Inhibition of nitric oxide and inflammatory cytokines in LPS-stimulated murine macrophages by resveratrol, a potent proteasome inhibitor.

BACKGROUND: Altered immune function during ageing results in increased production of nitric oxide (NO) and other inflammatory mediators. Recently, we have reported that NO production was inhibited by naturally-occurring proteasome inhibitors (quercetin, δ-tocotrienol, and riboflavin) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, and thioglycolate-elicited peritoneal macrophages from C57BL/6 mice. In a continuous effort to find more potent, non-toxic, commercially available, naturally-occurring proteasome inhibitors that suppress inflammation, the present study was carried out to describe the inhibition of NF-κB activation and NO, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1ß, and iNOS expression by trans-resveratrol, trans-pterostilbene, morin hydrate, and nicotinic acid in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells and thioglycolate-elicited peritoneal macrophages from C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice. RESULTS: The present results indicate that resveratrol, pterostilbene, and morin hydrate caused significant inhibition (>70% to 90%; P < 0.02) in the activities of chymotrypsin-like, trypsin-like, and post-acidic (post-glutamase) proteasome sites in RAW 264.7 cells at a dose of only 20 µM. These compounds also inhibited the production of NO by RAW-264.7 cells stimulated with LPS alone (>40%; P < 0.05), or LPS + interferon-γ (IFN-γ; >60%; P < 0.02). Furthermore, resveratrol, pterostilbene, morin hydrate, and quercetin suppressed secretion of TNF-α (>40%; P < 0.05) in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells, and suppressed NF-κB activation (22% to 45%; P < 0.05) in LPS-stimulated HEK293T cells. These compounds also significantly suppressed LPS-induced expression of TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and iNOS genes in RAW 264.7 cells, and also in thioglycolate-elicited peritoneal macrophages from C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice. CONCLUSIONS: The present results clearly demonstrate that resveratrol and pterostilbene are particularly potent proteasome inhibitors that suppress expression of genes, and production of inflammatory products in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells, and macrophages from C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice. Resveratrol and pterostilbene which are present in grapes, blueberries, and red wine, have been implicated as contributing factors to the lower incidence of cardiovascular disease in the French population, despite their relatively high dietary fat intake. Consequently, it appears likely that the beneficial nutritional effects of resveratrol and pterostilbene are due at least in part, to their ability to inhibit NF-κB activation by the proteasome, thereby suppressing activation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and iNOS genes, resulting in decreased secretion of TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and NO levels, in response to inflammatory stimuli. This is the first report demonstrating that resveratrol and pterostilbene act as proteasome inhibitors, thus providing a mechanism for their anti-inflammatory effects.

The immunoproteasomes regulate LPS-induced TRIF/TRAM signaling pathway in murine macrophages.

We have proposed the novel concept that the macrophage ubiquitin-proteasome pathway functions as a key regulator of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation signaling. These findings suggest that proteasome-associated protease subunits X, Y, and Z are replaced by LMP subunits after LPS treatment of RAW 264.7 cells. The objective here was to determine the contribution of selective LMP proteasomal subunits to LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) and TNF-α production in primary murine macrophages. Accordingly, thioglycollate-elicited macrophages from LMP7, LMP2, LMP10 (MECL-1), and LMP7/MECL-1 double knockout mice were stimulated in vitro with LPS, and were found to generate markedly reduced NO levels compared to wild-type (WT) mice, whereas TNF-α levels responses were essentially unaltered relative to wild-type responses. The recent studies suggest that the TRIF/TRAM pathway is defective in LMP knockouts which may explain why iNOS/NO are not robustly induced in LPS-treated macrophages from knockouts. Treating these macrophages with IFN-γ and LPS, however, reverses this defect, leading to robust NO induction. TNF-α is induced by LPS in the LMP knockout macrophages because IκB and IRAK are degraded normally via the MyD88 pathway. Collectively, these findings strongly support the concept that LMP7/MECL-1 proteasomes subunits actively function to regulate LPS-induced NO production by affecting the TRIF/TRAM pathway.

LPS-induced formation of immunoproteasomes: TNF-α and nitric oxide production are regulated by altered composition of proteasome-active sites.

Stimulation of mouse macrophages with LPS leads to tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) secretion and nitric oxide (NO) release at different times through independent signaling pathways. While the precise regulatory mechanisms responsible for these distinct phenotypic responses have not been fully delineated, results of our recent studies strongly implicate the cellular cytoplasmic ubiquitin-proteasome pathway as a key regulator of LPS-induced macrophage inflammatory responses. Our objective in this study was to define the relative contribution of specific proteasomal active-sites in induction of TNF-α and NO after LPS treatment of RAW 264.7 macrophages using selective inhibitors of these active sites. Our data provide evidence that LPS stimulation of mouse macrophages triggers a selective increase in the levels of gene and protein expression of the immunoproteasomes, resulting in a modulation of specific functional activities of the proteasome and a corresponding increase in NO production as compared to untreated controls. These findings suggest the LPS-dependent induction of immunoproteasome. In contrast, we also demonstrate that TNF-α expression is primarily dependent on both the chymotrypsin- and the trypsin-like activities of X, Y, Z subunits of the proteasome. Proteasome-associated post-acidic activity alone also contributes to LPS-induced expression of TNF-α. Taken together; our results indicate that LPS-induced TNF-α in macrophages is differentially regulated by each of the three proteasome activities. Since addition of proteasome inhibitors to mouse macrophages profoundly affects the degradation of proteins involved in signal transduction, we conclude that proteasome-specific degradation of several signaling proteins is likely involved in differential regulation of LPS-dependent secretion of proinflammatory mediators.