Published in

MDPI, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 12(22), p. 6531, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/ijms22126531

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Anakinra Activates Superoxide Dismutase 2 to Mitigate Inflammasome Activity

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Inflammasomes are powerful cytosolic sensors of environmental stressors and are critical for triggering interleukin-1 (IL-1)-mediated inflammatory responses. However, dysregulation of inflammasome activation may lead to pathological conditions, and the identification of negative regulators for therapeutic purposes is increasingly being recognized. Anakinra, the recombinant form of the IL-1 receptor antagonist, proved effective by preventing the binding of IL-1 to its receptor, IL-1R1, thus restoring autophagy and dampening NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) activity. As the generation of mitochondrial reactive oxidative species (ROS) is a critical upstream event in the activation of NLRP3, we investigated whether anakinra would regulate mitochondrial ROS production. By profiling the activation of transcription factors induced in murine alveolar macrophages, we found a mitochondrial antioxidative pathway induced by anakinra involving the manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) or SOD2. Molecularly, anakinra promotes the binding of SOD2 with the deubiquitinase Ubiquitin Specific Peptidase 36 (USP36) and Constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 (COP9) signalosome, thus increasing SOD2 protein longevity. Functionally, anakinra and SOD2 protects mice from pulmonary oxidative inflammation and infection. On a preclinical level, anakinra upregulates SOD2 in murine models of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) and cystic fibrosis (CF). These data suggest that protection from mitochondrial oxidative stress may represent an additional mechanism underlying the clinical benefit of anakinra and identifies SOD2 as a potential therapeutic target.