RESUMO
The chemokine C receptor 7 (CCR7) is a G-protein-coupled heptahelical receptor (GPCR) that is expressed on a wide variety of cells including memory T cells, B cells, mature dendritic cells, and cancer cells. Activated by its ligands CCL19 or CCL21, CCR7 plays a major role in metastasis of cancer cells. Recent studies demonstrated the role of NF-κB and AP-1 transcription factors in addition to let-7 microRNA in CCR7 expression. Our ChIP assays further show the binding of Sp-1, Sp-3 and NFAT-1 transcription factors to their potential binding sites in the 1Kb promoter region with the later found to inhibit whilst Sp-1, and Sp-3 were found to stimulate CCR7 expression as demonstrated by transfection assays. On the other hand, in addition to the known let-7 regulation of CCR7, we found miR-21 to have a highly conserved target region in CCR7 3'UTR and to be significantly down-regulated during the course of dendritic cell maturation, allowing for high expression of CCR7.
Assuntos
Diferenciação Celular , Células Dendríticas/imunologia , Receptores CCR7/metabolismo , Regiões 3' não Traduzidas/genética , Diferenciação Celular/genética , Regulação da Expressão Gênica/imunologia , Células HEK293 , Células HeLa , Humanos , MicroRNAs/genética , MicroRNAs/metabolismo , Fatores de Transcrição NFATC/genética , Fatores de Transcrição NFATC/metabolismo , Regiões Promotoras Genéticas/genética , Ligação Proteica , Receptores CCR7/genética , Fator de Transcrição Sp1/genética , Fator de Transcrição Sp1/metabolismo , Fator de Transcrição Sp3/genética , Fator de Transcrição Sp3/metabolismoRESUMO
IFN-γ is a cytokine with important roles in the innate and adaptive immune responses. This cytokine is secreted by activated T cells, NK cells and macrophages. Studies on the regulation of human IFN-γ expression had been previously focused on the promoter region. Consequently, the role of microRNAs (miRs) in this regulation has not been investigated yet. As miR-24 and miR-181 were found to have potential target sites in IFN-γ mRNA 3'UTR, we assessed their impact on IFN-γ expression by co-stimulating PB CD4+ T cells with anti-CD3, anti-CD28, IL-12, and IL-18. This co-stimulation cocktail induced an abundant secretion of IFN-γ together with a down-regulation of miR-24, and miR-181. Existence of a link between these two phenomena was further substantiated by transfection and transduction assays that showed that these two miRs negatively regulate IFN-γ expression by directly binding to their target sites in the mRNA. Thus, identifying target sites for miR-24 and miR-181 in IFN-γ-3'UTR points to a novel regulatory mechanism of this crucial gene.
