Integrated target discovery screens identify IL11 as novel therapeutic target for fibrosis [human]
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE96975 | GEO | 2017/11/22
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA380254
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:Cardiac fibrosis is the final common pathology in heart disease. Here we establish an integrated imaging-genomic discovery platform using primary human heart fibroblasts to identify new drug targets for cardiac fibrosis. Genome wide analyses identify IL11, a secreted cytokine amenable to therapeutic inhibition, as the leading pro-fibrotic candidate. We demonstrate an autocrine loop of IL11 activity that is critical for fibrosis and acts as a nexus of signalling convergence for multiple pro-fibrotic stimuli. IL11 signals in cis and trans via the ERK cascade to activate a programme of fibrosis primarily at the level of protein translation. Injection of IL11 to mice causes fibrosis of the heart, kidney, lung, skin and liver whereas genetic ablation of the IL11 receptor prevented fibrosis across tissues. These data define a new non-canonical fibrogenic pathway and prioritise IL11 as a novel therapeutic target for fibrosis of the heart and other organs
2017-11-22 | GSE96991 | GEO
Project description:Cardiac fibrosis is the final common pathology in heart disease. Here we establish an integrated imaging-genomic discovery platform using primary human heart fibroblasts to identify new drug targets for cardiac fibrosis. Genome wide analyses identify IL11, a secreted cytokine amenable to therapeutic inhibition, as the leading pro-fibrotic candidate. We demonstrate an autocrine loop of IL11 activity that is critical for fibrosis and acts as a nexus of signalling convergence for multiple pro-fibrotic stimuli. IL11 signals in cis and trans via the ERK cascade to activate a programme of fibrosis primarily at the level of protein translation. Injection of IL11 to mice causes fibrosis of the heart, kidney, lung, skin and liver whereas genetic ablation of the IL11 receptor prevented fibrosis across tissues. These data define a new non-canonical fibrogenic pathway and prioritise IL11 as a novel therapeutic target for fibrosis of the heart and other organs
2017-11-22 | GSE97358 | GEO
Project description:Background: Cardiac fibrosis is a common pathological process in heart disease and represents a therapeutic target. TGFβ is the canonical driver of cardiac fibrosis and was recently shown to be dependent on IL11 for its profibrotic effects in fibroblasts. In the opposite direction, recombinant human IL11 has been reported as anti-fibrotic and also anti-inflammatory in the mouse heart. Objectives: In this study, we determined the effects of IL11 expression in cardiomyocytes on cardiac pathobiology and function. Methods: We used the Cre-loxP system to generate a tamoxifen-inducible mouse with cardiomyocyte-restricted murine Il11 expression. Using protein assays, bulk RNA-sequencing and in vivo imaging we analysed the effects of IL11 on myocardial fibrosis, inflammation and cardiac function and challenge previous reports suggesting cardioprotective potential of IL11. Results: TGFβ stimulation of cardiomyocytes caused Il11 upregulation. As compared to wild-type controls, Il11 expressing hearts demonstrated severe cardiac fibrosis and inflammation that was associated with the upregulation of cytokines, chemokines, complement factors and increased inflammatory cells. IL11 expression also activated a programme of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition and resulted in left ventricular dysfunction. Conclusion: Our data define species-matched IL11 as strongly profibrotic and proinflammatory when secreted from cardiomyocytes and further establish IL11 as a disease factor.
2023-08-21 | GSE236854 | GEO
Project description:Fibrosis is a common pathology in cardiovascular disease. In the heart, fibrosis causes mechanical and electrical dysfunction and in the kidney, it predicts the onset of renal failure. Transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) is the principal pro-fibrotic factor, but its inhibition is associated with side effects due to its pleiotropic roles. We hypothesized that downstream effectors of TGFβ1 in fibroblasts could be attractive therapeutic targets and lack upstream toxicity. Here we show, using integrated imaging–genomics analyses of primary human fibroblasts, that upregulation of interleukin-11 (IL-11) is the dominant transcriptional response to TGFβ1 exposure and required for its pro-fibrotic effect. IL-11 and its receptor (IL11RA) are expressed specifically in fibroblasts, in which they drive non-canonical, ERK-dependent autocrine signaling that is required for fibrogenic protein synthesis. In mice, fibroblast-specific Il11 transgene expression or Il-11 injection causes heart and kidney fibrosis and organ failure, whereas genetic deletion of Il11ra1 protects against disease. Therefore, inhibition of IL-11 prevents fibroblast activation across organs and species in response to a range of important pro-fibrotic stimuli. These results reveal a central role of IL-11 in fibrosis and we propose that inhibition of IL-11 is a potential therapeutic strategy to treat fibrotic diseases.
