Abstract. Neddylation is a ubiquitination-like pathway. It has been reported that neddylation inhibition with the pharmacological agent MLN4924 potently uppresses lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced proinflammatory cytokine production, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6, by preventing the degradation of phosphorylated inhibitor of κB (p-IκB) in macrophages. However, whether neddylation serves a similar role in neutrophils remains unknown. In the present study MLN4924 treatment led to the accumulation of P-IκBα in neutrophils as well as the decreased production of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β in response to LPS, in a dose-dependent manner. The viability of neutrophils was only marginally affected in the same conditions, without statistical significance. Furthermore, the nuclear factor (NF)-κB inhibitor JSH-23 mimicked the effects of MLN4924 in neutrophils, and the inhibitory effects of MLN4924 on LPS-induced proinflammatory cytokine production diminished in the presence of JSH-23. Thus, the results of the present study suggest that neddylation inhibition suppresses neutrophil function by suppressing the NF-κB signaling pathway.
IntroductionNeutrophils serve crucial roles in the anti-bacterial and anti-fungal innate immune response and produce cytokines to initiate inflammatory responses; however, their inappropriate or excessive activation contributes to tissue damage during autoimmune and inflammatory diseases (1). Furthermore, the activity of neutrophils is associated with tumor progression, as demonstrated in colitis-associated cancer and glioblastoma (2,3).Previous studies have revealed that in order to protect the human body from invading pathogens and endogenous damage-associated molecules, neutrophils sense these threats through innate immune receptors, such as toll-like receptors (TLRs) and other pattern recognition receptors, to upregulate the secretion of inflammatory cytokines (4,5). The recognition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from gram-negative bacteria by TLR4 is a well-characterized example with the initiation of proinflammatory gene transcription through multiple signaling pathways, including nuclear factor (NF)-κB) (6,7). The exposure of neutrophils to bacterial LPS may contribute to tissue damage, under certain conditions, including endotoxic shock and infection-induced adult respiratory distress syndrome (8).Neddylation is a novel-type protein post-translational modification, a multistep enzymatic process that adds the ubiquitin-like molecule neural precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated protein 8 (Nedd8) to target proteins in an ATP-dependent manner. Neddylation is vital for a range of processes, including cell viability, growth and development (9-12). To the best of our knowledge, the only known E1 for neddylation is a heterodimer comprised of the amyloid precursor protein-binding protein and ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme 3 (9-12). A previous study identified the ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes Ube2M and Ube2F as Nedd8 E2s (13). Several targets for N...