Search

Ammonium transporters (Amts) are a class of membrane-integral transport proteins found in organisms from all kingdoms of life. Their key function is the transport of nitrogen in its reduced bioavailable form, ammonia, across cellular membranes, a crucial step in nitrogen assimilation for biosynthetic purposes. The genome of the hyperthermophilic archaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus has been annotated with three individual genes for ammonium transporters, amt1-3, the roles of which are as yet unknown. The amt1 gene product has been produced by heterologous overexpression in Escherichia coli and the resulting protein has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity. Crystals of Amt-1 have been obtained by sitting-drop vapour diffusion and diffraction data have been collected.

Psoriasis is a frequent, inflammatory skin disease characterized by keratinocyte hyperproliferation and a disease-related infiltration of immune cells. Here, we identified a novel proinflammatory signaling pathway driven by cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) and CDK6 and the methyltransferase EZH2 as a valid target for psoriasis therapy. Delineation of the pathway revealed that CDK4/6 phosphorylated EZH2 in keratinocytes, thereby triggering a methylation-induced activation of STAT3. Subsequently, active STAT3 resulted in the induction of IκBζ, which is a key proinflammatory transcription factor required for cytokine synthesis in psoriasis. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of CDK4/6 or EZH2 abrogated psoriasis-related proinflammatory gene expression by suppressing IκBζ induction in keratinocytes. Importantly, topical application of CDK4/6 or EZH2 inhibitors on the skin was sufficient to fully prevent the development of psoriasis in various mouse models by suppressing STAT3-mediated IκBζ expression. Moreover, we found a hyperactivation of the CDK4/6-EZH2 pathway in human and mouse psoriatic skin lesions. Thus, this study not only identifies a novel psoriasis-relevant proinflammatory pathway, but also proposes the repurposing of CDK4/6 or EZH2 inhibitors as a new therapeutic option for patients with psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]