Clinically relevant mitochondrial-targeted therapy improves chronic outcomes after traumatic brain injury.

Pioglitazone, an FDA-approved compound, has been shown to target the novel mitochondrial protein mitoNEET and produce short-term neuroprotection and functional benefits following traumatic brain injury. To expand on these findings, we now investigate the dose- and time-dependent effects of pioglitazone administration on mitochondrial function after experimental traumatic brain injury. We then hypothesize that optimal pioglitazone dosing will lead to ongoing neuroprotection and cognitive benefits that are dependent on pioglitazone-mitoNEET signalling pathways. We show that delayed intervention is significantly more effective than early intervention at improving acute mitochondrial bioenergetics in the brain after traumatic brain injury. In corroboration, we demonstrate that mitoNEET is more heavily expressed, especially near the cortical contusion, in the 18 h following traumatic brain injury. To explore whether these findings relate to ongoing pathological and behavioural outcomes, mice received controlled cortical impact followed by initiation of pioglitazone treatment at either 3 or 18 h post-injury. Mice with treatment initiation at 18 h post-injury exhibited significantly improved behaviour and tissue sparing compared to mice with pioglitazone initiated at 3 h post-injury. Further using mitoNEET knockout mice, we show that this therapeutic effect is dependent on mitoNEET. Finally, we demonstrate that delayed pioglitazone treatment improves serial motor and cognitive performance in conjunction with attenuated brain atrophy after traumatic brain injury. This study illustrates that mitoNEET is the critical target for delayed pioglitazone intervention after traumatic brain injury, mitochondrial-targeting is highly time-dependent after injury and there is an extended therapeutic window to effectively treat mitochondrial dysfunction after brain injury.

Epithelial TNF Receptor Signaling Promotes Mucosal Repair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

TNF plays an integral role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), as evidenced by the dramatic therapeutic responses in Crohn's disease (CD) patients induced by chimeric anti-TNF mAbs. However, treatment of CD patients with etanercept, a decoy receptor that binds soluble TNF, fails to improve disease. To explore this discrepancy, we investigated the role of TNF signaling in Wnt/ß-catenin-mediated intestinal stem cell and progenitor cell expansion in CD patients, human cells, and preclinical mouse models. We hypothesized that TNF exerts beneficial effects on intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) responses to injury. In CD patients, intestinal stem cell and progenitor cell Wnt/ß-catenin signaling correlates with inflammation status. TNF-deficient (Tnf-/-) mice exhibited increased apoptosis, less IEC proliferation, and less Wnt signaling when stimulated with anti-CD3 mAb. Bone marrow (BM) chimera mice revealed that mucosal repair depended on TNF production by BM-derived cells and TNFR expression by radioresistant IECs. Wild-type→Tnfr1/2-/- BM chimera mice with chronic dextran sodium sulfate colitis exhibited delayed ulcer healing, more mucosal inflammation, and impaired Wnt/ß-catenin signaling, consistent with the hypothesis that epithelial TNFR signaling participates in mucosal healing. The direct effect of TNF on stem cells was demonstrated by studies of TNF-induced Wnt/ß-catenin target gene expression in murine enteroids and colonoid cultures and TNF-induced ß-catenin activation in nontransformed human NCM460 cells (TOPFlash) and mice (TOP-GAL). Together, these data support the hypothesis that TNF plays a beneficial role in enhancing Wnt/ß-catenin signaling during ulcer healing in IBD. These novel findings will inform clinicians and therapeutic chemists alike as they strive to develop novel therapies for IBD patients.

Temporal changes in inflammatory mitochondria-enriched microRNAs following traumatic brain injury and effects of miR-146a nanoparticle delivery.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that regulate post-transcriptional gene expression and contribute to all aspects of cellular function. We previously reported that the activities of several mitochondria-enriched miRNAs regulating inflammation (i.e., miR-142-3p, miR-142-5p, and miR-146a) are altered in the hippocampus at 3-12 hours following a severe traumatic brain injury. In the present study, we investigated the temporal expression profile of these inflammatory miRNAs in mitochondria and cytosol fractions at more chronic post-injury times following severe controlled cortical impact injury in rats. In addition, several inflammatory genes were analyzed in the cytosol fractions. The analysis showed that while elevated levels were observed in cytoplasm, the mitochondria-enriched miRNAs, miR-142-3p and miR-142-5p continued to be significantly reduced in mitochondria from injured hippocampi for at least 3 days and returned to near normal levels at 7 days post-injury. Although not statistically significant, miR-146a also remained at reduced levels for up to 3 days following controlled cortical impact injury, and recovered by 7 days. In contrast, miRNAs that are not enriched in mitochondria, including miR-124a, miR-150, miR-19b, miR-155, and miR-223 were either increased or demonstrated no change in their levels in mitochondrial fractions for 7 days. The one exception was that miR-223 levels were reduced in mitochondria at 1 day following injury. No major alterations were observed in sham operated animals. This temporal pattern was unique to mitochondria-enriched miRNAs and correlated with injury-induced changes in mitochondrial bioenergetics as well as expression levels of several inflammatory markers. These observations suggested a potential compartmental re-distribution of the mitochondria-enriched inflammatory miRNAs and may reflect an intracellular mechanism by which specific miRNAs regulate injury-induced inflammatory signaling. To test this, we utilized a novel peptide-based nanoparticle strategy for in vitro and in vivo delivery of a miR-146a mimic as a potential therapeutic strategy for targeting nuclear factor-kappaB inflammatory modulators in the injured brain. Nanoparticle delivery of miR-146a to BV-2 or SH-SY5Y cells significantly reduced expression of TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) and interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1), two important modulators of the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) pro-inflammatory pathway. Moreover, injections of miR-146a containing nanoparticles into the brain immediately following controlled cortical impact injury significantly reduced hippocampal TNF receptor-associated factor 6 and interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 1 levels. Taken together, our studies demonstrate the subcellular alteration of inflammatory miRNAs after traumatic brain injury and establish proof of principle that nanoparticle delivery of miR-146a has therapeutic potential for modulating pro-inflammatory effectors in the injured brain. All of the studies performed were approved by the University of Kentucky Institutional Animal Care and Usage Committee (IACUC protocol # 2014-1300) on August 17, 2017.