MicroRNA-122 supports robust innate immunity in hepatocytes by targeting the RTKs/STAT3 signaling pathway
- Sun Yat-sen University, China
Abstract
MicroRNA-122 (miR-122) is the most abundant microRNA in hepatocytes and a central player in liver biology and disease. Herein, we report a previously unknown role for miR-122 in hepatocyte intrinsic innate immunity. Restoring miR-122 levels in hepatoma cells markedly enhanced the activation of interferons (IFNs) in response to a variety of viral nucleic acids or simulations, especially of hepatitis C virus RNA and poly (I:C). Mechanistically, miR-122 down-regulated the phosphorylation (Tyr705) of STAT3 and thereby removed the negative regulation of STAT3 on IFN-signaling. While STAT3 represses IFN expression by inhibiting interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1), miR-122 targets MERTK, FGFR1 and IGF1R, three receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) that directly promote STAT3 phosphorylation. This work identifies a miR-122-RTKs/STAT3-IRF1-IFNs regulatory circuitry, which may play a pivotal role in regulating hepatocyte innate immunity. These findings renewed our knowledge about miR-122's function and have important implications for treating hepatitis viruses.
Data availability
Microarray data have been deposited in GEO under accession number GSE99663.
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MicroRNA-122 promotes antiviral interferon response by inhibition of phosphorylated STAT3NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE99663.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31200593)
- Hui Xu
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31230042)
- Liang-Hu Qu
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31471223)
- Liang-Hu Qu
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31671349)
- Liang-Hu Qu
Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2014A030313163)
- Hui Xu
National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB811300)
- Liang-Hu Qu
National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0504400)
- Jian-Hua Yang
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Stephen P Goff, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, United States
Version history
- Received: August 16, 2018
- Accepted: February 7, 2019
- Accepted Manuscript published: February 8, 2019 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: February 25, 2019 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2019, Xu et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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MicroRNA-122 supports robust innate immunity in hepatocytes by targeting the RTKs/STAT3 signaling pathway
eLife 8:e41159.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.41159
Further reading
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- Immunology and Inflammation
- Medicine
Background:
Prinflammatory extracellular chromatin from neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and other cellular sources is found in COVID-19 patients and may promote pathology. We determined whether pulmonary administration of the endonuclease dornase alfa reduced systemic inflammation by clearing extracellular chromatin.
Methods:
Eligible patients were randomized (3:1) to the best available care including dexamethasone (R-BAC) or to BAC with twice-daily nebulized dornase alfa (R-BAC + DA) for seven days or until discharge. A 2:1 ratio of matched contemporary controls (CC-BAC) provided additional comparators. The primary endpoint was the improvement in C-reactive protein (CRP) over time, analyzed using a repeated-measures mixed model, adjusted for baseline factors.
Results:
We recruited 39 evaluable participants: 30 randomized to dornase alfa (R-BAC +DA), 9 randomized to BAC (R-BAC), and included 60 CC-BAC participants. Dornase alfa was well tolerated and reduced CRP by 33% compared to the combined BAC groups (T-BAC). Least squares (LS) mean post-dexamethasone CRP fell from 101.9 mg/L to 23.23 mg/L in R-BAC +DA participants versus a 99.5 mg/L to 34.82 mg/L reduction in the T-BAC group at 7 days; p=0.01. The anti-inflammatory effect of dornase alfa was further confirmed with subgroup and sensitivity analyses on randomised participants only, mitigating potential biases associated with the use of CC-BAC participants. Dornase alfa increased live discharge rates by 63% (HR 1.63, 95% CI 1.01–2.61, p=0.03), increased lymphocyte counts (LS mean: 1.08 vs 0.87, p=0.02) and reduced circulating cf-DNA and the coagulopathy marker D-dimer (LS mean: 570.78 vs 1656.96 μg/mL, p=0.004).
Conclusions:
Dornase alfa reduces pathogenic inflammation in COVID-19 pneumonia, demonstrating the benefit of cost-effective therapies that target extracellular chromatin.
Funding:
LifeArc, Breathing Matters, The Francis Crick Institute (CRUK, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust).
Clinical trial number:
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- Immunology and Inflammation
Trained immunity is the long-term functional reprogramming of innate immune cells, which results in altered responses toward a secondary challenge. Despite indoxyl sulfate (IS) being a potent stimulus associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD)-related inflammation, its impact on trained immunity has not been explored. Here, we demonstrate that IS induces trained immunity in monocytes via epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming, resulting in augmented cytokine production. Mechanistically, the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) contributes to IS-trained immunity by enhancing the expression of arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism-related genes such as arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase (ALOX5) and ALOX5 activating protein (ALOX5AP). Inhibition of AhR during IS training suppresses the induction of IS-trained immunity. Monocytes from end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients have increased ALOX5 expression and after 6 days training, they exhibit enhanced TNF-α and IL-6 production to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Furthermore, healthy control-derived monocytes trained with uremic sera from ESRD patients exhibit increased production of TNF-α and IL-6. Consistently, IS-trained mice and their splenic myeloid cells had increased production of TNF-α after in vivo and ex vivo LPS stimulation compared to that of control mice. These results provide insight into the role of IS in the induction of trained immunity, which is critical during inflammatory immune responses in CKD patients.
