iNOS plays an important role in mediating inflammation. In this study, we found that iNOSderived NO was increased 2.4-fold in the serum samples of 101 patients infected with influenza A virus in comparison with samples of 105 healthy individuals. In A549 human lung epithelial cells, infection with influenza A virus or stimulation with poly(I:C)1IFN-c resulted in increased mRNA and protein levels of both IL-32 and iNOS, with subsequent release of NO. Overexpression of IL-32 resulted in upregulated iNOS expression with subsequent NO production. Knock down of IL-32 by IL-32-specific siRNA resulted in the inhibition of dsRNA-induced expression of iNOS and NO release, indicating that IL-32 is an upstream regulatory factor of dsRNA-triggered iNOS production. Surprisingly, over-expression of iNOS resulted in the reduction of IL-32 expression, and suppression of iNOS by the selective iNOS inhibitor S-methylisothiourea sulfate stimulated IL-32 expression, indicating that a negative feedback mechanism operates between the iNOS/NO and IL-32 systems. These findings suggest that influenza A virus infection activates IL-32 and iNOS expression by a heretofore unrecognized complex mechanism, in which the two pro-inflammatory factors regulate each other, involving positive and negative feedback regulatory loops.Key words: Gene regulation . IL-32 . Inducible nitric oxide synthase . Inflammation .
Influenza virus
IntroductionIn a recent study we found that influenza virus (IV) infection in patients is associated with increased serum levels of the inflammatory cytokine IL-32 and the COX-2-induced prostaglandin PGE 2 . In vitro, IV infection of A549 lung epithelial cells resulted in release of IL-32 and activation of COX-2 expression [1]. As a proxy of virus infection we used stimulation of the cells with dsRNA1IFN-g, a combination previously shown to act synergistically when administered intratracheally [2] and in mouse peritoneal macrophages in vitro [3]. We demonstrated that production of IL-32 depends on prior COX-2 activation, but also that IL-32 can exert negative feedback control over activation of .In the present study we have pursued the analysis of these inflammatory pathways by testing for activation of the iNOS gene and subsequent production of NO. NO is synthesized from L-arginine by NOS in numerous mammalian cells and tissues and plays a critical role in signal modulation during immune responses, chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis. Three isoforms of NOS have been identified until now: two constitutively expressed and calciumdependent isoforms endothelial NOS and neuronal NOS; one inducible and calcium-independent isoform (iNOS), which catalyzes the production of high amount of NO in response to diverse stimuli [4].Increased IL-32 and iNOS expression stimulated by viral infections has been reported in previous investigations [1,5,6]. However, the function of IL-32 in the pro-inflammatory network is still unclear. Since IL-32 and iNOS are obligatory mediators of inflammation, the Fig. 1D) expression levels in cell ...