Regulation of the human thioredoxin gene promoter and its key substrates: a study of functional and putative regulatory elements

BACKGROUND

The thioredoxin system maintains redox balance through the action of thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase. Thioredoxin regulates the activity of various substrates, including those that function to counteract cellular oxidative stress. These include the peroxiredoxins, methionine sulfoxide reductase A and specific transcription factors. Of particular relevance is Redox Factor-1, which in turn activates other redox-regulated transcription factors.

SCOPE OF REVIEW

Experimentally defined transcription factor binding sites in the human thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase gene promoters together with promoters of the major thioredoxin system substrates involved in regulating cellular redox status are discussed. An in silico approach was used to identify potential putative binding sites for these transcription factors in all of these promoters.

MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis reveals that many redox gene promoters contain the same transcription factor binding sites. Several of these transcription factors are in turn redox regulated. The ARE is present in several of these promoters and is bound by Nrf2 during various oxidative stress stimuli to upregulate gene expression. Other transcription factors also bind to these promoters during the same oxidative stress stimuli, with this redundancy supporting the importance of the antioxidant response. Putative transcription factor sites were identified in silico, which in combination with specific regulatory knowledge for that gene promoter may inform future experiments.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE

Redox proteins are involved in many cellular signalling pathways and aberrant expression can lead to disease or other pathological conditions. Therefore understanding how their expression is regulated is relevant for developing therapeutic agents that target these pathways.

CREB, another culprit for TIGAR promoter activity and expression

Cellular expression of the TP53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR) protein results in the down-regulation of glycolysis, reduction of intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species, and protection from apoptosis. However, despite its biological importance, the mechanisms that regulate its expression remain obscure. The bioinformatic analysis performed in this study indicates that the TIGAR promoter region is highly conserved among species. Further analysis using 5'-deletion analysis and site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that the region at -4/+13 contained a cAMP-response element (CRE). EMSA and chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that the site was recognized by CRE-binding protein (CREB). Furthermore, knockdown of CREB substantially reduced promoter activity and TIGAR expression in cells. In addition, over-expression of either CREB or forskolin enhanced promoter activity and TIGAR expression. These results provide evidence that CREB regulates TIGAR expression via a CRE-binding site at the TIGAR promoter.