Mutant Ras and inflammation-driven skin tumorigenesis is suppressed via a JNK-iASPP-AP1 axis

Concurrent mutation of a RAS oncogene and the tumor suppressor p53 is common in tumorigenesis, and inflammation can promote RAS-driven tumorigenesis without the need to mutate p53. Here, we show, using a well-established mutant RAS and an inflammation-driven mouse skin tumor model, that loss of the p53 inhibitor iASPP facilitates tumorigenesis. Specifically, iASPP regulates expression of a subset of p63 and AP1 targets, including genes involved in skin differentiation and inflammation, suggesting that loss of iASPP in keratinocytes supports a tumor-promoting inflammatory microenvironment. Mechanistically, JNK-mediated phosphorylation regulates iASPP function and inhibits iASPP binding with AP1 components, such as JUND, via PXXP/SH3 domain-mediated interaction. Our results uncover a JNK-iASPP-AP1 regulatory axis that is crucial for tissue homeostasis. We show that iASPP is a tumor suppressor and an AP1 coregulator

Tropheryma whipplei, the Whipple's disease bacillus, induces macrophage apoptosis through the extrinsic pathway

Tropheryma whipplei, the etiological agent of Whipple's disease, is an intracellular bacterium that infects macrophages. We previously showed that infection of macrophages results in M2 polarization associated with induction of apoptosis and interleukin (IL)-16 secretion. In patients with Whipple's disease, circulating levels of apoptotic markers and IL-16 are increased and correlate with the activity of the disease. To gain insight into the understanding of the pathophysiology of this rare disease, we examined the molecular pathways involved in T. whipplei-induced apoptosis of human macrophages. Our data showed that apoptosis induction depended on bacterial viability and inhibition of bacterial protein synthesis reduced the apoptotic program elicited by T. whipplei. Induction of apoptosis was also associated with a massive degradation of both pro- and anti-apoptotic mediators. Caspase-specific inhibition experiments revealed that initiator caspases 8 and 10 were required for apoptosis, in contrast to caspases 2 and 9, in spite of cytochrome-c release from mitochondria. Finally, the effector caspases 3 and 6 were mandatory for apoptosis induction. Collectively, these data suggest that T. whipplei induces apoptosis through the extrinsic pathway and that, beside M2 polarization of macrophages, apoptosis induction contributes to bacterial replication and represents a virulence trait of this intracellular pathogen

Type I Interferon Induction Is Detrimental during Infection with the Whipple's Disease Bacterium, Tropheryma whipplei

Macrophages are the first line of defense against pathogens. Upon infection macrophages usually produce high levels of proinflammatory mediators. However, macrophages can undergo an alternate polarization leading to a permissive state. In assessing global macrophage responses to the bacterial agent of Whipple's disease, Tropheryma whipplei, we found that T. whipplei induced M2 macrophage polarization which was compatible with bacterial replication. Surprisingly, this M2 polarization of infected macrophages was associated with apoptosis induction and a functional type I interferon (IFN) response, through IRF3 activation and STAT1 phosphorylation. Using macrophages from mice deficient for the type I IFN receptor, we found that this type I IFN response was required for T. whipplei-induced macrophage apoptosis in a JNK-dependent manner and was associated with the intracellular replication of T. whipplei independently of JNK. This study underscores the role of macrophage polarization in host responses and highlights the detrimental role of type I IFN during T. whipplei infection

MyD88 and STING Signaling Pathways Are Required for IRF3-Mediated IFN-β Induction in Response to Brucella abortus Infection

Type I interferons (IFNs) are cytokines that orchestrate diverse immune responses to viral and bacterial infections. Although typically considered to be most important molecules in response to viruses, type I IFNs are also induced by most, if not all, bacterial pathogens. In this study, we addressed the role of type I IFN signaling during Brucella abortus infection, a facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes abortion in domestic animals and undulant fever in humans. Herein, we have shown that B. abortus induced IFN-β in macrophages and splenocytes. Further, IFN-β induction by Brucella was mediated by IRF3 signaling pathway and activates IFN-stimulated genes via STAT1 phosphorylation. In addition, IFN-β expression induced by Brucella is independent of TLRs and TRIF signaling but MyD88-dependent, a pathway not yet described for Gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, we have identified Brucella DNA as the major bacterial component to induce IFN-β and our study revealed that this molecule operates through a mechanism dependent on RNA polymerase III to be sensed probably by an unknown receptor via the adaptor molecule STING. Finally, we have demonstrated that IFN-αβR KO mice are more resistant to infection suggesting that type I IFN signaling is detrimental to host control of Brucella. This resistance phenotype is accompanied by increased IFN-γ and NO production by IFN-αβR KO spleen cells and reduced apoptosis

Mechanism of Alcohol–Water Dehydrogenative Coupling into Carboxylic Acid Using Milstein’s Catalyst: A Detailed Investigation of the Outer-Sphere PES in the Reaction of Aldehydes with an Octahedral Ruthenium Hydroxide

In aqueous basic media, the square-pyramidal complex [Ru­(PNN)­(CO)­(H)] (<b>1</b>-Ru, where PNN is a dearomatized bipyridyl-CH-P^tBu₂ pincer ligand) catalyzes the transformation of alcohols and water into carboxylates and H₂. A previous theoretical investigation reported the following mechanism for the reaction: (i) metal-catalyzed dehydrogenation of the alcohol into an aldehyde, (ii) metal–ligand cooperation (MLC) addition of water to <b>1</b>-Ru to give an octahedral ruthenium hydroxide (<b>2</b>-Ru–OH), (iii) concerted MLC hydration of the aldehyde by <b>2</b>-Ru–OH to give separated <b>1</b>-Ru and a gem-diol, and (iv) concerted MLC dehydrogenation of the gem-diol by <b>1</b>-Ru into an octahedral ruthenium dihydride (<b>2</b>-Ru–H) and a carboxylic acid. We calculate the outer-sphere PES in the reaction between the aldehyde and <b>2</b>-Ru–OH to start with a localized coupling step yielding an ion-pair minimum (<b>7</b>-ip-OH) in which the hydroxyl group of an α-hydroxyl-alkoxide (gem-diolate) is coordinated to the metal of a cationic square-pyramidal complex. From <b>7</b>-ip-OH, we identify a route to carboxylic acid that circumvents ligand deprotonation involving (i) 1,1-rearrangement of the gem-diolate within the contact ion pair through an α-OH/O^– slippage TS into the octahedral <b>2</b>-Ru–OCH­(OH)­R and (ii) a second 1,1-rearrangement through an α-O^–/H slippage TS that gives a new ion-pair minimum in which the α-hydrogen of the anion is coordinated to the metal, followed by a localized hydride-transfer TS that gives a carboxylic acid and the octahedral hydride complex (<b>2</b>-Ru–H). The net transformation from <b>2</b>-Ru–OH and the aldehyde to the carboxylic acid and <b>2</b>-Ru–H can be viewed as a H/OH metathesis in which a hydride and a hydroxide are exchanged between the acyl group of the aldehyde and the metal center of <b>2</b>-Ru–OH. The MLC mechanism gives the same metathesis products through the intermediacy of a gem-diol. When the SMD solvent continuum model is applied during geometry optimization with water as the solvent, the Gibbs free energy profile of the slippage pathway is predicted to be much lower than that predicted for MLC. The possibility of dissociation of the ion pair <b>7</b>-ip-OH into free ions and reassociation is also briefly addressed. Some calculations are also performed to address why no esters are observed in the given system