2017-12-11 | GSE107909 | GEO
Project description:Fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD) are lung disorders characterized by the accumulation of extracellular matrix, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the pulmonary scaffold. Continuous pro-fibrotic signaling perpetuates the remodeling process, specifically targeting the epithelial cell compartment, thereby destroying the gas exchange area. Studies that address this detrimental crosstalk between lung epithelial cells and fibroblasts are key to understanding ILD. With the aim of identifying functionally relevant targets that drive mesenchymal-epithelial crosstalk and their potential as new avenues to therapeutic strategies, we developed an organoid co-culture system based on human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived alveolar epithelial type 2 cells and lung fibroblasts from ILD patients as well as IMR-90 controls. While organoid formation capacity and organoid size was comparable in the presence of ILD or control lung fibroblasts, metabolic activity was significantly increased in ILD co-cultures. Alveolar organoids cultured with ILD fibroblasts further demonstrated reduced stem cell function supported by reduced Surfactant Protein C gene expression together with an aberrant basaloid-prone differentiation program indicated by elevated Cadherin 2, Bone Morphogenic Protein 4 and Vimentin transcription. In order to identify key mediators of the misguided mesenchymal-to-epithelial crosstalk with a focus on disease-relevant inflammatory processes, we used secretome mass spectrometry to identify key signals secreted by end stage ILD lung fibroblasts. Over 2000 proteins were detected in a single-shot experiment with 47 differentially upregulated proteins when comparing ILD and non-chronic lung disease control fibroblasts. The secretome profile was dominated by chemokines of the C-X-C motif family, including CXCL1, -3, and -8, all interfering with (epithelial) growth factor signaling orchestrated by Interleukin 11 (IL11), steering fibrogenic cell-cell communication, and proteins regulating extracellular matrix remodeling including epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. When in turn treating 3D monocultures of iAT2s with IL11 we recapitulated the co-culture results obtained with primary ILD fibroblasts including changes in metabolic activity as well as organoid formation capacity and size. In summary, our analysis identified mesenchyme-derived mediators likely contributing to the disease-perpetuating mesenchymal-to-epithelial crosstalk in ILD by using sophisticated alveolar organoid co-cultures indicating the importance of cytokine-driven aberrant epithelial differentiation and confirmed IL11 as a key player in ILD using an unbiased approach.
2023-04-19 | PXD039554 | Pride
Project description:Objectives: Interleukin 11 (IL11) is highly upregulated in skin and lung fibroblasts from patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Here we tested whether IL11 is mechanistically linked with human dermal fibroblast (HDF) activation. Methods: We measured serum IL11 levels in healthy volunteers and patients with early diffuse SSc and manipulated IL11 signalling in HDFs using gain- and loss-of-function approaches. Results: In patients with SSc, serum IL11 levels are elevated as compared to healthy controls. Transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) isoforms 1, 2 or 3 induced IL11 secretion from HDFs, which highly express IL11RA and the gp130 co-receptor, suggestive of an autocrine loop of IL11 activity in HDFs. IL11 consistently and robustly stimulated ERK activation in HDFs and resulted in HDF-to-myofibroblast transformation. IL11 induced STAT phosphorylation to a lesser extent than ERK and only at high IL11 concentrations. IL11-stimulated ERK activation and fibrosis phenotypes were absent in skin fibroblasts from patients with homozygous loss-of-function mutation in IL11RA. Inhibition of IL11 signaling using either a neutralizing antibody against IL11 or siRNA against IL11RA reduced TGFβ-induced HDF proliferation, matrix production and cell migration, which was phenocopied by pharmacologic inhibition of ERK activity. Conclusions: These data reveal an important contribution of IL11-related ERK activity for TGFβ-stimulated fibrosis phenotypes in HDFs and suggest IL11 as a potential therapeutic target in SSc.
