Oxidative inactivation of paraoxonase - implications in diabetes mellitus and atherosclerosis

Human serum paraoxonase (PON1) has been implicated to play an important role in cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Studies in the literature indicate that PON1 has two different enzyme activities, i.e., esterase and hydroperoxide reducing activities. The objective of this study was to establish the importance of these two activities and to distinguish between them. As the addition of copper immediately inactivated the enzyme, we used auto-oxidation as the model system. Auto-oxidation of HDL resulted in more than 80% reduction of the esterolytic activity, which was protected by antioxidants, Vitamin E (50%) and PDTC (95%) and completely by 1 M glucose. In contrast, the hydroperoxide reducing activity, using unesterified hydroperoxides remained unaffected with time. We also used pNPHPODE (novel substrate) to establish that hydrolysis might be a prerequisite for the enzyme to act on the esterified hydroperoxide. The results indicated that the hydrolysis of the substrate was inhibited under oxidizing conditions with no reduction of the hydroperoxide. Overall, our findings suggest that protecting the esterolytic activity of PON1 by antioxidants might be important in preserving its action on phospholipid peroxides and a concerted reaction involving the esterolytic and hydroperoxide reducing activities might be suggested for the action of PON

Impact of human monocyte and macrophage polarization on NLR expression and NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes nucleating around an NLR (Nucleotide-binding domain and Leucine-rich Repeat containing protein), which regulate the secretion of the pro-inflammatory interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 cytokines. Monocytes and macrophages, the main cells expressing the inflammasome genes, adapt to their surrounding microenvironment by a phenotypic polarization towards a pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype that promotes inflammation or an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype important for resolution of inflammation. Despite the importance of inflammasomes in health and disease, little is known about inflammasome gene expression in relevant human cells and the impact of monocyte and macrophage polarization in inflammasome gene expression. We examined the expression of several members of the NLR, caspase and cytokine family, and we studied the activation of the well-described NLRP3 inflammasome in an experimental model of polarized human primary monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages (M1/M2 phenotypes) before and after activation with LPS, a well-characterized microbial pattern used in inflammasome activation studies. Our results show that the differentiation of monocytes to macrophages alters NLR expression. Polarization using IFN-γ (M1 phenotype), induces among the NLRs studied, only the expression of NOD2. One of the key results of our study is that the induction of NLRP3 expression by LPS is inhibited in the presence of IL-4+IL-13 (M2 phenotype) at both mRNA and protein level in monocytes and macrophages. Unlike caspase-3, the expression of inflammasome-related CASP1 (encodes caspase-1) and CASP4 (encodes caspase-4) is up-regulated in M1 but not in M2 cells. Interestingly, the presence of LPS marginally influenced IL18 mRNA expression and secretion, unlike its impact on IL1B. Our data provide the basis for a better understanding of the role of different inflammasomes within a given environment (M1 and M2) in human cells and their impact in the pathophysiology of several important inflammatory disorders