Objective The objective of this article is to review the current literature on Wnt5a and its signaling mechanism, along with its role in atherosclerosis. In addition, the significance of Wnt5a as a diagnostic marker and a potential therapeutic target is reviewed. Wnt5a, a secreted glycoprotein, belongs to a family of highly conserved proteins that regulate important processes such as cell fate specification, embryonic development, cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation in a variety of organisms. The complexity of Wnt5a signaling lies in the fact that Wnt5a can bind to different classes of frizzled receptors, receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2, as well as co-receptors such as low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5/6. Wnt5a signals primarily through the non-canonical pathway, where it mediates cell proliferation, adhesion, and movement. However, the role of Wnt5a in canonical signaling is still unresolved. Depending on the receptor availability, Wnt5a can serve to activate or inhibit the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. Due to the promiscuous nature of Wnt5a, it has been extremely difficult to fully understand its signaling mechanism. Wnt5a has recently emerged as a macrophage effector molecule that triggers inflammation. Perturbations in Wnt5a signaling have been reported in several inflammatory diseases, particularly in sepsis, rheumatoid arthritis, and atherosclerosis. Conclusion Both existing and emerging evidence suggests that the expression of Wnt5a is always up-regulated in these, and possibly other inflammatory disorders. This knowledge can be useful for targeting Wnt5a and/or its receptor and downstream signaling molecules for therapeutic intervention in inflammatory disorders.

Objective and design Atherosclerosis (ATH) is a chronic inflammatory disease that involves cascades of signaling events mediated by various effector proteins. Here we sought to determine if the expression of Wnt5a, a secreted glycoprotein, is altered in discrete regions of the arterial plaque.MethodsAtherosclerotic plaque tissues from 14 human subjects undergoing elective carotid endarterectomy were used in this study. Immunohistochemistry and laser capture microdissection combined with quantitative real-time PCR were used to determine the expression of Wnt5a and Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in different sections of the arterial lesions. Atherosclerotic serum samples (n = 30) and serum from healthy subjects (n = 16) were quantified for Wnt5a using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).ResultsThe data analysis revealed that Wnt5a transcripts and protein were elevated in advanced arterial lesions relative to less advanced arterial lesions; that Wnt5a expression correlated with the presence of TLR4 and TLR2 transcripts; and that the average amount of Wnt5a protein present in atherosclerotic patient serum was significantly higher compared to healthy controls.ConclusionsThis study is the first to provide evidence that the expression of Wnt5a increases as the disease progresses to a more advanced stage, and that this expression is coincident with that of TLR2 and TLR4. In addition, we found that the average Wnt5a levels in the serum of atherosclerotic patients are elevated relative to healthy controls, which is consistent with the hypothesis that Wnt5a plays a role in ATH.

Abstract:Objective: Wnt5a is a secreted glycoprotein highly present in atherosclerotic lesions. Uptake of oxidized-low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) by monocytes/macrophages plays a critical role in atherosclerosis. The objective of this study was to determine if Wnt5a mRNA expression correlates with the severity of atherosclerotic lesions, and if, ox-LDL can induce Wnt5a mRNA in macrophages.Methods: Wnt5a mRNA in tissue sections from carotid arteries of patients undergoing endarterectomy was quantified via RT-PCR and correlated with plaque severity. Human monocyte-derived macrophages and differentiated THP-1 cells, a human monocytic cell line, were treated with ox-LDL or native-LDL. Subsequently, Wnt5a transcripts were quantified by RT-PCR. Results:Regions of the arteries with more severe plaques had detectable and significant levels of Wnt5a mRNA, while regions of the arteries containing less vulnerable plaques had low or non-detectable Wnt5a. Ox-LDL, but not native-LDL, induced Wnt5a mRNA in both human monocyte-derived macrophages and differentiated THP-1 cells. Conclusion:Our results demonstrate that the expression of Wnt5a correlates with the severity of atherosclerotic lesions, and that ox-LDL induces Wnt5a mRNA expression in human macrophages. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that Wnt5a plays a critical role in atherosclerosis progression and that a source of Wnt5a is ox-LDL stimulated macrophages.

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is a multitasking protein kinase that regulates numerous critical cellular functions. Not surprisingly, elevated GSK-3 activity has been implicated in a host of diseases including pathological inflammation, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, asthma, bipolar disorder, and Alzheimer’s. Therefore, reagents that inhibit GSK-3 activity provide a means to investigate the role of GSK-3 in cellular physiology and pathophysiology and could become valuable therapeutics. Finding a potent inhibitor of GSK-3 that can selectively target this kinase, among over 500 protein kinases in the human genome, is a significant challenge. Thus there remains a critical need for the identification of selective inhibitors of GSK-3. In this work, we introduce a novel small organic compound, namely COB-187, which exhibits potent and highly selective inhibition of GSK-3. Specifically, this study 1) utilized a molecular screen of 414 kinase assays, representing 404 unique kinases, to reveal that COB-187 is a highly potent and selective inhibitor of GSK-3; 2) utilized a cellular assay to reveal that COB-187 decreases the phosphorylation of canonical GSK-3 substrates indicating that COB-187 inhibits cellular GSK-3 activity; and 3) reveals that a close isomer of COB-187 is also a selective and potent inhibitor of GSK-3. Taken together, these results demonstrate that we have discovered a region of chemical design space that contains novel GSK-3 inhibitors. These inhibitors will help to elucidate the intricate function of GSK-3 and can serve as a starting point for the development of potential therapeutics for diseases that involve aberrant GSK-3 activity.

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