showing 4 related works from this author
Early inflammatory players in cutanous fibrosis.
2017
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is one of the most complex systemic autoimmune diseases with multi-organ involvement and heterogeneous clinical manifestations. The exact etiology of SSc is still unknown. However, identified target structures are components of endothelial cells, the innate/adaptive immune systems and fibroblasts, resulting in the hallmarks of the disease in form of inflammation/autoimmunity, vasculopathy and fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. There has been a large body of evidence that the adaptive immune system with autoreactive T and B cells producing autoantibodies plays a central role in the pathogenesis of SSc but the role of earlier pathogenic processes involving the …
TGF-β2 silencing to target biliary-derived liver diseases
2020
ObjectiveTGF-β2 (TGF-β, transforming growth factor beta), the less-investigated sibling of TGF-β1, is deregulated in rodent and human liver diseases. Former data from bile duct ligated and MDR2 knockout (KO) mouse models for human cholestatic liver disease suggested an involvement of TGF-β2 in biliary-derived liver diseases.DesignAs we also found upregulated TGFB2 in liver tissue of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), we now fathomed the positive prospects of targeting TGF-β2 in early stage biliary liver disease using the MDR2-KO mice. Specifically, the influence of TgfB2 silencing on the fibrotic and inflammatory niche was analysed on m…
The HMGB1 protein induces a metabolic type of tumour cell death by blocking aerobic respiration
2016
The high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein has a central role in immunological antitumour defense. Here we show that natural killer cell-derived HMGB1 directly eliminates cancer cells by triggering metabolic cell death. HMGB1 allosterically inhibits the tetrameric pyruvate kinase isoform M2, thus blocking glucose-driven aerobic respiration. This results in a rapid metabolic shift forcing cells to rely solely on glycolysis for the maintenance of energy production. Cancer cells can acquire resistance to HMGB1 by increasing glycolysis using the dimeric form of PKM2, and employing glutaminolysis. Consistently, we observe an increase in the expression of a key enzyme of glutaminolysis, malic …
Inhibition of lymphocyte trafficking shields the brain against deleterious neuroinflammation after stroke
2011
T lymphocytes are increasingly recognized as key modulators of detrimental inflammatory cascades in acute ischaemic stroke, but the potential of T cell-targeted therapy in brain ischaemia is largely unexplored. Here, we characterize the effect of inhibiting leukocyte very late antigen-4 and endothelial vascular cell adhesion molecule-1-mediated brain invasion-currently the most effective strategy in primary neuroinflammatory brain disease in murine ischaemic stroke models. Very late antigen-4 blockade by monoclonal antibodies improved outcome in models of moderate stroke lesions by inhibiting cerebral leukocyte invasion and neurotoxic cytokine production without increasing the susceptibilit…