Dexamethasone protects against Aspergillus fumigatus-induced severe asthma via modulating pulmonary immunometabolism.

Severe asthma is a difficult-to-treat chronic airway inflammatory disease requiring systemic corticosteroids to achieve asthma control. It has recently been shown that drugs targeting immunometabolism have elicited anti-inflammatory effects. The purpose of this study was to investigate potential immunometabolic modulatory actions of systemic dexamethasone (Dex) in an Aspergillus fumigatus (Af)-induced severe asthma model. Mice were repeatedly exposed to the Af aeroallergen before systemic treatment with Dex. Simultaneous measurements of airway inflammation, real-time glycolytic and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) activities, expression levels of key metabolic enzymes, and amounts of metabolites were studied in lung tissues, and in primary alveolar macrophages (AMs) and eosinophils. Dex markedly reduced Af-induced eosinophilic airway inflammation, which was coupled with an overall reduction in lung glycolysis, glutaminolysis, and fatty acid synthesis. The anti-inflammatory effects of Dex may stem from its immunometabolic actions by downregulating key metabolic enzymes including pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase, glutaminase, and fatty acid synthase. Substantial suppression of eosinophilic airway inflammation by Dex coincided with a specific escalation of mitochondrial proton leak in primary lung eosinophils. Besides, while our findings confirmed that inflammation corresponds with an upregulation of glycolysis, it was accompanied with an unexpectedly stable or elevated OXPHOS in the lungs and activated immune cells, respectively. Our findings reveal that the anti-inflammatory effects of Dex in severe asthma are associated with downregulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase, glutaminase, and fatty acid synthase, and the augmentation of mitochondrial proton leak in lung eosinophils. These enzymes and biological processes may be valuable targets for therapeutic interventions against severe asthma.

Degradation of MK2 with natural compound andrographolide: A new modality for anti-inflammatory therapy.

The p38MAPK-MK2 signaling axis functions as an initiator of inflammation. Targeting the p38MAPK-MK2 signaling axis represents a direct therapeutic intervention of inflammatory diseases. We described here a novel role of andrographolide (AG), a small-molecule ent-labdane natural compound, as an inhibitor of p38MAPK-MK2 axis via MK2 degradation. AG was found to bind to the activation loop of MK2, located at the interface of the p38MAPK-MK2 biomolecular complex. This interaction disrupted the complex formation and predisposed MK2 to proteasome-mediated degradation. We showed that AG induced MK2 degradation in a concentration- and time-dependent manner and exerted its anti-inflammatory effects by enhancing the mRNA-destabilizing activity of tristetraprolin, thereby inhibiting pro-inflammatory mediator production (e.g., TNF-α, MCP-1). Administration of AG via intratracheal (i.t.) route to mice induced MK2 downregulation in lung alveolar macrophages, but not lung tissues, and prevented macrophage activation. Our study also demonstrated that the anti-inflammatory effects achieved by AG via MK2 degradation were more durable and sustained than that achieved by the conventional MK2 kinase inhibitors (e.g., PF-3644022). Taken together, our findings illustrated a novel mode of action of AG by modulating the p38MAPK-MK2 signaling axis and would pave the way for the development of a novel class of anti-inflammatory agents targeting MK2 for degradation by harnessing the privileged scaffold of AG.

Angiotensin II type-2 receptor activation in alveolar macrophages mediates protection against cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death globally. Cumulative evidence has implicated renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in the pathogenesis of COPD. Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are the first line immune defense in the respiratory system and play a critical role in the lung homeostasis. This study aimed to investigate the role of AMs in contributing to the protective effects of angiotensin II type-2 receptor (AT2R) activation in cigarette smoke (CS)-induced COPD. The AM polarization, phagocytosis and metabolism, and the underlying biochemical mechanisms of compound 21 (C21), a selective and potent non-peptide small molecule AT2R agonist, were evaluated in a two-week CS-induced COPD mouse model. C21 restored AM phagocytosis ability, reversing CS-induced AM phagocytosis impairment. CS exposure polarized AMs towards M1 phenotype, whereas, C21 skewed the CS-exposed AMs towards M2 phenotype. C21 reprogrammed CS-exposed AM metabolism from a high glycolysis-driven process to support inflammation energy demand to a high mitochondrial respiration process to limit inflammation. Besides, C21 upregulated AT2R and Mas receptor levels in CS-exposed AMs, favoring the anti-inflammatory Ang II/AT2R axis and Ang 1-7/Mas axis in the RAS. C21 restored the normal levels of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) and MAPK phosphatase 1 (MKP1) in CS-exposed AMs, leading to the reduction of phospho-p38, phospho-ERK and p65 subunit of NF-κB levels in CS-exposed AMs. We report here for the first time that AT2R agonist C21 acts by boosting the protective functions of AMs against CS-induced COPD, and our results support the development of AT2R agonist for the treatment of COPD.

