The gene EPXH2 encodes for the soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), an enzyme involved in the regulation of cardiovascular and renal physiology containing two distinct domains connected via a proline-rich linker. The C-terminal domain containing the EH catalytic activity has been well studied. In contrast, a function for the N-terminal domain, which has high homology to the haloacid dehalogenase family of phosphatases, has not been definitively reported. In this study we describe the N-terminal domain as a functional phosphatase unaffected by a number of classic phosphatase inhibitors. Assuming a functional association between these catalytic activities, dihydroxy lipid phosphates were rationalized as potential endogenous substrates. A series of phosphorylated hydroxy lipids were therefore synthesized and found to be excellent substrates for the human sEH. The best substrate tested was the monophosphate of dihydroxy stearic acid (threo-9͞ 10-phosphonoxy-hydroxy-octadecanoic acid) with K m ‫؍‬ 21 ؎ 0.3 M, VMax ‫؍‬ 338 ؎ 12 nmol⅐min ؊1 ⅐mg ؊1 , and kcat ‫؍‬ 0.35 ؎ 0.01 s ؊1 . Therefore dihydroxy lipid phosphates are possible candidates for the endogenous substrates of the sEH N-terminal domain, which would represent a novel branch of fatty acid metabolism with potential signaling functions.T he soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), first described in 1972(1), is an ubiquitous enzyme in vertebrates that transforms epoxides to their corresponding diols (2). Although uniformly expressed in the liver, high expression of sEH is highly localized in other tissues including vascular endothelium, some smooth muscle, and the proximal tubule (3, 4). Epoxy fatty acids generated by cytochrome P450 epoxygenases are endogenous substrates for the sEH C-terminal domain (5), with critical roles in the regulation of cardiovascular, renal, and inflammatory biology (6-9). The hydrolysis of epoxy fatty acids modulates their intracellular fate (10, 11) and biological activity (9,12,13). In vivo, the pharmacological blockade of epoxide hydrolysis attenuates hypertension (4, 14), whereas the deletion of this gene reduces blood pressure in male mice to female levels (15).The sEH is a homodimer with a monomeric unit of 62.5 kDa (2) whose primary structure suggests that the EPXH2 gene was produced by the fusion of two primordial dehalogenase genes (16,17). This gene fusion hypothesis was recently supported by a 2.8-Å resolution x-ray crystal structure of the mouse enzyme (18). The C-terminal sEH domain has high homology to haloalkane dehalogenase, whereas the N-terminal domain is similar to haloacid dehalogenase (HAD). Although analysis of the sEH crystal structure revealed that the conserved HAD-like catalytic residues were properly oriented for catalysis, no dehalogenase activity was detected (18). However, the amino-terminal catalytic DXDX(T͞V) motif of HAD has been used to describe an enzyme class that includes numerous phosphatases (19)(20)(21).It can be argued that gene fusion events are driven by evolution, leading to the physical linkage of f...

Mammalian soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) converts epoxides to their corresponding diols through the addition of a water molecule. sEH readily hydrolyzes lipid signaling molecules, including the epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), epoxidized lipids produced from arachidonic acid by the action of cytochrome p450s. Through its metabolism of the EETs and other lipid mediators, sEH contributes to the regulation of vascular tone, nociception, angiogenesis and the inflammatory response. Because of its central physiological role in disease states such as cardiac hypertrophy, diabetes, hypertension, and pain sEH is being investigated as a therapeutic target. This review begins with a brief introduction to sEH protein structure and function. sEH evolution and gene structure are then discussed before human small nucleotide polymorphisms and mammalian gene expression are described in the context of several disease models. The review ends with an overview of studies that have employed the sEH knockout mouse model.

The mechanisms underlying the anti-inflammatory and anti-hypertensive effects of long chain ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are still unclear. The epoxides of an ω-6 fatty acid, arachidonic acid (epoxyeicosatrienoic acids; EETs) also exhibit anti-hypertensive and anti-inflammatory effects. Thus, we hypothesized that the major ω-3 PUFAs including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may lower blood pressure and attenuate renal markers of inflammation through their epoxide metabolites. Here, we supplemented mice with an ω-3 rich diet for three weeks in a murine model of angiotensin-II dependent hypertension. Also, since EPA and DHA epoxides are metabolized by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), we tested the combination of a sEH inhibitor and the ω-3 rich diet. Our results show that ω-3 rich diet in combination with the sEH inhibitor lowered Ang-II increased blood pressure, further increased renal levels of EPA and DHA epoxides, reduced renal markers of inflammation (i.e. prostaglandins and MCP-1), down-regulated an epithelial sodium channel and up-regulated Angiotensin converting enzyme-2 message (ACE-2) and significantly modulated cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase metabolic pathways. Overall, our findings suggest that epoxides of the ω-3 PUFAs contribute to lowering SBP and attenuating inflammation in part by reduced prostaglandins and MCP-1 and by up-regulation of ACE-2 in angiotensin-II dependent hypertension.

