Activation of the PGE2–EP2 pathway as a potential drug target for treating eosinophilic rhinosinusitis

Abstract

Current treatments of eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis (ECRS) involve corticosteroids with various adverse effects and costly therapies such as dupilumab, highlighting the need for improved treatments. However, because of the lack of a proper mouse ECRS model that recapitulates human ECRS, molecular mechanisms underlying this disease are incompletely understood. ECRS is often associated with aspirin-induced asthma, suggesting that dysregulation of lipid mediators in the nasal mucosa may underlie ECRS pathology. We herein found that the expression of microsomal PGE synthase-1 (encoded by PTGES) was significantly lower in the nasal mucosa of ECRS patients than that of non-ECRS subjects. Histological, transcriptional, and lipidomics analyses of Ptges-deficient mice revealed that defective PGE2 biosynthesis facilitated eosinophil recruitment into the nasal mucosa, elevated expression of type-2 cytokines and chemokines, and increased pro-allergic and decreased anti-allergic lipid mediators following challenges with Aspergillus protease and ovalbumin. A nasal spray containing agonists for the PGE2 receptor EP2 or EP4, including omidenepag isopropyl that has been clinically used for treatment of glaucoma, markedly reduced intranasal eosinophil infiltration in Ptges-deficient mice. These results suggest that the present model using Ptges-deficient mice is more relevant to human ECRS than are previously reported models and that eosinophilic inflammation in the nasal mucosa can be efficiently blocked by activation of the PGE2-EP2 pathway. Furthermore, our findings suggest that drug repositioning of omidenepag isopropyl may be useful for treatment of patients with ECRS.