The cystic fibrosis gene encodes a chloride channel, CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator), that regulates salt and water transport across epithelial tissues. Phosphorylation of the cytoplasmic regulatory (R) domain by protein kinase A activates CFTR by an unknown mechanism. The amino-terminal cytoplasmic tail of CFTR was found to control protein kinase A-dependent channel gating through a physical interaction with the R domain. This regulatory activity mapped to a cluster of acidic residues in the NH(2)-terminal tail; mutating these residues proportionately inhibited R domain binding and CFTR channel function. CFTR activity appears to be governed by an interdomain interaction involving the amino-terminal tail, which is a potential target for physiologic and pharmacologic modulators of this ion channel.

Robust in vitro lung models are required for risk assessment to measure key events leading to respiratory diseases. Primary normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE) represent a good lung model but obtaining well-differentiated 3D cultures can be challenging. Here, we evaluated the ability to expand primary NHBE cells in different culture conditions while maintaining their 3D culture characteristics such as ciliated and goblet cells, and ion channel function. Differentiated cultures were optimally obtained with PneumaCult-Ex Plus (expansion medium)/PneumaCult-ALI (differentiation medium). Primary cells passaged up to four times maintained airway epithelial characteristics as evidenced by ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium with goblet cells, trans-epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) (>400 Ohms.cm2), and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator-mediated short-circuit currents (>3 µA/cm2). No change in ciliary beat frequency (CBF) or airway surface liquid (ASL) meniscus length was observed up to passage six. For the first time, this study demonstrates that CFTR ion channel function and normal epithelial phenotypic characteristics are maintained in passaged primary NHBE cells. Furthermore, this study highlights the criticality of evaluating expansion and differentiation conditions for achieving optimal phenotypic and functional endpoints (CBF, ASL, ion channel function, presence of differentiated cells, TEER) when developing in vitro lung models.

The Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR) is a chloride channel that plays a critical role in the lung by maintaining fluid homeostasis. Absence or malfunction of CFTR leads to Cystic Fibrosis, a disease characterized by chronic infection and inflammation. We recently reported that air pollutants such as cigarette smoke and cadmium negatively regulate the expression of CFTR by affecting several steps in the biogenesis of CFTR protein. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have recently received a great deal of attention as both biomarkers and therapeutics due to their ability to regulate multiple genes. Here, we show that cigarette smoke and cadmium up-regulate the expression of two miRNAs (miR-101 and miR-144) that are predicted to target CFTR in human bronchial epithelial cells. When premature miR-101 and miR-144 were transfected in human airway epithelial cells, they directly targeted the CFTR 3′UTR and suppressed the expression of the CFTR protein. Since miR-101 was highly up-regulated by cigarette smoke in vitro, we investigated whether such increase also occurred in vivo. Mice exposed to cigarette smoke for 4 weeks demonstrated an up-regulation of miR-101 and suppression of CFTR protein in their lungs. Finally, we show that miR-101 is highly expressed in lung samples from patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) when compared to control patients. Taken together, these results suggest that chronic cigarette smoking up-regulates miR-101 and that this miRNA could contribute to suppression of CFTR in the lungs of COPD patients.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a fatal, genetic disorder that critically affects the lungs and is directly caused by mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, resulting in defective CFTR function. Macroautophagy/autophagy is a highly regulated biological process that provides energy during periods of stress and starvation. Autophagy clears pathogens and dysfunctional protein aggregates within macrophages. However, this process is impaired in CF patients and CF mice, as their macrophages exhibit limited autophagy activity. The study of microRNAs (Mirs), and other noncoding RNAs, continues to offer new therapeutic targets. The objective of this study was to elucidate the role of Mirs in dysregulated autophagy-related genes in CF macrophages, and then target them to restore this host-defense function and improve CFTR channel function. We identified the Mirc1/Mir17-92 cluster as a potential negative regulator of autophagy as CF macrophages exhibit decreased autophagy protein expression and increased cluster expression when compared to wild-type (WT) counterparts. The absence or reduced expression of the cluster increases autophagy protein expression, suggesting the canonical inverse relationship between Mirc1/Mir17-92 and autophagy gene expression. An in silico study for targets of Mirs that comprise the cluster suggested that the majority of the Mirs target autophagy mRNAs. Those targets were validated by luciferase assays. Notably, the ability of macrophages expressing mutant F508del CFTR to transport halide through their membranes is compromised and can be restored by downregulation of these inherently elevated Mirs, via restoration of autophagy. In vivo, downregulation of Mir17 and Mir20a partially restored autophagy expression and hence improved the clearance of Burkholderia cenocepacia. Thus, these data advance our understanding of mechanisms underlying the pathobiology of CF and provide a new therapeutic platform for restoring CFTR function and autophagy in patients with CF.

