MiR-150 impairs inflammatory cytokine production by targeting ARRB-2 after blocking CD28/B7 costimulatory pathway

Wei Sang
Wing Yang
Cong Zhang
Dianzheng Zhang, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Cai Sun
Mingshan Niu
Zhe Zhang
Xiangyu Wei
Bin Pan
Wei Chen
Dongmei Yan
Lingyu Zeng
T. P. Loughran
Kailin Xu

This article was published in Immunology Letters, November 2015.

The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.imlet.2015.11.001

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier

Abstract

MiR-150, a major modulator negatively regulating the development and differentiation of various immune cells, is widely involved in orchestrating inflammation. In transplantation immunity, miR-150 can effectively induce immune tolerance, although the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. In the current study, we found that miR-150 is elevated after blocking CD28/B7 co-stimulatory signaling pathway and impaired IL-2 production by targeting ARRB2. Further investigation suggested that miR-150 not only repressed the level of ARRB2/PDE4 directly but also prevented AKT/ARRB2/PDE4 trimer recruitment into the lipid raft by inhibiting the activities of PI3K and AKT through the cAMP-PKA-Csk signaling pathway. This leads to the interruption of cAMP degradation and subsequently results in inhibition of the NF-kB pathway and reduced production of both IL-2 and TNF. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that miR-150 can effectively prevent CD28/B7 co-stimulatory signaling transduction, decrease production of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-2 and TNF, and elicit the induction of immune tolerance. Therefore, miR-150 could become a novel potential therapeutic target in transplantation immunology.