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RhoA of the Rho GTPase family is prenylated at its C-terminus. Prenylation of RhoA has been shown to control T helper 17 (Th17) cell-mediated colitis. By characterizing T cell-specific RhoA conditional knockout mice, we have recently shown that RhoA is required for Th2 and Th17 cell differentiation and Th2/Th17 cell-mediated allergic airway inflammation. It remains unclear whether RhoA plays a cell-intrinsic role in regulatory T (Treg) cells that suppress effector T cells such as Th2/Th17 cells to maintain immune tolerance and to promote tumor immune evasion. Here we have generated Treg cell-specific RhoA-deficient mice. We found that homozygous RhoA deletion in Treg cells led to early, fatal systemic inflammatory disorders. The autoimmune responses came from an increase in activated CD4 + and CD8 + T cells and in effector T cells including Th17, Th1 and Th2 cells. The immune activation was due to impaired Treg cell homeostasis and increased Treg cell plasticity. Interestingly, heterozygous RhoA deletion in Treg cells did not affect Treg cell homeostasis nor cause systemic autoimmunity but induced Treg cell plasticity and an increase in effector T cells. Importantly, heterozygous RhoA deletion significantly inhibited tumor growth, which was associated with tumor-infiltrating Treg cell plasticity and increased tumor-infiltrating effector T cells. Collectively, our findings suggest that graded RhoA expression in Treg cells distinguishes tumor immunity from autoimmunity and that rational targeting of RhoA in Treg cells may trigger anti-tumor T cell immunity without causing autoimmune responses., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Kalim, Yang, Modur, Nguyen, Li, Zheng and Guo.)

Asthma is a heterogeneous chronic airway inflammation in which Th2 and Th17 cells are key players in its pathogenesis. We have reported that RhoA of Rho GTPases orchestrated glycolysis for Th2 cell differentiation and allergic airway inflammation by the use of a conditional RhoA-deficient mouse line. However, the role of RhoA in Th17 cells remains to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the effects of RhoA deficiency on Th17 cells in the context of ex vivo cell culture systems and an in vivo house dust mites (HDM)-induced allergic airway inflammation. We found that RhoA deficiency inhibited Th17 differentiation and effector cytokine secretion, which was associated with the downregulations of Stat3 and Rorγt, key Th17 transcription factors. Furthermore, loss of RhoA markedly suppressed Th17 and neutrophil-involved airway inflammation induced by HDM in mice. The infiltrating inflammatory cells in the lungs and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids were dramatically reduced in conditional RhoA-deficient mice. Th17 as well as Th2 effector cytokines were suppressed in the airways at both protein and mRNA levels. Interestingly, Y16, a specific RhoA inhibitor, was able to recapitulate the most phenotypes of RhoA genetic deletion in Th17 differentiation and allergic airway inflammation. Our data demonstrate that RhoA is a key regulator of Th17 cell differentiation and function. RhoA might serve as a potential novel therapeutic target for asthma and other inflammatory disorders., (©2019 Society for Leukocyte Biology.)

