1. Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 1 (SOCS1) Mitigates Anterior Uveitis and Confers Protection Against Ocular HSV-1 Infection.
- Author
-
Yu, Cheng-Rong, Hayashi, Kozaburo, Lee, Yun, Mahdi, Rashid, Shen, De, Chan, Chi-Chao, and Egwuagu, Charles
- Subjects
- *
HERPES simplex virus , *CYTOKINES , *IMMUNOSUPPRESSION , *IMMUNE response , *INFLAMMATION , *VIRAL disease prevention - Abstract
Immunological responses to pathogens are stringently regulated in the eye to prevent excessive inflammation that damage ocular tissues and compromise vision. Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) regulate intensity/duration of inflammatory responses. We have used SOCS1-deficient mice and retina-specific SOCS1 transgenic rats to investigate roles of SOCS1 in ocular herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) infection and non-infectious uveitis. We also genetically engineered cell-penetrating SOCS proteins (membrane-translocating sequence (MTS)-SOCS1, MTS-SOCS3) and examined whether they can be used to inhibit inflammatory cytokines. Overexpression of SOCS1 in transgenic rat eyes attenuated ocular HSV-1 infection while SOCS1-deficient mice developed severe non-infectious anterior uveitis, suggesting that SOCS1 may contribute to mechanism of ocular immune privilege by regulating trafficking of inflammatory cells into ocular tissues. Furthermore, MTS-SOCS1 inhibited IFN-γ-induced signal transducers and activators of transcription 1 (STAT1) activation by macrophages while MTS-SOCS3 suppressed expansion of pathogenic Th17 cells that mediate uveitis, indicating that MTS-SOCS proteins maybe used to treat ocular inflammatory diseases of infectious or autoimmune etiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF