Induction of Targeted Cell Migration by Cutaneous Administration of a DNA Vector Encoding a Biologically Active Chemokine CCL21

HSV-Induced Systemic Inflammation as an Animal Model for Behçet's Disease and Therapeutic Applications

Behçet’s disease (BD) affects multiple organs. It is mainly characterized by recurrent oral, skin, and genital aphthous ulcers, and eye involvement. Successful management of BD is increasing, although its etiology remains unclear. A number of etiologies have been proposed, including environmental, genetic, viral, and immunological factors. To understand its complex etiology and improve its management, animal models of BD have been used to enable more effective therapeutic applications with increased clinical significance. An herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1-induced BD mouse model has shown disease characteristics similar to those seen in BD patients. An HSV-induced BD animal model has been used to test various therapeutic modalities. The applied modalities are several materials that are derived from natural products, conventional therapeutics, and possible biologics. In this review, we provided how they regulate inflammation in an HSV-induced BD model.

Ligustrazine attenuates inflammation and the associated chemokines and receptors in ovalbumine-induced mouse asthma model

Ligustrazine which is isolated from Chinese herb ligusticum chuanxiong hort, has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for asthma treatment. In this study, we aim to observe the effect of ligustrazine on inflammation and the associated chemokines and receptors in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced mouse asthma model. Our data demonstrates that ligustrazine suppresses airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine and lung inflammation in OVA-induced mouse asthma model. Ligustrazine also induces inhibition of inflammatory cells including neutrophils, lymphocytes and eosinophils. In addition, ligustrazine significantly reduces IL-4, IL-5, IL-17A, CCL3, CCL19 and CCL21 level in BALF of asthma mice. Furthermore, ligustrazine induces down-regulation of CCL19 receptor CCR7, STAT3 and p38 MAPK protein expression. Collectively, these results suggest that ligustrazine is effective in attenuation of allergic airway inflammatory changes and related chemokines and receptors in OVA-induced asthma model, and this action might be associated with inhibition of STAT3 and p38 MAPK pathway, which indicates that ligustrazine may be used as a potential therapeutic method to treat asthma.

Chemokine overexpression in the skin by biolistic DNA delivery

Chemokines are a family of small, secreted proteins that function in leukocyte and tumor cell trafficking and recruiting. CC chemokine ligand 21 (CCL21)/secondary lymphoid chemokine (SLC) belongs to the inflammatory subgroup of chemokines and is expressed by stromal cells in the T-cell-rich zones of peripheral lymph nodes, afferent lymphatic endothelial cells and high endothelial venules. CCR7 (both in human and mouse) and CXCR3 (in mouse) are expressed by the most potent antigen-presenting cells (dendritic cells), naïve/central memory, and effector T cells, respectively. Inflammation in the skin can induce expression of CCL21 which is subsequently drained into loco-regional lymph nodes responsible for co-localization of antigen-presenting cells and T lymphocytes, a prerequisite for induction of adaptive immune responses. Here, skin functions as a remote control for induction of targeted cell migration in vivo. This chapter describes Gene Gun administration of plasmid DNA expressing functionally active CCL21 (as an example of a chemokine) into the skin in mice and subsequent functional evaluation of the transgene expression in vivo.

CCL21 attenuates HSV-induced inflammation through up-regulation of CD8+ memory cells

CCR7 and its ligand, CCL21, are known to establish microenvironments for the initiation of immune responses in secondary lymphoid tissue. It has also been reported that CCR7 ligand gene-deleted mice have defects in lymphocyte homing. In addition, the injection of the CCR7 ligand was shown to induce the expression of memory T cells. In this study, we analyzed the expression of CCR7 and its ligand in HSV-induced Behçet's disease (BD)-like inflammation of mice. Additionally, plasmids containing the CCR7 ligand CCL19 or CCL21, pcDNA3.1-CCL19 or pcDNA3.1-CCL21, respectively, were injected into symptomatic mice, and changes in the population of memory T cells were determined. After administration of pcDNA3.1-CCL21, the frequencies of CD8+CD44+, CD8+CD62L- memory T cells were significantly up-regulated and the symptoms were not deteriorated when compared to the control vector injected group. Specifically, the difference in frequencies of CCR7+ peripheral blood mononuclear cells between active BD patients and inactive BD patients was similar to that of HSV-induced BD-like mice. These results suggest that CCR7, its ligand, and CD8+ memory cells are correlated with the regulation of BD symptoms.