Peripheral Neuropathy and Hindlimb Paralysis in a Mouse Model of Adipocyte-Specific Knockout of Lkb1

Development of finely tuned liposome nanoplatform for macrophage depletion

BACKGROUND

Immunotherapy with clodronate-encapsulated liposomes, which induce macrophage depletion, has been studied extensively. However, previously reported liposomal formulation-based drugs (Clodrosome® and m-Clodrosome®) are limited by their inconsistent size and therapeutic efficacy. Thus, we aimed to achieve consistent therapeutic effects by effectively depleting macrophages with uniform-sized liposomes.

RESULTS

We developed four types of click chemistry-based liposome nanoplatforms that were uniformly sized and encapsulated with clodronate, for effective macrophage depletion, followed by conjugation with Man-N3 and radiolabeling. Functionalization with Man-N3 improves the specific targeting of M2 macrophages, and radioisotope labeling enables in vivo imaging of the liposome nanoplatforms. The functionalized liposome nanoplatforms are stable under physiological conditions. The difference in the biodistribution of the four liposome nanoplatforms in vivo were recorded using positron emission tomography imaging. Among the four platforms, the clodronate-encapsulated mannosylated liposome effectively depleted M2 macrophages in the normal liver and tumor microenvironment ex vivo compared to that by Clodrosome® and m-Clodrosome®.

CONCLUSION

The newly-developed liposome nanoplatform, with finely tuned size control, high in vivo stability, and excellent ex vivo M2 macrophage targeting and depletion effects, is a promising macrophage-depleting agent.

The sex-specific role of sensory neuron LKB1 on metabolic stress-induced mechanical hypersensitivity and mitochondrial respiration

Pain disorders induce metabolic stress in peripheral sensory neurons by reducing mitochondrial output, shifting cellular metabolism, and altering energy use. These processes implicate neuronal metabolism as an avenue for creating novel therapeutics. Liver kinase B1 (LKB1) mediates the cellular response to metabolic stress by inducing the AMPK pathway. The LKB1-AMPK pathway increases energy producing processes, including mitochondrial output. These processes inhibit pain by directly or indirectly restoring energetic balance within a cell. Although the LKB1-AMPK pathway has been linked to pain relief, it is not yet known which cell is responsible for this property, as well any direct ties to cellular metabolism. To elucidate this, we developed a genetic mouse model where LKB1 is selectively removed from Nav1.8-pain sensory neurons and metabolically stressed them by fasting for 24 hours. We found females, but not males, had neuron-specific, LKB1-dependent restoration of metabolic stress-induced mitochondrial metabolism. This was reflected in mechanical hypersensitivity, where the absence of LKB1 led to hypersensitivity in female, but not male, animals. This discrepancy suggests a sex- and cell-specific contribution to LKB1-depdendent fasting-induced mechanical hypersensitivity. While our data represent a potential role for LKB1 in anti-pain pathways in a metabolic-specific manner, more must be done to investigate these sex differences.

LKB1 Regulates Goat Intramuscular Adipogenesis Through Focal Adhesion Pathway

Intramuscular fat (IMF) deposition is one of the most important factors to affect meat quality in livestock and induce insulin resistance and adverse metabolic phenotypes for humans. However, the key regulators involved in this process remain largely unknown. Although liver kinase B1 (LKB1) was reported to participate in the development of skeletal muscles and classical adipose tissues. Due to the specific autonomic location of intramuscular adipocytes, deposited between or within muscle bundles, the exact roles of LKB1 in IMF deposition need further verified. Here, we cloned the goat LKB1 coding sequence with 1,317 bp, encoding a 438 amino acid peptide. LKB1 was extensively expressed in detected tissues and displayed a trend from decline to rise during intramuscular adipogenesis. Functionally, knockdown of LKB1 by two individual siRNAs enhanced the intramuscular preadipocytes differentiation, accompanied by promoting lipid accumulation and inducing adipogenic transcriptional factors and triglyceride synthesis-related genes expression. Conversely, overexpression of LKB1 restrained these biological signatures. To further explore the mechanisms, the RNA-seq technique was performed to compare the difference between siLKB1 and the control group. There were 1,043 differential expression genes (DEGs) were screened, i.e., 425 upregulated genes and 618 downregulated genes in the siLKB1 group. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis predicted that the DEGs were mainly enriched in the focal adhesion pathway and its classical downstream signal, the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Specifically, knockdown of LKB1 increased the mRNA level of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and vice versa in LKB1-overexpressed cells, a key component of the activated focal adhesion pathway. Convincingly, blocking this pathway by a specific FAK inhibitor (PF573228) rescued the observed phenotypes in LKB1 knockdown adipocytes. In conclusion, LKB1 inhibited goat intramuscular adipogenesis through the focal adhesion pathway. This work expanded the genetic regulator networks of IMF deposition and provided theoretical support for improving human health and meat quality from the aspect of IMF deposition.

