Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version -refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher's website. TakedownIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) leads to renal failure. The hallmark of ADPKD is increased epithelial proliferation, which has been proposed to be due to atypical signalling including abnormal JAK-STAT activity. However, the relative contribution of JAK-STAT family members in promoting proliferation in ADPKD is unknown. Here we present an siRNA JAK-STAT focused screen revealing a previously unknown proliferative role for multiple JAK-STAT components (including STAT1, STAT2, STAT4, STAT5a, STAT5b). Amongst these we selected to study the GH-GHR-STAT5-axis because of its known role as a regulator of growth in non-renal tissues. We show that STAT5 loss of function, facilitated by pharmacological inhibition or siRNAs, significantly reduced proliferation with an associated reduction in cyst growth in vitro. To study whether STAT5 is abnormally activated in vivo, we analyzed its expression using two independent mouse models of ADPKD. STAT5 was nuclear, thus activated, in renal epithelial cyst lining cells in both. To test whether forced activation of STAT5 can modulate proliferation of renal cells in vivo, irrespective of Pkd1 status, we overexpressed growth hormone (GH). GH mice showed increased STAT5 activity in renal epithelial cells, correlating with de-novo expression of cyclin D1, a STAT5 target gene. Chromatin immunoprecipitations, revealed that STAT5 transcriptionally activated cyclin D1 in GH-stimulated renal epithelial but not control cells, thus providing a mechanism into how STAT5 enhances proliferation. Finally, we provide evidence of elevated GH in Pkd1 nl/nl mice. Collectively, our data identify the GH-STAT5 signalling axis as a novel therapeutic target in ADPKD.
Cyclic AMP (cAMP) phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) enzymes degrade cAMP and underpin the compartmentalization of cAMP signaling through their targeting to particular protein complexes and intracellular locales. We describe the discovery and characterization of a small-molecule compound that allosterically activates PDE4 long isoforms. This PDE4-specific activator displays reversible, noncompetitive kinetics of activation (increased Vmax with unchanged Km), phenocopies the ability of protein kinase A (PKA) to activate PDE4 long isoforms endogenously, and requires a dimeric enzyme assembly, as adopted by long, but not by short (monomeric), PDE4 isoforms. Abnormally elevated levels of cAMP provide a critical driver of the underpinning molecular pathology of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) by promoting cyst formation that, ultimately, culminates in renal failure. Using both animal and human cell models of ADPKD, including ADPKD patient-derived primary cell cultures, we demonstrate that treatment with the prototypical PDE4 activator compound lowers intracellular cAMP levels, restrains cAMP-mediated signaling events, and profoundly inhibits cyst formation. PDE4 activator compounds thus have potential as therapeutics for treating disease driven by elevated cAMP signaling as well as providing a tool for evaluating the action of long PDE4 isoforms in regulating cAMP-mediated cellular processes.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in regulating gene expression in health and disease but their role in modifying disease expression in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) remains uncertain. Here, we profiled human urinary exosome miRNA by global small RNA-sequencing in an initial discovery cohort of seven patients with ADPKD with early disease (eGFR over 60ml/ min/1.73m 2), nine with late disease (eGFR under 60ml/min/ 1.73m 2), and compared their differential expression with six age and sex matched healthy controls. Two kidneyenriched candidate miRNA families were identified (miR-192/miR-194-2 and miR-30) and selected for confirmatory testing in a 60 patient validation cohort by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We confirmed that miR-192-5p, miR-194-5p, miR-30a-5p, miR-30d-5p and miR-30e-5p were significantly downregulated in patient urine exosomes, in murine Pkd1 cystic kidneys and in human PKD1 cystic kidney tissue. All five miRNAs showed significant correlations with baseline eGFR and ultrasound-determined mean kidney length and improved the diagnostic performance (area under the curve) of mean kidney length for the rate of disease progression. Finally, inverse correlations of these two miRNA families with increased expression in their predicted target genes in patient PKD1 cystic tissue identified dysregulated pathways and transcriptional networks including novel interactions between miR-194-5p and two potentially relevant candidate genes, PIK3R1 and ANO1. Thus, our results identify a subset of urinary exosomal miRNAs that could serve as novel biomarkers of disease progression and suggest new therapeutic targets in ADPKD.
H aploinsufficiency of elastin in patients with WilliamsBeuren syndrome leads, in more than half of cases, to development of supravalvular aortic stenosis and hypertension.1 Moreover, Eln +/− mice, a model for supravalvular aortic stenosis disease, have a higher arterial pressure (∆25-30 mm Hg) than their wild-type counterparts.2 These cardiovascular features are clearly linked to the decreased elastin synthesis in the aorta during development. Thus, it would be of interest to find molecules able to enhance elastin synthesis to treat this condition.We previously showed that the Brown Norway (BN) rat, a normotensive inbred strain, presents the lowest content of elastin in the aorta compared with 6 other inbred rat strains. [3][4][5] We also demonstrated that, compared with the LOU rat, the elastin deficit in the thoracic aorta of the BN rat is partly caused by a decrease in the synthesis of tropoelastin (TE), the soluble precursor of elastin. However, elastin gene polymorphism accounts for only 3.9% of the elastin content variance in F2 BNxLOU rats.4 After a genome-wide search for quantitative trait loci influencing the aortic elastin content in an F2 population derived from BN and LOU rats, we identified on chromosomes 2 and 14, 3 quantitative trait loci specifically controlling elastin levels: Ael1, Ael2, and Ael3. 6 The polymorphic marker, D2Wox26, corresponding to the maximum logarithm of odds score value of Ael2, is situated within the gene encoding for the Na + /K + -ATPase α1 subunit. In addition, several other genes encoding for potassium channels are contained in Ael1 (Kcnmb2, Hcn1) and Ael2 (Hcn3, Kcnn3, Kcnd3, Kcna2, Kcna3, and Kcna10). This result supports the hypothesis that the deficit of aortic elastin content in the BN rat could be explained by anomalies in intracellular potassium concentration ([K + ] i ).Abstract-Hypertension is a cardiovascular disorder that appears in more than half of the patients with Williams-Beuren syndrome, hemizygous for the elastin gene among 26 to 28 other genes. It was shown that the antihypertensive drug minoxidil, an ATP-dependent potassium channel opener, enhances elastic fiber formation; however, no wide clinical application was developed because of its adverse side effects. The Brown Norway rat was used here as an arterial elastin-deficient model. We tested 3 different potassium channel openers, minoxidil, diazoxide, and pinacidil, and 1 potassium channel blocker, glibenclamide, on cultured smooth muscle cells from Brown Norway rat aorta. All tested potassium channel openers increased mRNAs encoding proteins and enzymes involved in elastic fiber formation, whereas glibenclamide had the opposite effect. The higher steady-state level of tropoelastin mRNA in minoxidil-treated cells was attributable to an increase in both transcription and mRNA stability. Treatment of Brown Norway rats for 10 weeks with minoxidil or diazoxide increased elastic fiber content and decreased cell number in the aortic media, without changing collagen content. The minoxidil-induced card...
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