Protein kinase C, an enzyme that is activated by the receptor-mediated hydrolysis of inositol phospholipids, relays information in the form of a variety of extracellular signals across the membrane to regulate many Ca2+-dependent processes. At an early phase of cellular responses, the enzyme appears to have a dual effect, providing positive forward as well as negative feedback controls over various steps of its own and other signaling pathways, such as the receptors that are coupled to inositol phospholipid hydrolysis and those of some growth factors. In biological systems, a positive signal is frequently followed by immediate negative feedback regulation. Such a novel role of this protein kinase system seems to give a logical basis for clarifying the biochemical mechanism of signal transduction, and to add a new dimension essential to our understanding of cell-to-cell communication.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/233/4761/305.full.pdf

Studies and perspectives of protein kinase C

Flavonoids are nearly ubiquitous in plants and are recognized as the pigments responsible for the colors of leaves, especially in autumn. They are rich in seeds, citrus fruits, olive oil, tea, and red wine. They are low molecular weight compounds composed of a three-ring structure with various substitutions. This basic structure is shared by tocopherols (vitamin E). Flavonoids can be subdivided according to the presence of an oxy group at position 4, a double bond between carbon atoms 2 and 3, or a hydroxyl group in position 3 of the C (middle) ring. These characteristics appear to also be required for best activity, especially antioxidant and antiproliferative, in the systems studied. The particular hydroxylation pattern of the B ring of the flavonoles increases their activities, especially in inhibition of mast cell secretion. Certain plants and spices containing flavonoids have been used for thousands of years in traditional Eastern medicine. In spite of the voluminous literature available, however, Western medicine has not yet used flavonoids therapeutically, even though their safety record is exceptional. Suggestions are made where such possibilities may be worth pursuing.

The Effects of Plant Flavonoids on Mammalian Cells:Implications for Inflammation, Heart Disease, and Cancer

Bcl-2 functions in an antioxidant pathway to prevent apoptosis

The signaling pathways involved in the long-term metabolic effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) in vascular smooth muscle cells are incompletely understood but include the generation of molecules likely to affect oxidase activity. We examined the ability of Ang II to stimulate superoxide anion formation and investigated the identity of the oxidases responsible for its production. Treatment of vascular smooth muscle cells with Ang II for 4 to 6 hours caused a 2.7 +/- 0.4-fold increase in intracellular superoxide anion formation as detected by lucigenin assay. This superoxide appeared to result from activation of both the NADPH and NADH oxidases. NADPH oxidase activity increased from 3.23 +/- 0.61 to 11.80 +/- 1.72 nmol O2-/min per milligram protein after 4 hours of Ang II, whereas NADH oxidase activity increased from 16.76 +/- 2.13 to 45.00 +/- 4.57 nmol O2-/min per milligram protein. The NADPH oxidase activity was stimulated by exogenous phosphatidic and arachidonic acids and was partially inhibited by the specific inhibitor diphenylene iodinium. NADH oxidase activity was increased by arachidonic and linoleic acids, was insensitive to exogenous phosphatidic acid, and was inhibited by high concentrations of quinacrine. Both of these oxidases appear to reside in the plasma membrane, on the basis of migration of the activity after cellular fractionation and their apparent insensitivity to the mitochondrial poison KCN. These observations suggest that Ang II specifically activates enzyme systems that promote superoxide generation and raise the possibility that these pathways function as second messengers for long-term responses, such as hypertrophy or hyperplasia.

Angiotensin II stimulates NADH and NADPH oxidase activity in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondria play an important role in apoptosis induction under both physiologic and pathologic conditions. Interestingly, mitochondria are both source and target of ROS. Cytochrome c release from mitochondria, that triggers caspase activation, appears to be largely mediated by direct or indirect ROS action. On the other hand, ROS have also anti-apoptotic effects. This review focuses on the role of ROS in the regulation of apoptosis, especially in inflammatory cells.

