We show in this report that PMS-601 can modulate a broad range of neuroinflammatory responses linked to HIVE and HAND. In laboratory and a rodent model of HIVE, the drug demonstrates potent inhibition of pro-inflammatory pathways, microglial responses, MGC formation and viral growth. Most importantly, it affords substantial neuroprotection. In laboratory studies PMS-601 inhibit both NF-κB and MAPK pathways that offer insights into the drug’s mechanism of action ().
| Table 1Summary of changes in levels of cell signaling molecules in MDM treated with increasing concentrations of PMS-601. |
It is noteworthy that PMS-601 treated virus-infected MDM undergo marked morphological changes. Why this occurs is unknown. However, formation of macrophage MGC commonly occurs as a result of the cell’s response to contain microbial infections, stress, immune activation or environmental changes. MGC are also frequently observed during chronic fungal and mycobacterial infections, as well as during viral replication (
Helming et al., 2009;
Lopez-Balderas et al., 2007;
Matucci et al., 2008;
Zhu and Friedland, 2006). Microbes can often reside in MGC for prolonged time periods that span months or years. Inhibition of giant cell formation may also reflect deactivation of immunity and would be an advantage to the host cell in its abilities to facilitate movement into tissues or to contain HIV-1 growth (
Baruzzi et al., 2008). Such changes would favor the host cell over the virus and may be in part responsible for the restriction of viral infection seen by PMS-601 (
Ibarrondo et al., 2001). One of the pathological hallmarks of HAND is MGC formation (
Masliah et al., 1996;
Navia et al., 1986). MGC may also contribute to the diversity of HIV-1 subtypes as up to 2000 proviral DNA copies may be harbored by a single MGC (
Koenig et al., 1986;
Steain et al., 2008).
One possible mechanism for the antiviral effects of PMS-601 resides in its modulation of specific cell signaling pathways. These are independent of PAF-acetyl hydrolase. Although this enzyme is present in brain and peripheral tissues including cells of macrophage lineage PMS-601’s activities is as an antagonist of the PAF receptor and distinct from the anti-inflammatory responses seen in the current report. Phosphorylated Pyk2 and F-actin may be involved in cell fusion. Pyk2 localizes at the cell membrane and one of its functions is to help anchor the cytoskeleton to the plasma membrane (
Mitra et al., 2005). Phosphorylated Pyk2 also interacts with Rho/Rac pathway leading to changes in migration, adhesion and the cytoskeleton of the cell (
Zhu et al., 2008;
Gismondi et al., 1997;
Worthylake and Burridge, 2003;
Rumsey et al., 2001;
Rodriguez-Fernandez et al., 1999). Pyk2 can be phosphorylated in the presence of Ca
2+ (
Li et al., 1998) but it also has been shown that TNF-α can lead to phosphorylation of Pyk2 in a Ca
2+-independent manner in neutrophils (
Tokiwa et al., 1996). We speculate this mechanism may be present in MDM, possibly because decreased MGC formation may be due to lower levels of chemotactic and inflammatory factors, which in turn affect alterations in cellular activation, cytoskeletal modulation and ultimately cell fusion.
We posit that use of PMS-601 could be developed as an adjunctive therapy for HAND and possibly for other neurodegenerative disorders where neuroinflammatory responses play a prominent role. Indeed, misfolded and aggregated proteins which underlie the progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis show persistent neuroinflammatory responses that could be controlled by drugs such as PMS-601. In all these conditions, microglial activation underlies disease progression. Persistent HIV-1 infected and activated microglia, perivascular macrophages and infiltrating monocytes release arachidonic acid metabolites, cytokines, reactive oxygen species and quinolinic acid among various other substances affecting neurotoxic activities (
Persidsky et al., 1997;
Kadiu et al., 2005;
Lipton, 1998). The marked abilities of PMS-601 to attenuate such cellular neurotoxic responses justifies further efforts to investigate its utility for HAND therapies.