We report a general strategy for intracellular delivery of linear peptidyl ligands by fusing them with a cell-penetrating peptide and cyclizing the fusion peptides through a disulfide bond. The resulting cyclic peptides are cell permeable and have improved proteolytic stability. Once inside the cell, the disulfide bond is reduced to produce linear, biologically active peptides. This strategy was applied to generate a cell-permeable peptide substrate for real-time detection of intracellular caspase activities during apoptosis and a CAL-PDZ domain inhibitor for potential treatment of cystic fibrosis.

We have utilized small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated depletion of the beta-COP subunit of COP-I to explore COP-I function in organellar compartmentalization and protein traffic. Reduction in beta-COP levels causes the colocalization of markers for the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC), Golgi, trans-Golgi network (TGN), and recycling endosomes in large, globular compartments. The lack of spatial differentiation of these compartments is not due to a general collapse of all cellular organelles since markers for the early endosomes and lysosomes do not redistribute to the common structures. Anterograde trafficking of the transmembrane cargo vesicular stomatitis virus membrane glycoprotein and of a subset of soluble cargoes is arrested within the common globular compartments. Similarly, recycling traffic of transferrin through the common compartment is perturbed. Furthermore, the trafficking of caveolin-1 (Cav1), a structural protein of caveolae, is arrested within the globular structures. Importantly, Cav1 coprecipitates with the gamma-subunit of COP-I, suggesting that Cav1 is a COP-I cargo. Our findings suggest that COP-I is required for the compartmentalization of the ERGIC, Golgi, TGN, and recycling endosomes and that COP-I plays a novel role in the biosynthetic transport of Cav1.

Most cases of cystic fibrosis (CF) are caused by mutations that block the biosynthetic maturation of the CF gene product, the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) chloride channel. CFTRprocessing mutants fail to escape the endoplasmic reticulum and are rapidly degraded. Current efforts to induce the maturation of CFTR mutants target components of the biosynthetic pathway (e.g., chaperones) rather than CFTR per se. Such methods are inherently nonspecific. Here we show that the most common CF-causing mutant (⌬F508-CFTR) can form mature, functional chloride channels that reach the cell surface when coexpressed with several other CFTR-processing mutants or with amino fragments of the wild-type CFTR protein. This transcomplementation effect required a specific match between the region flanking the diseasecausing mutation and the complementing fragment; e.g., amino fragments complemented ⌬F508-CFTR but not H1085R (a carboxyprocessing mutant), whereas a carboxy fragment complemented H1085R but not ⌬F508-CFTR. Transcomplementing fragments did not affect CFTR interactions with Hsc70, a chaperone previously implicated in CFTR biosynthesis. Instead, they may promote CFTR maturation by blocking nonproductive interactions between domains within the same or neighboring CFTR polypeptides that prevent normal processing. These findings indicate that it may be possible to develop CF therapies (e.g., mini-cDNA constructs for gene therapy) that are tailored to specific disease-causing mutants of CFTR.

We present the evidence for a direct physical association of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) and epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), two major ion channels implicated in the pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis, a devastating inherited disease. We employed fluorescence resonance energy transfer, a distance-dependent imaging technique with capability to detect molecular complexes with near angstrom resolution, to estimate the proximity of CFTR and ENaC, an essential variable for possible physical interaction to occur. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer studies were complemented with a classic biochemical approach: coimmunoprecipitation. Our results place CFTR and ENaC within reach of each other, suggestive of a direct interaction between these two proteins.