Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9899
ISSN: 2155-9899
Jae-Hwan Nam, Seo-Yeon Chung, Suelgi Choi and Hye-Lim Park
Catholic University of Korea, South Korea
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Clin Cell Immunol
IK protein was first isolated from the cultured media of K562, leukemia cell line. It is known as an inhibitory regulator of constitutive and interferon-�³-induced major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II expression. Previously, we found the reduction of pathogenic Th17 cells that have been known to be involved in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in polarizing condition in the truncated IK (tIK)-transgenic (Tg) mice as compared with that in the wild type (WT) Balb/c mice. Based on this finding, we investigated the therapeutic effect and protection mechanism of exogenous tIK protein produced by insect expression system for the RA mouse disease model (collagen antibody-induced arthritis, CAIA). Injection of tIK protein alleviated the symptoms of RA and reduced Th17 cell population in the CAIA model. Interestingly, the computer modeling structure of IK protein is similar to IL- 10 structure. It can be speculated that tIK protein may belong to the IL-10 protein family. In addition, treatment of tIK protein on cultured T cells induced A20, as a negative regulator in NF�ºB pathway, through hypoxia-inducible factor-1�± (HIF-1�±) and reduced several transcriptional factors related to T cell activation. Based on these results, we suggest that tIK protein has a potential to act as a new therapeutic agent for RA patients, because it has a different mode of action as compared with the currently used biologics for RA, such as monoclonal antibody drugs.
Email: jhnam@catholic.ac.kr