Abstract
T cells play an important role in adaptive immune responses that destroy pathogens or infected cells. Therefore, regulation of T cell activity is important in various diseases, such as autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivity, and cancer. The conjugation of small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) is a post-translational protein modification that regulates activity, stability, and subcellular translocation of target proteins. In this study, CD8+ T cells overexpressing SUMO2 showed greater proliferation and cytotoxic activity against tumor cells in the presence of IL-6 than wild-type CD8+ T cells in vitro. These CD8+ T cell functions were suppressed during treatment with MEK1 or PI3K-specific inhibitors. Therefore, our findings suggest that IL-6-derived signaling pathways, including the MEK1 and PI3K pathways, are upregulated by SUMO2 overexpression. However, transgenic expression of SUMO2 in T cells did not modulate Th1/2 balance. Collectively, our results showed that SUMO2-Tg promotes cytotoxic activity against tumor cells by increasing the proliferation and cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Chung-Ang University Excellent Student Scholarship and the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2013R1A1A2009620).
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Yun-Jung Lee, Tae Joon Won and Kyeong Eun Hyung contributed equally to this work
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Lee, YJ., Won, T.J., Hyung, K.E. et al. IL-6 induced proliferation and cytotoxic activity of CD8+ T cells is elevated by SUMO2 overexpression. Arch. Pharm. Res. 39, 705–712 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-016-0736-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-016-0736-6