Therapeutic Potential of Targeting Prokineticin Receptors in Diseases

The prokineticins (PKs) were discovered approximately 20 years ago as small peptides inducing gut contractility. Today, they are established as angiogenic, anorectic, and proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, hormones, and neuropeptides involved in variety of physiologic and pathophysiological pathways. Their altered expression or mutations implicated in several diseases make them a potential biomarker. Their G-protein coupled receptors, PKR1 and PKR2, have divergent roles that can be therapeutic target for treatment of cardiovascular, metabolic, and neural diseases as well as pain and cancer. This article reviews and summarizes our current knowledge of PK family functions from development of heart and brain to regulation of homeostasis in health and diseases. Finally, the review summarizes the established roles of the endogenous peptides, synthetic peptides and the selective ligands of PKR1 and PKR2, and nonpeptide orthostatic and allosteric modulator of the receptors in preclinical disease models. The present review emphasizes the ambiguous aspects and gaps in our knowledge of functions of PKR ligands and elucidates future perspectives for PK research. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This review provides an in-depth view of the prokineticin family and PK receptors that can be active without their endogenous ligand and exhibits "constitutive" activity in diseases. Their non- peptide ligands display promising effects in several preclinical disease models. PKs can be the diagnostic biomarker of several diseases. A thorough understanding of the role of prokineticin family and their receptor types in health and diseases is critical to develop novel therapeutic strategies with safety concerns.

Cell type-specific deletion in mice reveals roles for PAS kinase in insulin and glucagon production

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

Per-Arnt-Sim kinase (PASK) is a nutrient-regulated domain-containing protein kinase previously implicated in the control of insulin gene expression and glucagon secretion. Here, we explore the roles of PASK in the control of islet hormone release, by generating mice with selective deletion of the Pask gene in pancreatic beta or alpha cells.

METHODS

Floxed alleles of Pask were produced by homologous recombination and animals bred with mice bearing beta (Ins1 (Cre); PaskBKO) or alpha (Ppg (Cre) [also known as Gcg]; PaskAKO) cell-selective Cre recombinase alleles. Glucose homeostasis and hormone secretion in vivo and in vitro, gene expression and islet cell mass were measured using standard techniques.

RESULTS

Ins1 (Cre)-based recombination led to efficient beta cell-targeted deletion of Pask. Beta cell mass was reduced by 36.5% (p < 0.05) compared with controls in PaskBKO mice, as well as in global Pask-null mice (38%, p < 0.05). PaskBKO mice displayed normal body weight and fasting glycaemia, but slightly impaired glucose tolerance, and beta cell proliferation, after maintenance on a high-fat diet. Whilst glucose tolerance was unaffected in PaskAKO mice, glucose infusion rates were increased, and glucagon secretion tended to be lower, during hypoglycaemic clamps. Although alpha cell mass was increased (21.9%, p < 0.05), glucagon release at low glucose was impaired (p < 0.05) in PaskAKO islets.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

The findings demonstrate cell-autonomous roles for PASK in the control of pancreatic endocrine hormone secretion. Differences between the glycaemic phenotype of global vs cell type-specific null mice suggest important roles for tissue interactions in the control of glycaemia by PASK.

Over-expression of Slc30a8/ZnT8 selectively in the mouse α cell impairs glucagon release and responses to hypoglycemia

BACKGROUND

The human SLC30A8 gene encodes the secretory granule-localised zinc transporter ZnT8 whose expression is chiefly restricted to the endocrine pancreas. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human SLC30A8 gene have been associated, through genome-wide studies, with altered type 2 diabetes risk. In addition to a role in the control of insulin release, recent studies involving targeted gene ablation from the pancreatic α cell (Solomou et al., J Biol Chem 290(35):21432-42) have also implicated ZnT8 in the control of glucagon release. Up to now, however, the possibility that increased levels of the transporter in these cells may impact glucagon secretion has not been explored.

METHODS

Here, we use a recently-developed reverse tetracyline transactivator promoter-regulated ZnT8 transgene to drive the over-expression of human ZnT8 selectively in the α cell in adult mice. Glucose homeostasis and glucagon secretion were subsequently assessed both in vivo during hypoglycemic clamps and from isolated islets in vitro.

RESULTS

Doxyclin-dependent human ZnT8 mRNA expression was apparent in both isolated islets and in fluorescence-activated cell sorting- (FACS) purified α cells. Examined at 12 weeks of age, intraperitoneal glucose (1 g/kg) tolerance was unchanged in transgenic mice versus wild-type littermates (n = 8-10 mice/genotype, p > 0.05) and sensitivity to intraperitoneal insulin (0.75U/kg) was similarly unaltered in transgenic animals. In contrast, under hyperinsulinemic-hypoglycemic clamp, a ~45 % (p < 0.001) reduction in glucose infusion rate was apparent, and glucagon release was significantly (~40 %, p < 0.01) impaired, in transgenic mice. Correspondingly, examined in vitro, glucagon secretion was significantly reduced (~30 %, p < 0.05) from transgenic versus control islets at low, stimulatory glucose concentrations (1 mM, p < 0.05) but not at high glucose (17 mM) glucose (p > 0.05). Over-expression of ZnT8 in glucagonoma-derived αTC1-9 cells increased granule free Zn(2+) concentrations consistent with a role for Zn(2+) in this compartment in the action of ZnT8 on glucagon secretion.

CONCLUSIONS

Increased ZnT8 expression, and a likely increase in intragranular free Zn(2+) concentration, is deleterious in pancreatic α cells for stimulated glucagon release. These data provide further evidence that type 2 diabetes-associated polymorphisms in the SLC30A8/ZnT8 gene may act in part via alterations in glucagon release and suggest that ZnT8 activation may restrict glucagon release in some settings.