2021-02-22 | GSE162966 | GEO
Project description:Preeclampsia is a life-threatening disorder of pregnancy unique to humans. Interleukin (IL)11 is elevated in serum from pregnancies that subsequently develop early-onset preeclampsia and pharmacological elevation of IL11 in pregnant mice causes the development of preeclampsia-like features (hypertension and proteinuria), however, the mechanism by which IL11 drives preeclampsia-like features is unknown. Using Next-generation sequencing we demonstrate that treatment with PEGylated IL11 (PEGIL11) inhibited placental expression of markers of spongiotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast linages and increased placental cathepsin production in wild-type and Asc-/- mice. Function studies showed that IL11 acts via Asc inflammasomes to induce tissue fibrosis and preeclampsia in mice. This study has far-reaching implications on our understanding of the underlying etiology of preeclampsia and the mechanism by which IL11 causes inflammation and fibrosis in many tissues and disease states.
2023-05-09 | GSE193685 | GEO
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal lung disease where invasive pulmonary myofibroblasts secrete collagen and destroy lung integrity. Here we show that IL-11 is upregulated in the lung of IPF patients, associated with disease severity and is secreted from IPF fibroblasts. In vitro, IL-11 stimulates lung fibroblasts to become invasive, ACTA2+ve, collagen secreting myofibroblasts, in an ERK-dependent fashion. In mice, fibroblast-specific transgenic expression or administration of Il-11 drives lung fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transformation and causes lung fibrosis. Il11ra1 deleted mice, whose lung fibroblasts are unresponsive to pro-fibrotic stimulation, are protected from fibrosis in the bleomycin mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis. We generated an IL-11 neutralising antibody that blocks lung fibroblast activation downstream of multiple stimuli and reverses myofibroblast activation. In therapeutic studies, anti-IL-11 treatment both prevented and reversed lung fibrosis, which was accompanied by diminished Erk activation. These data prioritise IL-11 as a drug target for lung fibrosis and IPF.
2022-05-06 | GSE130983 | GEO
Project description:Integrated target discovery screens identify IL11 as novel therapeutic target for fibrosis
| PRJNA380739 | ENA
Project description:Background: Fibrosis is a common pathology in many cardiac disorders and is driven by the activation of resident fibroblasts. The global post-transcriptional mechanisms underlying fibroblast-to-myofibroblast conversion in the heart have not been explored. Methods: Genome-wide changes of RNA transcription and translation during human cardiac fibroblast activation were monitored with RNA sequencing and ribosome profiling. We then used a RNA-binding protein-based analyses to identify translational regulators of fibrogenic genes. The integration with cardiac ribosome occupancy levels of 30 dilated cardiomyopathy patients demonstrates that these post-transcriptional mechanisms are also active in the diseased fibrotic human heart. Results: We generated nucleotide-resolution translatome data during the TGFβ1-driven cellular transition of human cardiac fibroblasts to myofibroblasts. This identified dynamic changes of RNA transcription and translation at several time points during the fibrotic response, revealing transient and early-responder genes. Remarkably, about one-third of all changes in gene expression in activated fibroblasts are subject to translational regulation and dynamic variation in ribosome occupancy affects protein abundance independent of RNA levels. Targets of RNA-binding proteins were strongly enriched in post-transcriptionally regulated genes, suggesting genes such as MBNL2 can act as translational activators or repressors. Ribosome occupancy in the hearts of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy suggested the same post-transcriptional regulatory network was underlying cardiac fibrosis. Key network hubs include RNA-binding proteins such as PUM2 and QKI that work in concert to regulate the translation of target transcripts in human diseased hearts. Furthermore, silencing of both PUM2 and QKI inhibits the transition of fibroblasts toward pro-fibrotic myofibroblasts in response to TGFβ1. Conclusions: We reveal widespread translational effects of TGFβ1 and define novel post-transcriptional regulatory networks that control the fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition. These networks are active in human heart disease and silencing of hub genes limits fibroblast activation. Our findings show the central importance of translational control in fibrosis and highlight novel pathogenic mechanisms in heart failure.
2019-10-03 | GSE131111 | GEO