BackgroundChronic hypersecretion of the pancreatic hormone amylin is common in humans with obesity or prediabetic insulin resistance and induces amylin aggregation and proteotoxicity in the pancreas. We recently showed that hyperamylinemia also affects the cardiovascular system. Here, we investigated whether amylin aggregates interact directly with cardiac myocytes and whether controlling hyperamylinemia protects the heart.Methods and ResultsBy Western blot, we found abundant amylin aggregates in lysates of cardiac myocytes from obese patients, but not in controls. Aggregated amylin was elevated in failing hearts, suggesting a role in myocyte injury. Using rats overexpressing human amylin in the pancreas (HIP rats) and control myocytes incubated with human amylin, we show that amylin aggregation at the sarcolemma induces oxidative stress and Ca2+ dysregulation. In time, HIP rats developed cardiac hypertrophy and left‐ventricular dilation. We then tested whether metabolites with antiaggregation properties, such as eicosanoid acids, limit myocardial amylin deposition. Rats were treated with an inhibitor of soluble epoxide hydrolase, the enzyme that degrades endogenous eicosanoids. Treatment doubled the blood concentration of eicosanoids, which drastically reduced incorporation of aggregated amylin in cardiac myocytes and blood cells, without affecting pancreatic amylin secretion. Animals in the treated group showed reduced cardiac hypertrophy and left‐ventricular dilation. The cardioprotective mechanisms included the mitigation of amylin‐induced cardiac oxidative stress and Ca2+ dysregulation.ConclusionsThe results suggest blood amylin as a novel therapeutic target in diabetic heart disease and elevating blood levels of antiaggregation metabolites as a pharmacological strategy to reduce amylin aggregation and amylin‐mediated cardiotoxicity.

The importance of proper ion channel trafficking is underpinned by a number of channel-linked genetic diseases whose defect is associated with failure to reach the cell surface. Conceptually, it is reasonable to suggest that the function of ion channels depends critically on the precise subcellular localization and the number of channel proteins on the cell surface membrane, which is determined jointly by the secretory and endocytic pathways. Yet the precise mechanisms of the entire ion channel trafficking pathway remain unknown. Here, we directly demonstrate that proper membrane localization of a smallconductance Ca 2ϩ -activated K ؉ channel (SK2 or KCa2.2) is dependent on its interacting protein, ␣-actinin2, a major F-actin crosslinking protein. SK2 channel localization on the cell-surface membrane is dynamically regulated, and one of the critical steps includes the process of cytoskeletal anchoring of SK2 channel by its interacting protein, ␣-actinin2, as well as endocytic recycling via early endosome back to the cell membrane. Consequently, alteration of these components of SK2 channel recycling results in profound changes in channel surface expression. The importance of our findings may transcend the area of K ؉ channels, given that similar cytoskeletal interaction and anchoring may be critical for the membrane localization of other ion channels in neurons and other excitable cells.ion channel trafficking ͉ early endosome ͉ cardiac myocytes ͉ small conductance Ca 2ϩ -activated K ϩ channel ͉ calmodulin binding domain T he function of ion channels depends critically on the precise number and subcellular localization of the channel proteins on the cell-surface membrane (1, 2). The steady-state cell-surface expression of ion channels is intricately and dynamically governed by the anterograde (forward) and retrograde trafficking (2, 3). Ion channel molecules are first synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), assembled and processed, then trafficked to the membrane where they function. Trafficking of ion channel proteins to the surface membrane involves a series of tightly regulated events coordinated by ER resident proteins, microtubules, transport vesicle and Golgi apparatus, the actin cytoskeleton, myosins, and anchoring proteins (2). The importance of correct ion channel trafficking is highlighted by a number of channel-linked genetic diseases whose defect is associated with failure to reach the cell surface (4-8).Small-conductance Ca 2ϩ -activated K ϩ (SK or K Ca 2) channels belong to a family of Ca 2ϩ -activated K ϩ channels (K Ca ) that have been reported from a wide variety of cells (9-11). SK channels represent a highly unique family of K ϩ channels, in that they are directly gated by changes in intracellular Ca 2ϩ concentration and hence function to integrate changes in Ca 2ϩ concentration with changes in K ϩ conductance and membrane potentials. SK channels have been shown to mediate afterhyperpolarizations in neurons (9, 12, 13) and action potential repolarization in cardiac tissues (14,15). Prev...

