scholarly journals A multimodal iPSC platform for cystic fibrosis drug testing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Berical ◽  
Rhianna Lee ◽  
Junjie Lu ◽  
Mary Lou Beermann ◽  
Jake LeSuer ◽  
...  

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a monogenic lung disease caused by dysfunction of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) anion channel, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. The progress in elucidating the role of the CFTR channel using established animal and cell-based models led to the recent discovery of effective CFTR modulators for most individuals with CF. However, a subset of individuals with CF do not respond to these modulators and there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutic strategies. In this study, we assembled a panel of iPSCs derived from individuals with common or rare variants representative of three distinct classes of CFTR dysfunction. To measure CFTR function in patient-specific iPSCs we adapted two established in vitro assays of CFTR function to iPSC-derived airway cells. In both a 3-D spheroid assay using forskolin-induced swelling as well as planar cultures composed of polarized mucociliary airway epithelial cells, we quantified CFTR baseline function and response to CFTR modulators and detected genotype-specific differences. Our results demonstrate the potential of the human iPSC platform as a research tool to study cystic fibrosis and in particular accelerate therapeutic development for CF caused by rare mutations.

2008 ◽  
Vol 295 (2) ◽  
pp. L303-L313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aura Perez ◽  
Anna M. van Heeckeren ◽  
David Nichols ◽  
Sanhita Gupta ◽  
Jean F. Eastman ◽  
...  

The pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis (CF) inflammatory lung disease is not well understood. CF airway epithelial cells respond to inflammatory stimuli with increased production of proinflammatory cytokines as a result of increased NF-κB activation. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) inhibits NF-κB activity and is reported to be reduced in CF. If PPARγ participates in regulatory dysfunction in the CF lung, perhaps PPARγ ligands might be useful therapeutically. Cell models of CF airway epithelium were used to evaluate PPARγ expression and binding to NF-κB at basal and under conditions of inflammatory stimulation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa or TNFα/IL-1β. An animal model of CF was used to evaluate the potential of PPARγ agonists as therapeutic agents in vivo. In vitro, PPARγ agonists reduced IL-8 and MMP-9 release from airway epithelial cells in response to PAO1 or TNFα/IL-1β stimulation. Less NF-κB bound to PPARγ in CF than normal cells, in two different assays; PPARγ agonists abrogated this reduction. PPARγ bound less to its target DNA sequence in CF cells. To test the importance of the reported PPARγ inactivation by phosphorylation, we observed that inhibitors of ERK, but not JNK, were synergistic with PPARγ agonists in reducing IL-8 secretion. In vivo, administration of PPARγ agonists reduced airway inflammation in response to acute infection with P. aeruginosa in CF, but not wild-type, mice. In summary, PPARγ inhibits the inflammatory response in CF, at least in part by interaction with NF-κB in airway epithelial cells. PPARγ agonists may be therapeutic in CF.


Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 2137
Author(s):  
Vinciane Saint-Criq ◽  
Livia Delpiano ◽  
John Casement ◽  
Jennifer C. Onuora ◽  
JinHeng Lin ◽  
...  

In vitro cultures of primary human airway epithelial cells (hAECs) grown at air–liquid interface have become a valuable tool to study airway biology under normal and pathologic conditions, and for drug discovery in lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF). An increasing number of different differentiation media, are now available, making comparison of data between studies difficult. Here, we investigated the impact of two common differentiation media on phenotypic, transcriptomic, and physiological features of CF and non-CF epithelia. Cellular architecture and density were strongly impacted by the choice of medium. RNA-sequencing revealed a shift in airway cell lineage; one medium promoting differentiation into club and goblet cells whilst the other enriched the growth of ionocytes and multiciliated cells. Pathway analysis identified differential expression of genes involved in ion and fluid transport. Physiological assays (intracellular/extracellular pH, Ussing chamber) specifically showed that ATP12A and CFTR function were altered, impacting pH and transepithelial ion transport in CF hAECs. Importantly, the two media differentially affected functional responses to CFTR modulators. We argue that the effect of growth conditions should be appropriately determined depending on the scientific question and that our study can act as a guide for choosing the optimal growth medium for specific applications.


2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (19) ◽  
pp. 5382-5387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viral S. Shah ◽  
Sarah Ernst ◽  
Xiao Xiao Tang ◽  
Philip H. Karp ◽  
Connor P. Parker ◽  
...  

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the gene encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) anion channel. Airway disease is the major source of morbidity and mortality. Successful implementation of gene- and cell-based therapies for CF airway disease requires knowledge of relationships among percentages of targeted cells, levels of CFTR expression, correction of electrolyte transport, and rescue of host defense defects. Previous studies suggested that, when ∼10–50% of airway epithelial cells expressed CFTR, they generated nearly wild-type levels of Cl− secretion; overexpressing CFTR offered no advantage compared with endogenous expression levels. However, recent discoveries focused attention on CFTR-mediated HCO3− secretion and airway surface liquid (ASL) pH as critical for host defense and CF pathogenesis. Therefore, we generated porcine airway epithelia with varying ratios of CF and wild-type cells. Epithelia with a 50:50 mix secreted HCO3− at half the rate of wild-type epithelia. Likewise, heterozygous epithelia (CFTR+/− or CFTR+/∆F508) expressed CFTR and secreted HCO3− at ∼50% of wild-type values. ASL pH, antimicrobial activity, and viscosity showed similar relationships to the amount of CFTR. Overexpressing CFTR increased HCO3− secretion to rates greater than wild type, but ASL pH did not exceed wild-type values. Thus, in contrast to Cl− secretion, the amount of CFTR is rate-limiting for HCO3− secretion and for correcting host defense abnormalities. In addition, overexpressing CFTR might produce a greater benefit than expressing CFTR at wild-type levels when targeting small fractions of cells. These findings may also explain the risk of airway disease in CF carriers.


