Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a member of the TNF superfamily exerting cytotoxic activities toward tumor cells. Herein, we demonstrate that therapeutic concentrations of interferon ␣ (IFN␣) stimulate the expression of high levels of TRAIL mRNA and the release of elevated amounts of a soluble bioactive form of TRAIL (sTRAIL) in both human neutrophils and monocytes. Supernatants harvested from IFN␣-treated neutrophils/ monocytes elicited, on TRAIL-sensitive leukemic cell lines, proapoptotic activities that were significantly reduced by either a combination of TRAIL-R1/Fc and TRAIL-R2/Fc chimeras or neutralizing anti-TRAIL, anti-TRAIL-R1, and anti-TRAIL-R2 antibodies, suggesting that they were mediated by released sTRAIL acting on both TRAIL receptors. Since diseases such as chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and melanoma are effectively treated with IFN␣, we also demonstrate that CML neutrophils and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) cultured with IFN␣ at therapeutic concentrations retain the capacity of releasing sTRAIL, suggesting that CML leukocytes, in vivo, might represent an important source of sTRAIL. In this regard, we show that sTRAIL serum levels as well as leukocyte-associated TRAIL significantly increase in melanoma patients following IFN␣ administration. Collectively, these findings indicate that sTRAIL released by IFN␣-activated neutrophils and monocytes contributes not only to the immunoregulatory actions but also to the therapeutic activities of IFN␣.

Neutrophils are versatile cells, which play a role, not only in inflammatory processes but also in immune and antitumoral responses. Recently, we have reported that interferon (IFN)-activated neutrophils are able to release biologically active tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL/APO2 ligand), a molecule exerting selective, apoptotic activities toward tumor and virus-infected cells, as well as immunoregulatory functions on activated T lymphocytes. Herein, we show that only a minor fraction of the total TRAIL, newly synthesized by IFN-activated neutrophils within 24 h, is released outside, the rest being retained intracellularly, mainly in secretory vesicles and light membrane fractions. We demonstrate that the intracellular pool of TRAIL present in IFN-pretreated neutrophils is rapidly mobilizable to the cell surface and can be secreted following exposure to proinflammatory mediators such as TNF-alpha, lipopolysaccharide, formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine, CXC chemokine ligand 8/interleukin-8, insoluble immunocomplexes, and heat shock protein Gp96. These various proinflammatory agonists functioned as effective secretagogue molecules only, in that they failed to augment TRAIL mRNA expression or TRAIL de novo synthesis in freshly isolated neutrophils or cultured with or without IFN. In addition, supernatants from IFN-treated neutrophils stimulated with proinflammatory mediators induced the apoptosis of target cells more effectively than supernatants from neutrophils activated with IFNs alone. Collectively, our results uncover a novel mechanism, whereby the release of soluble TRAIL by neutrophils can be greatly amplified and further reinforce the notion that neutrophils are important cells in tumor surveillance and immunomodulation.

St. John's wort (SJW) has been described to show anti-inflammatory properties due to its inhibitory effects on the expression of pro-inflammatory genes like cyclooxygenase-2, interleukin-6, and inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS). Since iNOS plays a critical role in chronic inflammatory diseases, we have focused our attention on the regulation of iNOS expression by SJW in two different human epithelial cell lines, alveolar A549/8 and colon DLD-1 cells. SJW extract concentration dependently inhibited human iNOS expression evaluated by measuring the amounts of iNOS mRNA, iNOS protein, and NO production in both cell lines. This inhibitory effect resulted from transcriptional inhibition as shown in reporter gene experiments. With electrophoretic mobility shift experiments, we found a SJWmediated down-regulation of the DNA binding activity of the transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription-1␣ (STAT-1␣), but not of nuclear factor-B. This downregulation of the STAT-1␣ DNA binding was shown to result from reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of the STAT-1␣ protein.The diminished STAT-1␣ tyrosine phosphorylation resulted from SJW-mediated reduction of Janus kinase 2 activity. These data suggest that extracts from SJW may be a promising anti-inflammatory principle in chronic inflammatory diseases.

We previously reported that the stimulation of human blood monocytes with IFN-γ induces the binding of PU.1 to the gp91phox promoter and the consequent expression of gp91phox. In this study, we show that the effect of IFN-γ is reproduced by the serine phosphatase inhibitor, okadaic acid, and this suggests that serine kinases could be involved in gp91phox expression. We also show that IFN-γ induces the serine/threonine phosphorylation of PU.1 in cultured monocytes. This phosphorylation, as well as the IFN-γ-induced PU.1 binding and gp91phox protein synthesis, is slightly affected by the casein kinase II inhibitor, daidzein, but is abrogated by the protein kinase C (PKC) -α and -β inhibitor, Go6976, and by synthetic peptides with sequences based on the endogenous pseudosubstrate region of the classical PKC α and β isoforms. In contrast, peptides reproducing the pseudosubstrate region of PKC ε were without effect. Moreover, we found that the treatment of monocytes with IFN-γ induces the nuclear translocation and the activation of PKC α and βI, but not of PKC βII, and that the IFN-γ-induced phosphorylation of PU.1 was greatly reduced by LY333531, a selective inhibitor of PKC β isoforms. Finally, nuclear run-on assays demonstrated that while the PKC inhibitors, Go6976 and LY333531, decrease the IFN-γ-induced gp91phox transcription, the serine phosphatase inhibitor, okadaic acid, enhances the gp91phox gene transcription. Our results indicate that in cultured monocytes, IFN-γ induces the binding of PU.1 to the gp91phox promoter and the expression of gp91phox by phosphorylation of PU.1 via activation of PKC α and/or βI.