Liver fibrosis is a pathological condition in which chronic inflammation and changes to the extracellular matrix lead to alterations in hepatic tissue architecture and functional degradation of the liver. Inhibitors of the enzyme soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) reduce fibrosis in the heart, pancreas and kidney in several disease models. In this study, we assess the effect of sEH inhibition on the development of fibrosis in a carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced mouse model by monitoring changes in the inflammatory response, matrix remolding and endoplasmic reticulum stress. The sEH inhibitor 1-trifluoromethoxyphenyl-3-(1-propionylpiperidin-4-yl) urea (TPPU) was administered in drinking water. Collagen deposition in the liver was increased five-fold in the CCl4-treated group, and this was returned to control levels by TPPU treatment. Hepatic expression of Col1a2 and 3a1 mRNA was increased over fifteen-fold in the CCl4-treated group relative to the control group, and this increase was reduced by 50% by TPPU treatment. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress observed in the livers of CCl4-treated animals was attenuated by TPPU treatment. In order to support the hypothesis that TPPU is acting to reduce the hepatic fibrosis and ER stress through its action as a sEH inhibitor we used a second sEH inhibitor, trans-4-{4-[3-(4-trifluoromethoxy-phenyl)-ureido]-cyclohexyloxy}-benzoic acid (t-TUCB), and sEH null mice. Taken together, these data indicate that the sEH may play an important role in the development of hepatic fibrosis induced by CCl4, presumably by reducing endogenous fatty acid epoxide chemical mediators acting to reduce ER stress.

Cardiovascular disease remains one of the leading causes of death in the Western societies. Heart failure (HF) is due primarily to progressive myocardial dysfunction accompanied by myocardial remodeling. Once heart failure develops, the condition is, in most cases, irreversible and is associated with a very high mortality rate. Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which are lipid mediators derived from arachidonic acid through the cytochrome P450 epoxygenase pathway. EETs have been shown to have vasodilatory, anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects. When EETs are hydrolyzed by sEH to corresponding dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs), their cardioprotective activities become less pronounced. In line with the recent genetic study that has identified sEH as a susceptibility gene for heart failure, the sEH enzyme has received considerable attention as an attractive therapeutic target for cardiovascular diseases. Indeed, sEH inhibition has been demonstrated to have anti-hypertensive and anti-inflammatory actions, presumably due to the increased bioavailability of endogenous EETs and other epoxylipids, and several potent sEH inhibitors have been developed and tested in animal models of cardiovascular disease including hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy and ischemia/reperfusion injury. sEH inhibitor treatment has been shown to effectively prevent pressure overload- and angiotensin II-induced cardiac hypertrophy and reverse the pre-established cardiac hypertrophy caused by chronic pressure overload. Application of sEH inhibitors in several cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury models reduced infarct size and prevented the progressive cardiac remodeling. Moreover, the use of sEH inhibitors prevented the development of electrical remodeling and ventricular arrhythmias associated with cardiac hypertrophy and ischemia/reperfusion injury. The data published to date support the notion that sEH inhibitors may represent a promising therapeutic approach for combating detrimental cardiac remodeling and heart failure.

We have identified two genes in the genomic database for C. elegans that code for proteins with significant sequence similarity to the mammalian soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). The respective transcripts were cloned from a mixed stage cDNA library from C. elegans. The corresponding proteins obtained after recombinant expression in insect cells hydrolyzed standard epoxide hydrolase substrates, including epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and leukotoxins (EpOMEs). The enzyme activity was inhibited by urea-based compounds originally designed to inhibit the mammalian sEH. In vivo inhibition of the enzymes using the most potent of these compounds resulted in elevated levels of the EpOMEs in the nematode. These results suggest that the hydrolases are involved in the metabolism of possible lipid signaling molecules in C. elegans.