Role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in apoptosis induction

We have developed a quantitative assay to monitor the oxidative burst (H2O2 production) of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) using single cell analysis by flow cytometry, and have examined whether PMNL respond to membrane stimulation with an all-or-none oxidative burst. During incubation with normal neutrophils, dichlorofluorescin diacetate diffused into the cells, was hydrolyzed to 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin (DCFH) and was thereby trapped within the cells. The intracellular DCFH, a nonfluorescent fluorescein analogue, was oxidized to highly fluorescent 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein (DCF) by PMNL stimulated by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). That the oxidative product was DCF was shown by excitation/emission spectra and by mass spectrometry of the product from PMA-stimulated PMNL. Normal resting and PMA-stimulated PMNL oxidized 6.9 +/- 0.7 and 160 +/- 13 attomoles DCF per cell, respectively, in 15 min. Absence of calcium and magnesium ions and/or addition of 2 mM EDTA did not inhibit DCF formation by PMNL stimulated by 100 ng/ml PMA. Since EDTA prevented aggregation of PMNL (even when stimulated by 100 ng/ml PMA), which would prevent accurate flow cytometric analysis, further experiments were performed with EDTA in the medium. A close correlation between average DCFH oxidation and hexose monophosphate shunt stimulation was demonstrated using cells from patients whose PMNL had oxidative metabolic defects of varying severity. Intracellular DCFH was also oxidized by reagent H2O2 or oxygen derivatives generated by glucose oxidase + glucose or by xanthine oxidase + acetaldehyde; DCFH oxidation by these systems was inhibited by catalase but unchanged by superoxide dismutase. The data indicate that the DCFH oxidation assay is quantitatively related to the oxidative metabolic burst of PMNL, and they strongly suggest that the reaction is mediated by H2O2 generated by the PMNL. Incubation of PMNL with varying concentrations of PMA caused graded responses by all PMNL present; i.e., 1 ng/ml PMA caused a mean response of 34% maximal with a single population of responding PMNL (rather than 66% resting and 34% fully stimulated as predicted by the all-or-none hypothesis). Thus, with these assay conditions, oxidative product formation by PMNL occurs as a graded response to membrane stimulation by PMA.

Flow cytometric studies of oxidative product formation by neutrophils: a graded response to membrane stimulation.

Mechanism of the luminol-dependent chemiluminescence of human neutrophils.

1-O-Alkyl-2-O-acetyl-sn-glyceryl-3-phosphorylcholine aggregates and degranulates platelets and polymorphonuclear neutrophils. Here, the bioactivities of this platelet-activating factor, its 2-O-ethyl, and its 2-lyso derivatives were examined further. Each phospholipid aggregated and degranulated rabbit platelets and neutrophils with relative potencies of about 10,000 1,000, and 1, respectively. For rabbit neutrophils, and 2-O-acetyl compound was active in nanomolar and lower concentrations; required extracellular calcium and magnesium in order to induce aggregation; and required extracellular calcium and cytochlasin B in order to induce optimal degranulation. Furthermore the 2-O-acetyl and 2-O-ethyl compounds, in concentrations about tenfold higher than those required for rabbit neutrophils, aggregated and degranulated human neutrophils. With reference to these human neutrophil responses, degranulation required, and aggregation was dramatically enhanced by, cytochalasin B. The lysoanalog was unable to induce these response in the human cells. Thus, these lipids represent a novel class of neutrophil stimulants that closely resemble certain chemotactic factors (eg, C5a and synthetic oligopeptides) in their ability to aggregate and degranulate neutrophils and in the influences which calcium, magnesium and cytochalasin B have on their bioactions. Because platelet-activating factor circulates in the blood of rabbits and, perhaps, humans during anaphylaxis and is suspected of being involved in other syndromes such as serum sickness, this lipid may have unique biologic significance: it may act to recruit platelets and neutrophils into the lesions of these and similar pathologic syndromes.

1-O-Alkyl-sn-glyceryl-3-phosphorylcholines: a novel class of neutrophil stimulants.