Elucidating the role of Lkb1 and mTOR in adipose tissue

Adipose tissues, function as energy metabolism and endocrine organ, are closely associated with metabolic diseases such as obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes. Liver kinase B1 (Lkb1) and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) play crucial roles in regulating energy metabolism and cell growth in adipose tissue. Our recent study generated an adipocyte-specific Lkb1 and mTOR double knockout (DKO) mouse model and found that DKO of Lkb1 and mTOR caused reduction of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT) mass but increase of liver mass. Moreover, the DKO mice developed fatty liver and insulin resistance but displayed improved glucose tolerance and were resistant to high-fat diet (HFD) -induced obesity. In this commentary, we compare the similarities and differences of the phenotypes found in the DKO mice and Lkb1 or mTOR or mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) or mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2) single knockout mice. Furthermore, we discuss the potential regulatory mechanism that results in the overlapping or distinct phenotypes found in these models.

LKB1/p53/TIGAR/autophagy-dependent VEGF expression contributes to PM2.5-induced pulmonary inflammatory responses

One of the health hazards of PM2.5 exposure is to induce pulmonary inflammatory responses. In our previous study, we demonstrated that exposing both the immortalized and primary human bronchial epithelial cells to PM2.5 results in a significant upregulation of VEGF production, a typical signaling event to trigger chronic airway inflammation. Further investigations showed that PM2.5 exposure strongly induces ATR/CHK1/p53 cascade activation, leading to the induction of DRAM1-dependent autophagy to mediate VEGF expression by activating Src/STAT3 pathway. In the current study, we further revealed that TIGAR was another transcriptional target of p53 to trigger autophagy and VEGF upregulation in Beas-2B cells after PM2.5 exposure. Furthermore, LKB1, but not ATR and CHK1, played a critical role in mediating p53/TIGAR/autophagy/VEGF pathway activation also by linking to Src/STAT3 signaling cascade. Therefore, on combination of the previous report, we have identified both ATR/CHK1/p53/DRAM1- and LKB1/p53/TIGAR- dependent autophagy in mediating VEGF production in the bronchial epithelial cells under PM2.5 exposure. Moreover, the in vivo study further confirmed VEGF induction in the airway potentially contributed to the inflammatory responses in the pulmonary vascular endothelium of PM2.5-treated rats. Therefore, blocking VEGF expression or autophagy induction might be the valuable strategies to alleviating PM2.5-induced respiratory injuries.

Inactivation of Lkb1 in postnatal chondrocytes leads to epiphyseal growth-plate abnormalities and promotes enchondroma-like formation

Liver serine-threonine kinase B1 (LKB1) is a tumor suppressor that has been linked to many types of tumors. However, the role of LKB1 in cartilaginous tumorigenesis is still poorly understood. In this study, we find that cartilage-specific, tamoxifen-inducible Lkb1 knockout results in multiple enchondroma-like lesions adjacent to the disorganized growth plates. We showed that chondrocytes retain an immature status caused by loss of Lkb1, which may lead to the dramatic expansion of growth-plate cartilage and the formation of enchondroma-like lesions. Additionally, increased mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) activity is observed in the Lkb1 conditional knockout (cKO) chondrocytes, and rapamycin (mTORC1 inhibitor) treatment significantly alleviates the expansion of growth-plate cartilage and eliminates the enchondroma-like lesions in Lkb1 cKO mice. Thus, our findings indicate that loss of Lkb1 leads to the expansion of chondrocytes and the formation of enchondroma-like lesions during postnatal cartilage development, and that the up-regulated mTORC1-signaling pathway is implicated in this process. Our findings suggest that modulation of LKB1 and related signaling is a potential therapy in cartilaginous tumorigenesis.-Zhou, S., Li, Y., Qiao, L., Ge, Y., Huang, X., Gao, X., Ju, H., Wang, W., Zhang, J., Yan, J., Teng, H., Jiang, Q. Inactivation of Lkb1 in postnatal chondrocytes leads to epiphyseal growth-plate abnormalities and promotes enchondroma-like formation.