Matthew W Hopken | PubMed Health

PubMed2004

Induced oxidative stress and activated expression of manganese superoxide dismutase during hepatitis C virus replication: role of JNK, p38 MAPK and AP-1.

Activation of cellular kinases and transcription factors mediates the early phase of the cellular response to chemically or biologically induced stress. In the present study we investigated the oxidant/antioxidant balance in Huh-7 cells expressing the HCV (hepatitis C virus) subgenomic replicon, and observed a 5-fold increase in oxidative stress during HCV replication. We used MnSOD (manganese-superoxide dismutase) as an indicator of the cellular antioxidant response, and found that its activity, protein levels and promoter activity were significantly increased, whereas Cu/ZnSOD was not affected. The oxidative stress-induced protein kinases p38 MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) and JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) were activated in the HCV repliconcontaining cells and in Huh-7 cells transduced with Ad-NS5A [a recombinant adenovirus encoding NS5A (non-structural protein 5A)], coupled with a 4-5-fold increase in AP-1 (activator protein-1) DNA binding. Ava.1 cells, which encode a replication-defective HCV replicon, showed no significant changes in MnSOD, p38 MAPK or JNK activity. The AP-1 inhibitors dithiothreitol and N -acetylcysteine, as well as a dominant negative AP-1 mutant, significantly reduced AP-1 activation, demonstrating that this activation is oxidative stress-related. Exogenous NS5A had no effect on AP-1 activation in vitro, suggesting that NS5A acts at the upstream targets of AP-1 involving p38 MAPK and JNK signalling cascades. AP-1-dependent gene expression was increased in HCV subgenomic replicon-expressing Huh-7 cells. MnSOD activation was blocked by inhibitors of JNK (JNKI1) and p38 MAPK (SB203580), but not by an ERK (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase) inhibitor (U0126), in HCV-replicating and Ad-NS5A-transduced cells. Our results demonstrate that cellular responses to oxidative stress in HCV subgenomic replicon-expressing and Ad-NS5A-transduced cells are regulated by two distinct signalling pathways involving p38 MAPK and JNK via AP-1 that is linked to increased oxidative stress and therefore to an increased antioxidant MnSOD response.

Cell Line↗

PubMed2003

Oxidative stress in severe pulmonary hypertension.

Severe pulmonary hypertension (PH) occurs in a primary or "unexplained" form and in a group of secondary forms associated with a number of diseases. Because the lung tissue from patients with severe PH demonstrates complex vascular lesions, which contain inflammatory cells, we wondered whether the lung tissue from patients with severe PH was "under oxidative stress." We used immunohistochemistry to localize nitrotyrosine and 8-hydroxy guanosine in the lung tissue sections from patients with primary and secondary PH. In some lung tissue extracts, the eicosanoid metabolites 5-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid, leukotriene B4 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (HETE), 12-HETE, and 15-HETE were measured using mass spectroscopy, and superoxide dismutase amount and activity were measured. Nitrotyrosine expression was ubiquitous in all PH lungs, and 5-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid and HETE levels were elevated in the lungs of patients with severe PH but not in those lungs that were from the patients with severe PH treated chronically with prostacyclin. We conclude that indeed the lungs from patients with severe PH are under oxidative stress and that chronic prostacyclin infusion has an antiinflammatory effect on the lung tissue.

Arachidonic Acids↗