2005 ◽  
Vol 288 (3) ◽  
pp. L471-L479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Joseph ◽  
Dwight Look ◽  
Thomas Ferkol

The progression of lung disease in cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by an exuberant inflammatory response mounted by the respiratory epithelium that is further exacerbated by bacterial infection. Recent studies have demonstrated upregulation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in response to infection in genetically modified cell culture models, which is associated with expression of interleukin (IL)-8. Using human airway epithelial cells grown in primary culture, we examined in vitro activation of NF-κB in cells isolated from five CF (ΔF508/ΔF508) and three non-CF (NCF) patients in response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Immunofluorescence, gel-shift, and immunoblot assays demonstrated a rapid translocation of NF-κB subunits (p50 and p65) to the nucleus in both CF and NCF cell cultures. However, nuclear extracts from CF cells both before and following P. aeruginosa stimulation revealed elevated NF-κB activation compared with NCF cells. Additionally, elevated nuclear levels of the NF-κB inhibitor IκBα were detected in nuclei of CF cells after P. aeruginosa stimulation, but this increase was transient. There was no difference in IL-8 mRNA levels between CF and NCF cells early after stimulation, whereas expression was higher and sustained in CF cells at later times. Our results also demonstrated increased baseline translocation of NF-κB to nuclei of primary CF epithelial cell cultures, but intranuclear IκBα may initially block its effects following P. aeruginosa stimulation. Thus, IL-8 mRNA expression was prolonged after P. aeruginosa stimulation in CF epithelial cells, and this sustained IL-8 expression may contribute to the excessive inflammatory response in CF.


2012 ◽  
Vol 302 (11) ◽  
pp. L1221-L1231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assem G. Ziady ◽  
Andrew Sokolow ◽  
Samuel Shank ◽  
Deborah Corey ◽  
Ross Myers ◽  
...  

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by inflammatory lung disease that significantly contributes to morbidity and mortality. Airway epithelial cells play a role in the inflammatory signaling in CF and have been reported to exhibit a number of dysfunctions in signaling cascades that modulate inflammation. Previously, we reported that the activity of nuclear factor erythroid-derived-like 2 (Nrf2), a transcription factor that regulates antioxidant and cytoprotective protein expression, is diminished in CF epithelia ( 7 ). In this report, we examined the mechanism of Nrf2 dysregulation in vitro in human airway epithelial cell lines and primary cells and in vivo in nasal epithelia excised from ΔF508 CF mutant mice. We found that cAMP-mediated signaling markedly reduces Nrf2 activity in CF vs. non-CF cells. Rp-cAMPS, a cAMP competitor, significantly corrected Nrf2 activity in CF cells, predominantly by increasing the nuclear accumulation of the transcription factor. Furthermore, we found that Rp-cAMPS significantly decreased NF-κB activation following inflammatory stimulation of CF cells. Further investigation revealed that Nrf2 and NF-κB compete for the transcriptional coactivator cAMP responsive element-binding protein (CREB) binding protein (CBP) and that Rp-cAMPS shifts CBP association in favor of Nrf2. Thus our findings provide a link between feedback to CF transmembrane regulator dysfunction and dysregulation of an inflammatory signaling pathway that modulates the coordinated activities of Nrf2 and NF-κB. Furthermore, our studies suggest that strategies that shift CBP association away from NF-κB and toward Nrf2 could have potential therapeutic efficacy for reducing inflammation in patients with CF.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 00082-2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Taylor-Cousar ◽  
Marcus A. Mall ◽  
Bonnie W. Ramsey ◽  
Edward F. McKone ◽  
Elizabeth Tullis ◽  
...  

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator gene (CFTR) that result in diminished quantity and/or function of the CFTR anion channel. F508del-CFTR, the most common CF-causing mutation (found in ∼90% of patients), causes severe processing and trafficking defects, resulting in decreased CFTR quantity and function. CFTR modulators are medications that increase the amount of mature CFTR protein (correctors) or enhance channel function (potentiators) at the cell surface.Combinations of CFTR correctors and potentiators (i.e. lumacaftor/ivacaftor, tezacaftor/ivacaftor) have demonstrated clinical benefit in subsets of patients. However, none are approved for patients with CF heterozygous for F508del-CFTR and a minimal function mutation, i.e. a mutation that produces either no protein or protein that is unresponsive to currently approved CFTR modulators. Next-generation CFTR correctors VX-659 and VX-445, each in triple combination with tezacaftor and ivacaftor, improve CFTR processing, trafficking and function in vitro and have demonstrated clinical improvements in phase 2 studies in patients with CF with one or two F508del-CFTR alleles.Here, we present the rationale and design of four randomised phase 3 studies, and their open-label extensions, evaluating VX-659 (ECLIPSE) or VX-445 (AURORA) plus tezacaftor and ivacaftor in patients with one or two F508del-CFTR alleles.


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