Anti-Inflammatory Activity of PYNOD and Its Mechanism in Humans and Mice

Abstract

Many members of the nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD)- and leucine-rich-repeat–containing protein (NLR) family play important roles in pathogen recognition and inflammation. However, we previously reported that human PYNOD/NLRP10, an NLR-like protein consisting of a pyrin domain and a NOD, inhibits inflammatory signal mediated by caspase-1 and apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC) in reconstitution experiments using HEK293 cells. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanism of PYNOD’s anti-inflammatory activity in vitro and its expression and function in mice. Human PYNOD inhibited the autoprocessing of caspase-1 and caspase-1–mediated IL-1β processing and suppressed the aggregation of ASC, a hallmark of ASC activation. Interestingly, the NOD of human PYNOD was sufficient to inhibit caspase-1–mediated IL-1β secretion, whereas its pyrin domain was sufficient to inhibit ASC-mediated NF-κB activation and apoptosis and to reduce ASC’s ability to promote caspase-1–mediated IL-1β production. Mouse PYNOD protein was detected in the skin, tongue, heart, colon, peritoneal macrophages, and several cell lines of hematopoietic and myocytic lineages. Mouse PYNOD colocalized with ASC aggregates in LPS + R837-stimulated macrophages; however, unlike human PYNOD, mouse PYNOD failed to inhibit ASC aggregation. Macrophages and neutrophils from PYNOD-transgenic mice exhibited reduced IL-1β processing and secretion upon microbial infection, although mouse PYNOD failed to inhibit caspase-1 processing, which was inhibited by caspase-4 inhibitor z-LEED-fluoromethylketone. These results suggest that mouse PYNOD colocalizes with ASC and inhibits caspase-1–mediated IL-1β processing without inhibiting caspase-4 (mouse caspase-11)–mediated caspase-1 processing. Furthermore, PYNOD-transgenic mice were resistant to lethal endotoxic shock. Thus, PYNOD is the first example of an NLR that possesses an anti-inflammatory function in vivo.