SPOP targets the immune transcription factor IRF1 for proteasomal degradation
- University of Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Biocenter, Austria
Abstract
Adaptation of the functional proteome is essential to counter pathogens during infection, yet precisely timed degradation of these response proteins after pathogen clearance is likewise key to preventing autoimmunity. Interferon Regulatory Factor 1 (IRF1) plays an essential role as a transcription factor in driving the expression of immune response genes during infection. The striking difference in functional output with other IRFs, is that IRF1 also drives the expression of various cell cycle inhibiting factors, making it an important tumor suppressor. Thus, it is critical to regulate the abundance of IRF1 to achieve a 'Goldilocks' zone in which there is sufficient IRF1 to prevent tumorigenesis, yet not too much which could drive excessive immune activation. Using genetic screening, we identified the E3 ligase receptor Speckle Type BTB/POZ Protein (SPOP) to mediate IRF1 proteasomal turnover in human and mouse cells. We identified S/T-rich degrons in IRF1 required for its SPOP MATH domain-dependent turnover. In the absence of SPOP, elevated IRF1 protein levels functionally increased IRF1-dependent cellular responses, underpinning the biological significance of SPOP in curtailing IRF1 protein abundance.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
Article and author information
Author details
Matthias Hinterndorfer
Funding
Stand-Alone grant (P30231-B)
- Gijs A Versteeg
Stand-Alone grant (P30415-B)
- Gijs A Versteeg
Special Research grant (SFB grant F79)
- Gijs A Versteeg
Doctoral School grant from the Austrian Science Fund (DK grant W1261)
- Thomas Decker
- Gijs A Versteeg
European Research Council (ERC-StG-336860)
- Johannes Zuber
Austrian Science Fund (SFB grant F4710)
- Johannes Zuber
Stand-Alone grant (P25186-B22)
- Thomas Decker
Special Research Grant (SFB grant F6103)
- Thomas Decker
DOC fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
- Milica Vunjak
- Valentina Budroni
- Melanie de Almeida
- Thomas Decker
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- John W Schoggins, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States
Version history
- Preprint posted: October 11, 2022 (view preprint)
- Received: June 5, 2023
- Accepted: August 16, 2023
- Accepted Manuscript published: August 25, 2023 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: September 8, 2023 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2023, Schwartz 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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SPOP targets the immune transcription factor IRF1 for proteasomal degradation
eLife 12:e89951.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.89951
Further reading
-
- 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:
-
- 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.
