6PD-deficient RBCs. REGISTRATION. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04081272. FUNDING. The Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant 71590, the National Blood Foundation, NIH grant UL1 TR000040, the Webb-Waring Early Career Award 2017 by the Boettcher Foundation and the NHLBI grant R01HL14644 and R01HL148151.

Authors

Richard O. Francis, Angelo D’Alessandro, Andrew Eisenberger, Mark Soffing, Randy Yeh, Esther Coronel, Arif Sheikh, Francesca Rapido, Francesca La Carpia, Julie A. Reisz, Sarah Gehrke, Travis Nemkov, Tiffany Thomas, Joseph Schwartz, Chaitanya Divgi, Debra A. Kessler, Beth H. Shaz, Yelena Ginzburg, James C. Zimring, Steven L. Spitalnik, Eldad A. Hod

The β3-adrenergic receptor agonist mirabegron improves glucose homeostasis in obese humans

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Abstract

BACKGROUND. Beige adipose tissue is associated with improved glucose homeostasis in mice. Adipose tissue contains β3 adrenergic receptors (β3-AR), and this study was intended to determine whether the treatment of obese, insulin-resistant humans with the β3AR agonist mirabegron, which stimulates beige adipose formation in subcutaneous white adipose tissue (SC WAT), would induce other beneficial changes in fat and muscle, and improve metabolic homeostasis. METHODS. Before and after β3AR agonist treatment, oral glucose tolerance tests and euglycemic clamps were performed, and histochemistry and gene expression profiling were performed from fat and muscle biopsies. PET CT scans quantified brown adipose tissue volume and activity and we conducted in vitro studies with primary cultures of differentiated human adipocytes and muscle.RESULTS. Clinical effects of mirabegron treatment included improved oral glucose tolerance (P<0.01), reduced hemoglobin A1c (P=0.01), and improved insulin sensitivity (P=0.03) and β-cell function (P=0.01). In SC WAT, mirabegron treatment stimulated lipolysis, reduced fibrotic gene expression and increased alternatively activated macrophages. Subjects with the most SC WAT beiging demonstrated the most improvement in β-cell function. In skeletal muscle, mirabegron reduced triglycerides, increased expression of PGC1A (P<0.05), and increased type I fibers (P<0.01). Conditioned media from adipocytes treated with mirabegron stimulated muscle fiber PGC1A expression in vitro (P<0.001). CONCLUSION. Mirabegron treatment significantly improves glucose tolerance in obese, insulin resistant humans. Since β-cells and skeletal muscle do not express β3-ARs, these data suggest that the beiging of SC WAT by mirabegron reduces adipose tissue dysfunction, which enhances muscle oxidative capacity and improves β-cell function. TRIAL REGISTRATION. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02919176.FUNDING. NIH (DK112282, P30GM127211, DK 71349, and CTSA grant UL1TR001998).

Authors

Brian S. Finlin, Hasiyet Memetimin, Beibei Zhu, Amy L. Confides, Hemendra J. Vekaria, Riham H. El Khouli, Zachary R. Johnson, Philip M. Westgate, Jianzhong Chen, Andrew J. Morris, Patrick G. Sullivan, Esther E. Dupont-Versteegden, Philip A. Kern

Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator dysfunction in platelets drives lung hyperinflammation

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Abstract

Cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease is characterized by an inflammatory response that can lead to terminal respiratory failure. The cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) is mutated in CF and we hypothesized that dysfunctional CFTR in platelets, which are key participants in immune responses, is a central determinant of CF inflammation. We found that deletion of CFTR in platelets produced exaggerated acute lung inflammation and platelet activation after intratracheal LPS or Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge. CFTR loss of function in mouse or human platelets resulted in agonist-induced hyperactivation and increased calcium entry into platelets. Inhibition of the transient receptor potential cation channel 6 (TRPC6) reduced platelet activation and calcium flux, and reduced lung injury in CF mice after intratracheal LPS or Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge. CF subjects receiving CFTR modulator therapy showed partial restoration of CFTR function in platelets, which may be a convenient approach to monitoring biological responses to CFTR modulators. We conclude that CFTR dysfunction in platelets produces aberrant TRPC6-dependent platelet activation, which is a major driver of CF lung inflammation and impaired bacterial clearance. Platelets, and TRPC6, are what we believe to be novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of CF lung disease.

Authors

Guadalupe Ortiz-Munoz, Michelle A. Yu, Emma Lefrançais, Benat Mallavia, Colin Valet, Jennifer J. Tian, Serena Ranucci, Kristin M. Wang, Zhe Liu, Nicholas Kwaan, Diana Dawson, Mary Ellen Kleinhenz, Fadi T. Khasawneh, Peter M. Haggie, Alan S. Verkman, Mark R. Looney