Targeting reprogrammed metabolism as a therapeutic approach for respiratory diseases.

Metabolic reprogramming underlies the etiology and pathophysiology of respiratory diseases such as asthma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The dysregulated cellular activities driving airway inflammation and remodelling in these diseases have reportedly been linked to aberrant shifts in energy-producing metabolic pathways: glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). The rewiring of glycolysis and OXPHOS accompanying the therapeutic effects of many clinical compounds and natural products in asthma, IPF, and COPD, supports targeting metabolism as a therapeutic approach for respiratory diseases. Correspondingly, inhibiting glycolysis has largely attested effective against experimental asthma, IPF, and COPD. However, modulating OXPHOS and its supporting catabolic pathways like mitochondrial pyruvate catabolism, fatty acid ß-oxidation (FAO), and glutaminolysis for these respiratory diseases remain inconclusive. An emerging repertoire of metabolic enzymes are also interconnected to these canonical metabolic pathways that similarly possess therapeutic potential for respiratory diseases. Taken together, this review highlights the urgent demand for future studies to ascertain the role of OXPHOS in different respiratory diseases, under different stimulatory conditions, and in different cell types. While this review provides strong experimental evidence in support of the inhibition of glycolysis for asthma, IPF, and COPD, further verification by clinical trials is definitely required.

Targeting the renin angiotensin system for respiratory diseases.

Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an indispensable role in regulating blood pressure through its effects on fluid and electrolyte balance. As an aside, cumulative evidence from experimental to clinical studies supports the notion that dysregulation of RAS contributes to the pro-inflammatory, pro-oxidative, and pro-fibrotic processes that occur in pulmonary diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and acute lung injury (ALI). Pharmacological intervention of the various RAS components can be a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of these respiratory diseases. In this chapter, we first give a recent update on the RAS, and then compile, review, and analyse recent reports on targeting RAS components as treatments for respiratory diseases. Inhibition of the pro-inflammatory renin, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), angiotensin (Ang) II, and Ang II type 1 receptor (AT1R) axis, and activation of the protective ACE2, AT2R, Ang (1-7), and Mas receptor axis have demonstrated varying degrees of efficacies in experimental respiratory disease models or in human trials. The newly identified alamandine/Mas-related G-protein-coupled receptor member D pathway has shown some therapeutic promise as well. However, our understanding of the RAS ligand-and-receptor interactions is still inconclusive, and the modes of action and signaling cascade mediating the newly identified RAS receptors remain to be better characterized. Clinical data are obviously lacking behind the promising pre-clinical findings of certain well-established molecules targeting at different pathways of the RAS in respiratory diseases. Translational human studies should be the focus for RAS drug development in lung diseases in the next decade.

Eosinophilic endotype of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: similarities and differences from asthma.

Approximately 25% to 40% of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have the eosinophilic endotype. It is important to identify this group accurately because they are more symptomatic and are at increased risk for exacerbations and accelerated decline in forced expiratory volume in the 1st second. Importantly, this endotype is a marker of treat ment responsiveness to inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), resulting in decreased mortality risk. In this review, we highlight differences in the biology of eosinophils in COPD compared to asthma and the different definitions of the COPD eosinophilic endotype based on sputum and blood eosinophil count (BEC) with the corresponding limitations. Although BEC is useful as a biomarker for eosinophilic COPD endotype, optimal BEC cut-offs can be combined with clinical characteristics to improve its sensitivity and specificity. A targeted approach comprising airway eosinophilia and appropriate clinical and physiological features may improve identification of subgroups of patients who would benefit from biologic therapy or early use of ICS for disease modification.