Differential interleukin-1 receptor antagonism on pancreatic beta and alpha cells. Studies in rodent and human islets and in normal rats

The monokines interleukin-1α and -β have been implicated as effector molecules in the immune-mediated pancreatic beta-cell destruction leading to insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Here we investigated the effects of interleukin-1 receptor antagonism on insulin and glucagon release of rat, mouse and human islets exposed to recombinant human interleukin-1β, and on interleukin-1β induced changes in blood glucose, serum insulin and serum glucagon levels in Wistar Kyoto rats. The interleukin-1 receptor antagonist reduced the co-mitogenic effect of interleukin-1β on mouse and rat thymocytes with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 10- and 100-fold molar excess, respectively. Complete inhibition was obtained with a 100–1,000-fold molar excess. However, at a 100-fold molar excess the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist did not antagonise the potentiating effect of interleukin-1βon rat islet insulin accumulation during 3 and 6 h of exposure or of interleukin-1β-induced inhibition of insulin release after 24 h. In contrast, interleukin-1β-stimulated islet glucagon release was completely antagonised by a 100-fold molar excess of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. A 10,000-fold molar excess of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist was needed to antagonise interleukin-1β stimulatory and inhibitory effects on rat beta-cell function in vitro. A 100-fold excess of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist could not counteract interleukin-1β effects on mouse and human beta cells, excluding species difference in the efficacy of the human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. An anti-mouse interleukin-1 receptor type I antibody completely abolished interleukin-1β effects on isolated mouse islets. A 10–100-fold molar excess of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist antagonised interleukin-1β-induced fever, hypercorticosteronaemia and hyperglucagonaemia, but not interleukin-1β-induced reduction in insulin/glucose ratio in normal rats. In conclusion, our results suggest that antagonism of interleukin-1β effects on beta cells requires higher concentrations of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist than those necessary to block interleukin-1 action on islet alpha cells and other interleukin-1 targets in vitro and in vivo. This may contribute to the understanding of the specificity of the immunological beta-cell destruction leading to insulin-dependent diabetes

A niche-dependent myeloid transcriptome signature defines dormant myeloma cells

© 2019 by The American Society of Hematology. The era of targeted therapies has seen significant improvements in depth of response, progression-free survival, and overall survival for patients with multiple myeloma. Despite these improvements in clinical outcome, patients inevitably relapse and require further treatment. Drug-resistant dormant myeloma cells that reside in specific niches within the skeleton are considered a basis of disease relapse but remain elusive and difficult to study. Here, we developed a method to sequence the transcriptome of individual dormant myeloma cells from the bones of tumor-bearing mice. Our analyses show that dormant myeloma cells express a distinct transcriptome signature enriched for immune genes and, unexpectedly, genes associated with myeloid cell differentiation. These genes were switched on by coculture with osteoblastic cells. Targeting AXL, a gene highly expressed by dormant cells, using small-molecule inhibitors released cells from dormancy and promoted their proliferation. Analysis of the expression of AXL and coregulated genes in human cohorts showed that healthy human controls and patients with monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance expressed higher levels of the dormancy signature genes than patients with multiple myeloma. Furthermore, in patients with multiple myeloma, the expression of this myeloid transcriptome signature translated into a twofold increase in overall survival, indicating that this dormancy signature may be a marker of disease progression. Thus, engagement of myeloma cells with the osteoblastic niche induces expression of a suite of myeloid genes that predicts disease progression and that comprises potential drug targets to eradicate dormant myeloma cells