Salt-inducible kinases 1 and 3 negatively regulate Toll-like receptor 4-mediated signal

Abstract

Salt-inducible kinases (SIKs) are a family of related serine-threonine kinases and are involved in controlling various metabolisms such as liver glucose homeostasis, hepatic lipogenesis, steroidogenesis, and adipogenesis. Here we investigated the regulatory role of SIK proteins in Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)-mediated signaling. Overexpression of SIK1 and SIK3, but not SIK2, significantly inhibited nuclear factorB activity in response to lipopolysaccharide stimulation and affected the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. In contrast, both SIK1KD and SIK3KD Raw 264.7 cells exhibit dramatic elevations of nuclear factorB activation and activations of downstream signaling molecules, such as TGF-β-activated kinase 1, p38, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase, in response to TLR4 stimulation, indicating that SIK1 and SIK3 are negatively involved in the TLR4-mediated signaling. Through biochemical studies, we found that SIK1 and SIK3 interact with TGF-β-activated kinase 1-binding protein 2 (TAB2), and interrupt the functional complex of TAB2-TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6). Interestingly, the molecular interruption is induced to suppress the ubiquitination of TRAF6 in response to TLR4 stimulation. These result suggest that SIK1 and SIK3 negatively regulate TLR4-mediated signaling through the interruption of TAB2-TRAF6 complex and thereby the inhibition of ubiquitination of TRAF6. The present findings can be useful for a better understanding of multilevel interactions between the metabolic and immune systems. © 2013 by The Endocrine Society.