Yin Chen
Publications
PMID: 18978302;PMCID: PMC2677440;Abstract:
Mucociliary clearance is a critical innate defense system responsible for clearing up invading pathogens including bacteria and virus. Although the right amount of mucusis good, excessivemucus causes airway obstruction and tends to precipitate disease symptoms. Rhinovirus (RV) is a common cold virus that causes asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation. Mucus overproduction has been linked to the pathogenesis of RV-induced diseases and disease exacerbations. However, the molecular mechanism is not clear. In this study, using one of the major airway mucin-MUC5AC as marker, we found that both major and minor groups of RV induced mucin production in primary human epithelial cells and cell line. RV1A (a minor group of RV) could induce mucous cell metaplasia in vivo. Viral replication was needed for RV-induced mucin expression, and this induction was also dependent on TLR3, suggesting the involvement of double-stranded (ds) RNA signaling. Indeed, dsRNA alone could also induce mucin expression. TLR3-mediated mucin induction was negatively regulated by MyD88, and only partially dependent on TRIF, which suggests a departure from well-documented TLR3 signaling paradigm that mediates inflammatory and other innate defense gene inductions. In addition, TLR3 signaling activated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) through inductions of the expression of EGFR ligands (transforming growth factor-α and amphiregulin), which in turn activated EGFR-ERK signaling and mucin expression through an autocrine/paracrine loop. This novel coupling of antiviral defense machinery (i.e., TLR3) and major epithelial proliferation/repair pathway (i.e., EGFR) might play an important role in viral-induced airway remodeling and airway disease exacerbation.
Airway epithelial cells are the first line of defense against viral infections and are instrumental in coordinating the inflammatory response. In this study, we demonstrate the synergistic stimulation of CXCL10 mRNA and protein, a key chemokine responsible for the early immune response to viral infection, following treatment of airway epithelial cells with IFN γ and influenza virus. The synergism also occurred when the cells were treated with IFN γ and a viral replication mimicker (dsRNA) both in vitro and in vivo. Despite the requirement of type I interferon (IFNAR) signaling in dsRNA-induced CXCL10, the synergism was independent of the IFNAR pathway since it wasn't affected by the addition of a neutralizing IFNAR antibody or the complete lack of IFNAR expression. Furthermore, the same synergistic effect was also observed when a CXCL10 promoter reporter was examined. Although the responsive promoter region contains both ISRE and NFκB sites, western blot analysis indicated that the combined treatment of IFN γ and dsRNA significantly augmented NFκB but not STAT1 activation as compared to the single treatment. Therefore, we conclude that IFN γ and dsRNA act in concert to potentiate CXCL10 expression in airway epithelial cells via an NFκB-dependent but IFNAR-STAT independent pathway and it is at least partly regulated at the transcriptional level.
PMID: 22205631;PMCID: PMC3359907;Abstract:
Toll-IL-1 receptor (TIR) domain-containing adaptor molecule-1 (TICAM1, also called TRIF) is an important adaptor protein in TLR3 and TLR4 signaling pathways that mediate proinflammatory cytokine and IFN responses. Negative regulation of TICAM1 by exogenous viral protease or by endogenous caspase and proteasome have been reported to shut down TICAM1-mediated signaling. In this study, we discovered that down-regulation of TICAM1, but not other components in this signaling pathway, occurred in a natural process of TLR3 activation induced by double-stranded RNA or human rhinovirus (RV) infection in airway epithelial cells and various other cell types. TICAM1 was essential for IFN expression, and the loss of TICAM1 significantly elevated RV production. The low level of TICAM1 protein expression, caused by the prior double-stranded RNA treatment, led to a lack of IFN production upon additional treatment, suggesting receptor desensitization. In follow-up studies, TICAM1 down-regulation was found to be dependent on TLR3 but not RIG1, MDA5, or PKR and appeared to be regulated post-translationally. Neither proteasome nor caspase inhibitors could prevent TICAM1 down-regulation. Instead, a lysosome-mediated process appeared to be involved, suggesting a novel mechanism that is different from previous reports. In conclusion, TICAM1 down-regulation is an essential step in TLR3 activation, and its function is to stop TLR3-mediated IFN production. Copyright © 2012 by the American Thoracic Society.
PMID: 11734474;Abstract:
Development of the high-density DNA microarray technique permits the analysis of thousands of genes simultaneously for their differential expression patterns in various biological processes. Through clustering analysis and pattern recognition, the significance of differentially expressed genes can be recognized and correlated with biological events that may take place inside the cell and tissue. With this notion in mind, high-density DNA microarray nylon membrane with colorimetry detection was used to profile the expression of smoke- and hydrogen peroxide-inducible genes in a human bronchial epithelial cell line, HBE1. On the basis of the time course of expression, at least three phases of change in gene expression could be recognized. The first phase is an immediate event in response to oxidant injury. This phase includes induction of the bcl-2 and mdm-2 genes, which are involved in the regulation of apoptosis, and the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) gene, that functions as a regulator of various mitogen-activated protein kinase activities. The second phase, usually 5 h later, includes the induction of various stress proteins and ubiquitin, which are important in providing the chaperone mechanism and the turnover of damaged macromolecules. The third phase, which is 5-10 h later, includes the induction of genes that are apparently involved in reducing oxidative stress by metabolizing reactive oxygen species. In this phase, enzymes associated with tissue and cell remodeling are also elevated. These results demonstrate a complex gene expression array by bronchial epithelial cells in response to the insult of oxidants that are relevant to environmental pollutants.