Publications

Controlling the spread of antimalarial drug resistance, especially resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to artemisinin-based combination therapies, is a high priority. Available data indicate that, as with other microorganisms, the spread of drug-resistant malaria parasites is limited by fitness costs that frequently accompany resistance. Resistance-mediating polymorphisms in malaria parasites have been identified in putative drug transporters and in target enzymes. The impacts of these polymorphisms on parasite fitness have been characterized in vitro and in animal models. Additional insights have come from analyses of samples from clinical studies, both evaluating parasites under different selective pressures and determining the clinical consequences of infection with different parasites. With some exceptions, resistance-mediating polymorphisms lead to malaria parasites that, compared with wild type, grow less well in culture and in animals, and are replaced by wild type when drug pressure diminishes in the clinical setting. In some cases, the fitness costs of resistance may be offset by compensatory mutations that increase virulence or changes that enhance malaria transmission. However, not enough is known about effects of resistance mediators on parasite fitness. A better appreciation of the costs of fitness-mediating mutations will facilitate the development of optimal guidelines for the treatment and prevention of malaria.

Mutations in cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein cause cystic fibrosis, a disease characterized by exaggerated airway epithelial production of the neutrophil chemokine interleukin (IL)-8, which results in exuberant neutrophilic inflammation. Because activation of an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling cascade induces airway epithelial IL-8 production, we hypothesized that normal CFTR suppresses EGFR-dependent IL-8 production and that loss of CFTR at the surface exaggerates IL-8 production via activation of a pro-inflammatory EGFR cascade. We examined this hypothesis in human airway epithelial (NCI-H292) cells and in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells containing normal CFTR treated with a CFTR-selective inhibitor (CFTR-172), and in human airway epithelial (IB3) cells containing mutant CFTR versus isogenic (C38) cells containing wild-type CFTR. In NCI-H292 cells, CFTR-172 induced IL-8 production EGFR-dependently. Pretreatment with an EGFR neutralizing antibody or the metalloprotease TACE inhibitor TAPI-1, or TACE siRNA knockdown prevented CFTR-172-induced EGFR phosphorylation (EGFR-P) and IL-8 production, implicating TACE-dependent EGFR pro-ligand cleavage in these responses. Pretreatment with neutralizing antibodies to IL-1R or to IL-1alpha, but not to IL-1beta, markedly suppressed CFTR-172-induced EGFR-P and IL-8 production, suggesting that binding of IL-1alpha to IL-1R stimulates a TACE-EGFR-IL-8 cascade. Similarly, in NHBE cells, CFTR-172 increased IL-8 production EGFR-, TACE-, and IL-1alpha/IL-1R-dependently. In IB3 cells, constitutive IL-8 production was markedly increased compared to C38 cells. EGFR-P was increased in IB3 cells compared to C38 cells, and exaggerated IL-8 production in the IB3 cells was EGFR-dependent. Activation of TACE and binding of IL-1alpha to IL-1R contributed to EGFR-P and IL-8 production in IB3 cells but not in C38 cells. Thus, we conclude that normal CFTR suppresses airway epithelial IL-8 production that occurs via a stimulatory EGFR cascade, and that loss of normal CFTR activity exaggerates IL-8 production via activation of a pro-inflammatory EGFR cascade.

This study examined the homing capacity of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells (iPSC-ECs) and their response to chemotactic gradients of stromal derived factor-1α (SDF). We have previously shown that EC derived from murine pluripotent stem cells can home to the ischemic hindlimb of the mouse. In the current study, we were interested to understand if ECs derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells are capable of homing. The homing capacity of iPSC-ECs was assessed after systemic delivery into immunodeficient mice with unilateral hindlimb ischemia. Furthermore, the iPSC-ECs were evaluated for their expression of CXCR4 and their ability to respond to SDF chemotactic gradients in vitro. Upon systemic delivery, the iPSC-ECs transiently localized to the lungs but did not home to the ischemic limb over the course of 14 days. To understand the mechanism of the lack of homing, the expression levels of the homing receptor, CXCR4, was examined at the transcriptional and protein levels. Furthermore, their ability to migrate in response to chemokines was assessed using microfluidic and scratch assays. Unlike ECs derived from syngeneic mouse pluripotent stem cells, human iPSC-ECs do not home to the ischemic mouse hindlimb. This lack of functional homing may represent an impairment of interspecies cellular communication or a difference in the differentiation state of the human iPSC-ECs. These results may have important implications in therapeutic delivery of iPSC-ECs.