Effects of F/G-actin ratio and actin turn-over rate on NADPH oxidase activity in microglia.

BACKGROUND: Most in vivo studies that have addressed the role of actin dynamics in NADPH oxidase function in phagocytes have used toxins to modulate the polymerization state of actin and mostly effects on actin has been evaluated by end point measurements of filamentous actin, which says little about actin dynamics, and without consideration for the subcellular distribution of the perturbed actin cytoskeleton. RESULTS: Here, we in addition to toxins use conditional expression of the major actin regulatory protein LIM kinase-1 (LIMK1), and shRNA knock-down of cofilin to modulate the cellular F/G-actin ratio in the Ra2 microglia cell line, and we use Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching (FRAP) in ß-actin-YFP-transduced cells to obtain a dynamic measure of actin recovery rates (actin turn-over rates) in different F/G-actin states of the actin cytoskeleton. Our data demonstrate that stimulated NADPH oxidase function was severely impaired only at extreme actin recovery rates and F/G-actin ratios, and surprisingly, that any moderate changes of these parameters of the actin cytoskeleton invariably resulted in an increased NADPH oxidase activity. CONCLUSION: moderate actin polymerization and depolymerization both increase the FMLP and PMA-stimulated NADPH oxidase activity of microglia, which is directly correlated with neither actin recovery rate nor F/G- actin ratio. Our results indicate that NADPH oxidase functions in an enhanced state of activity in stimulated phagocytes despite widely different states of the actin cytoskeleton.

NF-κB signalling is attenuated by the E7 protein from cutaneous human papillomaviruses.

The high-risk Alpha-types of human papillomavirus (HPV) are the causative agent of cervical cancer, which is the second major cause of death among women worldwide. Recent investigations have shown that E7 from the Alpha-papillomavirus HPV-16 interacts with IKKα and IKKß of the IKK complex in the NF-κB pathway leading to an attenuation of the activity. There is a possible link between development of non-melanoma skin cancer and cutaneous Beta-papillomavirus but if these HPV types attenuate the NF-κB pathway is unclear. Seven different E7 proteins, representing four out of the five different species of the Beta genus (HPV-20, -37, -38, -92, -93 and -96) and one from the Gamma genus (HPV-4) were investigated for potential modulation of the NF-κB pathway in U2OS cells. Our results demonstrate that E7 from all the cutaneous HPV types were capable of inhibiting the NF-κB activity as well as E7 from HPV-16. In addition, E7 proteins from the cutaneous HPV types demonstrated interaction with IKKα but not with IKKß. The deregulation of the NF-κB pathway by cutaneous HPVs might contribute to the pathogenesis of non-melanoma skin cancers and its precursors.