The secretion of IL-6 by this kinase inhibitor was decreased by 28% while it was Selleck AZD1080 decreased by 85% with the JNK inhibitor. Figure 3 Effect of kinase inhibitors on the secretion of

CCL5, CXCL8 and IL-6 by PMA-differentiated U937 macrophages stimulated with the recombinant SspA (33 μg/ml) of S. suis. A value of 100% was assigned to the amounts of cytokines detected in the absence of kinase inhibitors. The data are the means ± SD of triplicate assays from three separate experiments. Asterisks indicate a significant difference in comparison with the control (no inhibitor) at P < 0.01. The JNK inhibitor is specific for c-JUN N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor, U0126 is specific for mitogen-activated extracellular kinase 1, 2 (MEK 1, 2) inhibitor, and SB203580 is specific for p38 mitogen-activated kinase (p38 MAPK) inhibitor. Discussion S. suis is a swine pathogen responsible for several infections including meningitidis, endocarditis and septicemiae, and is also an important agent for zoonosis [1]. Recently, a subtilisin-like protease, named SspA, was identified as a virulence factor in S. suis. This was based on the fact that SspA deficient mutants were significantly less pathogenic in animal models [16, 17]. In the present study, we sought to determine the capacity of S. 3-MA nmr suis SspA to induce an inflammatory response in U937 macrophages.

We showed that recombinant SspA induced the secretion of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, CXCL8 and CCL5 by macrophages. This significant

cytokine secretion may be of utmost importance in S. suis-induced meningitis. Indeed, Adenosine triphosphate Lopes-Cortes et al., demonstrated that IL-1β and TNF-α are present in the cerebrospinal fluid and that high levels of these cytokines correlate with the neurological complications [25]. More specifically, IL1-β can enhance the buy PS-341 permeability of the blood-brain barrier [26]. Moreover, high levels in local body fluids and in serum of IL-6 and TNF-α are associated with a fatal outcome [27]. Moller et al., also reported that the cerebrospinal fluid of patients suffering from bacterial meningitis contains much higher levels of chemokines, including CXCL8 [28]. To ensure that cytokine secretion by SspA-stimulated macrophages did not result from LPS contaminants, polymyxin B, an LPS-reacting molecule [29], was included durind stimulation. Results showed that polymyxin B, did not inhibit cytokine secretion thus suggesting that this stimulation is induced by the recombinant SspA protease only. This ability of the recombinant SspA to induced cytokine secretion in macrophages was found to be highly specific since it was not observed with the pancreatic trypsin used as a control. Proteases can induce the secretion of inflammatory mediators in mammalian cells by two ways: action on proteinase-activated receptors (PARs) or through a non-proteolytic mechanism, involving the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) [30, 31].