Stimulated human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) have a marked increase in oxidative metabolism, producing reduced oxygen species (eg, H2O2) that mediate bacterial killing Previously, quantitation of metabolic responses of PMNL from patients with acute infections employed assays that measure mean activity of the entire PMNL population; such studies reported a modest and highly variable increase in oxidative metabolic responses of such "toxic" PMNL compared with normal cells To assess metabolic capability of PMNL from 51 patients with acute bacterial infection, we employed a quantitative flow cytometric assay of H2O2-dependent oxidative product formation, the intracellular oxidation of 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin (DCFH) After stimulation by phorbol myristate acetate, the PMNL of patients demonstrated an increase in mean DCFH oxidation (315 +/- 14 and 180 +/- 45 amol/cell, patients and controls) Hexose monophosphate shunt activation was similarly increased in stimulated PMNL from bacteremic patients These data are comparable with previous studies of mean metabolic activities of toxic PMNL However, these mean values underestimate the quantitative responses of the hyperresponsive ("primed") PMNL within a mixture of normal and primed PMNL in the patients' blood The flow cytometric assay demonstrated that the PMNL of the patients were composed of two populations One population of PMNL had normal oxidative responses; the other "primed" population had up to 46 times the oxidative product formation of normal cells Similar priming of circulating PMNL was caused by infection with gram-positive or gram-negative staining bacteria or by Candida species The proportion and oxidative ability of the primed PMNL occurred independently of the number of juvenile neutrophil forms and independently of "toxic" morphologic changes of Wright's-stained PMNL On the average, 40% of the PMNL of patients were primed, but the size of the primed PMNL population varied widely between patients (range 0 to 80%) This variable subpopulation may explain the variability of mean responsiveness of the PMNL of patients reported previously Moreover, the marked increase in oxidative metabolic capability of the primed PMNL may be a significant component of the host response to acute infection It could also contribute to the damage to host tissues such as pulmonary vascular endothelium during bacteremia

Subpopulations of neutrophils with increased oxidative product formation in blood of patients with infection.

Isoquinoline sulfonamides have recently been shown to exert novel inhibitory effects on mammalian protein kinases by competitively binding to the ATP substrate site (Hidaka, H., M. Inagaki, S. Kawamoto, and Y. Sasaki, 1984, Biochemistry, 23: 5036-5041). We synthesized a unique analog of the previously reported compounds, 1-(5-isoquinolinesulfonyl) piperazine (C-I), in order to assess the role of protein kinases in modulating the agonist-stimulated oxidative burst of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). Compound C-I, at micromolar concentration, markedly inhibited the release of superoxide anion from human PMN stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate or the synthetic diacylglycerol, 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl glycerol. These data are consonant with previously reported data which indicate that the calcium and phospholipid-dependent protein kinase, protein kinase C, serves as the intracellular receptor for these agonists. In contrast, superoxide anion production stimulated by the complement anaphylatoxin peptide C5a or the synthetic chemotaxin formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine were not inhibited by C-I. These data suggest that parallel pathways exist for the agonist-stimulated respiratory burst of human neutrophils, only one of which utilizes the calcium and phospholipid-dependent protein kinase.

/pdf/role-of-protein-kinases-in-stimulation-of-human-2mxzkhqnf0.pdf

Role of protein kinases in stimulation of human polymorphonuclear leukocyte oxidative metabolism by various agonists. Differential effects of a novel protein kinase inhibitor.

David A. Bass

Papers

Flow cytometric studies of oxidative product formation by neutrophils: a graded response to membrane stimulation.

Mechanism of the luminol-dependent chemiluminescence of human neutrophils.

1-O-Alkyl-sn-glyceryl-3-phosphorylcholines: a novel class of neutrophil stimulants.

Subpopulations of neutrophils with increased oxidative product formation in blood of patients with infection.

Role of protein kinases in stimulation of human polymorphonuclear leukocyte oxidative metabolism by various agonists. Differential effects of a novel protein kinase inhibitor.