Although inflammation may be advantageous for remodeling of tissue, chronic inflammation as seen in neurodegenerative diseases leads to degenerative activities (
Liew et al., 2005;
Nathan, 2002;
Wells et al., 2005). This is certainly true for HAND that is characterized by interrelationships between brain macrophage and microglial viral and cellular neurotoxins with cognitive, behavioral and/or motor dysfunctions. This often progresses into broad neurological dysfunction but remains a diagnosis of exclusion after opportunistic infections and cancers are excluded (
Villa et al., 1996). The pathological hallmark of HAND is HIVE and is characterized by astrocytosis, myelin pallor in the gray matter and the accumulation of virus-infected MP and neuronal loss (
Masliah et al., 1996). This has changed in recent years with the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapies (
Bhaskaran et al., 2008;
Mellgren et al., 2007;
Tozzi et al., 2007). Nonetheless, disease incidence remains on the rise and morbidity is commonplace during advanced disease (
Letendre et al., 2007;
Tozzi et al., 2007). Importantly, the brain harbors virus within infected MP despite antiretroviral treatments (
Deeks et al., 2005;
Tozser, 2001) and even limited viral infection could contribute to inflammation and neurodegeneration. PMS-601 readily crosses the blood brain barrier and can modulate the inflammatory secretions of MP (
Martin et al., 2000;
Serradji et al., 2004). Although PMS-601 would not treat the underlying cause of HAND, it might positively affect decreased disease progression by modulating neuroinflammatory responses. Certainly, developing adjunct therapies targeting cells and pathways involved in the inflammatory response to be administered in parallel with antiretrovirals would positively affect the disease course.
We believe the effects of PMS-601, a PAF receptor antagonist are derived from the inhibition of PAF to bind to and activate its receptor but additionally and ultimately, by subsequent inhibition of cytokine synthesis and secretion. HIV-1 infected monocytes and activated macrophages secrete high levels of TNF-α and PAF (
Perry et al., 1998;
Lee et al., 2005). PAF, a pleiotropic molecule with many normal functions, can be a potent neurotoxin in part by up-regulating expression of TNF-α (
Kihara et al., 2005;
Lee et al., 2005;
Gelbard et al., 1994). Although PMS-601 crosses the blood brain barrier, the mechanism of how PMS-601 exerts both its anti-HIV and anti-PAF activities in the brain are currently unknown. PMS-601 has previously been shown to significantly decrease levels of TNF-α, MIP-1α, MIP-1β and RANTES in LPS-stimulated monocytes (
Martin et al., 2000). All of these cytokines have been shown to contribute to the inflammatory environment either as chemoattractants for immune cells or through up-regulation of the NF-κB and/or MAPK pathways (
Montecucco et al., 2008;
Ryan et al., 2008). PMS-601 has previously been shown to have an anti-PAF activity at 8 µM and an anti-HIV activity at 11µM (
Serradji et al., 2000). The modest anti-retroviral effect may be due to inhibiting PAF action that subsequently decreases production of inflammatory molecules such as TNF-α and PAF, which have been shown to enhance viral replication of HIV-1 (
Devadas et al., 2004;
Lima et al., 2006). PKC can phosphorylate HIV Nef for increased viral transcription (
Wolf et al., 2008). HIV Tat has been shown to activate PKC in macrophage and monocytes leading to activation of MAPK p38 and ERK1/2 as well as the NF-κB pathway (
Leghmari et al., 2008a;
Leghmari et al., 2008b;
Leghmari et al., 2008c). Interestingly, it has also been shown that the inhibition of PKC activation can also lead to HIV-1 viral transcription at early viral entry time points (
Warrilow et al., 2006). HIV gp120 can activate the PI3K pathway (
Francois and Klotman, 2003) that includes PKC. When cells are in a cytokine-stimulated environment, the phosphorylation of GSK3β is mainly carried out by PKC (
Vilimek and Duronio, 2006).
In closing, PAF plays a pivotal role in inflammation. Unarguably, it is one of the most potent inflammatory molecules that are endogenously expressed. PAF and TNF-α induce one another in a vicious autocrine and paracrine regulatory loop (
Maestre et al., 1990). Moreover, PAF can induce a number of other cytokines that could play equal to or greater roles in diseases as does TNF-α. PAF is paramount in inducing activation of the arachidonic acid pathway resulting in lipid mediators of inflammation such as leukotrienes (
Boyce, 2008). By inhibiting PAF action, parts of the arachidonic acid pathway are curtained and the lipid-mediated inflammatory cascade halted (
Cuschieri et al., 2002;
Dent et al., 2000;
Schaloske et al., 2005). The effect of PMS-601 on the arachidonic acid pathway and resulting inflammation still needs to be investigated. Blocking PAF also inhibits cytokine synthesis and secretion involved in subsequent signaling cascades leading to decreased inflammation. We speculate the changes we observe in cytoskeletal modification, signaling and inflammatory cascades are related to the altered secretory environment that PMS-601 creates as a PAF receptor antagonist. Our observations of reduced viral replication, phosphorylation of signaling molecules and inflammatory cascades, and cytoskeletal rearrangement by a compound which readily crosses the blood brain barrier make PMS-601 an extremely attractive drug for HAND.