Intracellular protein phosphorylation in murine peritoneal macrophages in response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS): effects of kinase-inhibitors and LPS-induced tolerance.

Intracellular protein phosphorylation is thought to be the initial step in cell activation. Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces a special set of the protein phosphorylation in the murine peritoneal macrophages, including p65 (molecular mass of 65 kDa) which is a substrate of serine kinase and the most dominant phosphorylated cytosolic protein. This article deals with the relation between the LPS-induced protein phosphorylation in the murine peritoneal macrophages and their productions of IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha. LPS-induced p65 phosphorylation seems to be dependent on protein kinase C (PKC) and calmodulin (CaM), because it diminishes in the presence of inhibitors to PKC or CaM. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors do not affect the p65 phosphorylation. The PKC inhibitors also affect the mRNA expressions and the productions of active molecules of IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha. Though the CaM inhibitor inhibits the mRNA expression and the active molecule production of IL-1 beta, it does not affect those of TNF-alpha. These results suggest that LPS-induced p65 phosphorylation is closely related to PKC and CaM, and that IL-1 beta production depends on PKC and CaM, while the TNF-alpha production is not dependent on CaM. These findings indicate the existence of multiple pathways and different regulatory mechanisms for transduction of LPS signal in the macrophages. Furthermore, LPS-induced phosphorylation is not observed in endotoxin tolerant macrophages after re-stimulation with LPS, suggesting that the LPS-stimulus signal is blocked at a site in the signal transduction-pathway before the point of phosphorylation of proteins in the tolerant macrophages.

Non-specific resistance induced by a low-toxic lipid A analogue, DT-5461, in murine salmonellosis.

The ability of DT-5461, a chemically synthetic low-toxic lipid A analogue, to activate anti-Salmonella activity in C3H/HeN mice was examined. Previous intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of DT-5461 (100 micrograms or more/mouse) significantly hindered the bacterial growth in the peritoneal cavities of the mice after the i.p. infection with Salmonella typhimurium LT2 strain. The effect was the maximum when DT-5461 was given 6 h before the challenge. The injection of DT-5461 6 h in advance could also confer protection against the infection. Bactericidal activity enhancement was also seen in mice that had been injected with a small amount of recombinant murine IFN-gamma (10(3) U per mouse) and non-effective dose (10 micrograms) of DT-5461 together 6 h before the challenge. Bactericidal effect enhancement was seen in mice that had been injected with IFN-gamma at 6 h and DT-5461 at 3 h before the challenge, while it could be hardly seen in mice injected with them in a reversed order. The i.p. injection of DT-5461 recruits the exudate cells into the peritoneal cavities, and the phagocytic and bactericidal abilities of the macrophages in the exudate cells are apparently elevated. The mechanisms of non-specific resistance enhancement induced by DT-5461 were discussed.

Protective effect of OK-432 on mice against endotoxemia and infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella enteritidis.

OK-432 has been used clinically as a biological response modifier for cancer therapy. We investigated here the protective effects of OK-432 against endotoxic shock and infectious death caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella enteritidis in mice and proposed a possible mechanism. Pretreatment of OK-432 reduced the lethality of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced endotoxic shock in D-(+)-galactosamine-sensitized C3H/HeN mice. OK-432 did not affect the TNFalpha production in blood, but it did decrease the susceptibility to TNFalpha. Furthermore, an acceleration of LPS clearance from blood was detected. The pretreatment of OK-432 also decreased the lethality of mice in bacterial infection caused by P. aeruginosa and S. enteritidis. The rapid decrease of the viable bacteria from the circulating blood and in spleen and liver in mice was observed in a manner similar to LPS clearance. These findings indicate that the protective effect of OK-432 against the endotoxemia and bacteremia may depend on an up-regulation of clearance of LPS and bacteria and the augmented resistance to TNFalpha.

Protective effects of a human 18-kilodalton cationic antimicrobial protein (CAP18)-derived peptide against murine endotoxemia.

CAP18 (an 18-kDa cationic antimicrobial protein) is a granulocyte-derived protein that can bind lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and inhibit various activities of LPS in vitro. The present study examined the protective effect of a synthetic 27-amino-acid peptide (CAP18(109-135)) from the LPS-binding domain of CAP18 against antibiotic-induced endotoxin shock, using highly LPS-sensitive D-(+)-galactosamine (D-GalN)-sensitized C3H/HeN mice. The antibiotic-induced endotoxin (CAZ-endotoxin) was prepared from the culture filtrate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 exposed to ceftazidime (CAZ). Injection of CAP18(109-135) protected the mice injected with LPS or CAZ-endotoxin from death and lowered their tumor necrosis factor (TNF) levels in serum in a dose-dependent manner. Treatment with CAZ caused death of the D-GalN-sensitized P. aeruginosa PAO-infected mice within 48 h, while injection with CAP18(109-135) rescued the mice from death. In the mice rescued from death by injection with CAP18(109-135), endotoxin levels in plasma and TNF production by liver tissues were decreased but the numbers of viable infecting bacteria in their blood were not decreased significantly and remained at the levels in CAZ-treated mice. These results indicate that CAP18(109-135) is capable of preventing antibiotic-induced endotoxic shock in mice with septicemia and that the effect is due to its LPS-neutralizing activity rather than to its antibacterial activity.