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The inducible kinase IKKi is required for IL-17-dependent signaling associated with neutrophilia and pulmonary inflammation

Nature Immunology volume 12, pages 844–852 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Interleukin 17 (IL-17) is critical in the pathogenesis of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Here we report that Act1, the key adaptor for the IL-17 receptor (IL-7R), formed a complex with the inducible kinase IKKi after stimulation with IL-17. Through the use of IKKi-deficient mice, we found that IKKi was required for IL-17-induced expression of genes encoding inflammatory molecules in primary airway epithelial cells, neutrophilia and pulmonary inflammation. IKKi deficiency abolished IL-17-induced formation of the complex of Act1 and the adaptors TRAF2 and TRAF5, activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and mRNA stability, whereas the Act1–TRAF6–transcription factor NF-κB axis was retained. IKKi was required for IL-17-induced phosphorylation of Act1 on Ser311, adjacent to a putative TRAF-binding motif. Substitution of the serine at position 311 with alanine impaired the IL-17-mediated Act1-TRAF2-TRAF5 interaction and gene expression. Thus, IKKi is a kinase newly identified as modulating IL-17 signaling through its effect on Act1 phosphorylation and consequent function.

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Figure 1: IKKi forms a complex with Act1 after stimulation with IL-17.
Figure 2: IKKi is required for the IL-17-mediated expression of genes encoding proinflammatory molecules.
Figure 3: IKKi is required for IL-17-mediated pulmonary inflammation.
Figure 4: The kinase activity of IKKi is required for stabilization of chemokine mRNA.
Figure 5: The kinase activity of IKKi is required for IL-17-induced phosphorylation of Act1.
Figure 6: Identification of the Ser311-phosphorylation site of Act1 by mass spectrometry.
Figure 7: The effect of phosphorylation of Act1 Ser311 on the interaction of Act1 with TRAF proteins.

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  • 22 August 2011

    In the version of this article initially published, the author Mark R. Chance was incorrectly identified as Mark Chance. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Maniatis (Harvard University) for IKKi-deficient and wild-type C57BL/6 control mice; and the High Performance Computing Resource in the Core Facility for Advanced Research Computing and Center of Proteomics and Bioinformatics at Case Western Reserve University. Supported by the American Asthma Foundation (X.L.), the US National Institutes of Health (R01HL098935-01A1 to X.L.) and the American Heart Association (09POST2010041 to R.C.P.).

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Author notes

  1. Katarzyna Bulek and Caini Liu: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Katarzyna Bulek, Caini Liu, Shadi Swaidani, Muhammet F Gulen, Tomasz Herjan, Amina Abbadi, Wen Qian, Dongxu Sun, Thomas Hamilton & Xiaoxia Li

  2. Center for Proteomics & Bioinformatics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Liwen Wang & Mark R Chance

  3. Department of Molecular Cardiology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Richard C Page & Saurav Misra

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Mark Lauer & Vincent Hascall

  5. Department of Pathobiology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Mark Aronica

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Contributions

K.B., C.L., S.S., L.W., M.F.G., T.H., W.Q. and D.S., experiments; K.B. and C.L., experimental design, performance and interpretation and writing of the manuscript; L.W. and M.R.C., mass spectrometry study; R.C.P. and S.M., structure modeling; A.A., M.L. and V.H., assistance with the primary mouse airway epithelial cell culture; M.A., assistance with in vivo experiments; X.L. and T.H., design and interpretation of experiments and writing of the manuscript; all authors, review of the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaoxia Li.

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Bulek, K., Liu, C., Swaidani, S. et al. The inducible kinase IKKi is required for IL-17-dependent signaling associated with neutrophilia and pulmonary inflammation. Nat Immunol 12, 844–852 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.2080

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