Background: In our previous study, Activin B induced actin stress fiber formation and cell migration in Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in vitro. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well studied. RhoA is recognized to play a critical role in the regulation of actomyosin cytoskeletal organization and cell migration., Methods: Pull-down assay was performed to investigate the activity of RhoA. The dominant-negative mutants of RhoA (RhoA(N19)) was used to determine whether RhoA has a role in Activin B-induced cytoskeleton organization and cell migration in BMSCs. Cytoskeleton organization was examined by fluorescence Rhodamine-phalloidin staining, and cell migration by transwell and cell scratching assay. Western blot was carried out to investigate downstream signaling cascade of RhoA. Inhibitor and siRNAs were used to detect the role of downstream signaling in stress fiber formation and/or cell migration., Results: RhoA was activated by Activin B in BMSCs. RhoA(N19) blocked Activin B-induced stress fiber formation and cell migration. ROCK inhibitor blocked Activin B-induced stress fiber formation but enhanced BMSCs migration. Activin B induced phosphorylation of LIMK2 and Cofilin, which was abolished by ROCK inhibition. Both of siRNA LIMK2 and siRNA Cofilin inhibited Activin B-induced stress fiber formation., Conclusions: RhoA regulates Activin B-induced stress fiber formation and migration of BMSCs. A RhoA-ROCK-LIMK2-Cofilin signaling node exists and regulates actin stress fiber formation. RhoA regulates Activin B-induced cell migration independent of ROCK., General Significance: Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of BMSCs migration will help optimize therapeutic strategy to target BMSCs at injured tissues., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Mitochondrial metabolism is known to be important for T-cell activation. However, its involvement in effector T-cell differentiation has just begun to gain attention. Importantly, how metabolic pathways are integrated with T-cell activation and effector cell differentiation and function remains largely unknown., Objective: We sought to test our hypothesis that RhoA GTPase orchestrates glycolysis for TH2 cell differentiation and TH2-mediated allergic airway inflammation., Methods: Conditional RhoA-deficient mice were generated by crossing RhoA(flox/flox) mice with CD2-Cre transgenic mice. Effects of RhoA on TH2 differentiation were evaluated based on in vitro TH2-polarized culture conditions and in vivo in ovalbumin-induced allergic airway inflammation. Cytokine levels were measured by using intracellular staining and ELISA. T-cell metabolism was measured by using the Seahorse XF24 Analyzer and flow cytometry., Results: Disruption of RhoA inhibited T-cell activation and TH2 differentiation in vitro and prevented the development of allergic airway inflammation in vivo, with no effect on TH1 cells. RhoA deficiency in activated T cells led to multiple defects in metabolic pathways, such as glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. Importantly, RhoA couples glycolysis to TH2 cell differentiation and allergic airway inflammation through regulating IL-4 receptor mRNA expression and TH2-specific signaling events. Finally, inhibition of Rho-associated protein kinase, an immediate downstream effector of RhoA, blocked TH2 differentiation and allergic airway inflammation., Conclusion: RhoA is a key component of the signaling cascades leading to TH2 differentiation and allergic airway inflammation at least in part through control of T-cell metabolism and the Rho-associated protein kinase pathway., (Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Dopamine (DA) is an important regulator of neuronal plasticity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and plays a critical role in addiction-related neuroadaptation. The Rho GTPases, including Rac1, RhoA and Cdc42, are key regulators of actin cytoskeleton rearrangement that play important roles in dendritic morphogenesis. The goal of the current study was to use cultures of primary PFC neurons to gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying DA-induced dendritic morphogenesis, a phenomenon that mimics the increase in DA synaptic transmission observed in the PFC of in vivo cocaine administration. We investigated the effects of repeated DA treatments on dendritic morphology changes in PFC neurons, and identified Rac1 and RhoA as downstream effectors of D1 receptors during the regulation of dendritic morphogenesis. Importantly, we found that D1 receptor-regulated Rac1 and RhoA have distinct roles in the regulation of dendritic morphogenesis after repeated DA treatments. Our data provide the first evidence that Rac1 and RhoA are effectors of D1 receptor signaling during dendritic morphogenesis and represent new signaling molecules involved in long-lasting neuroadaptation in the PFC.

Thymocyte development is regulated by complex signaling pathways. How these signaling cascades are coordinated remains elusive. RhoA of the Rho family small GTPases plays an important role in actin cytoskeleton organization, cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and survival. Nonetheless, the physiological function of RhoA in thymocyte development is not clear. By characterizing a conditional gene targeting mouse model bearing T cell deletion of RhoA, we show that RhoA critically regulates thymocyte development by coordinating multiple developmental events. RhoA gene disruption caused a strong developmental block at the pre-TCR checkpoint and during positive selection. Ablation of RhoA led to reduced DNA synthesis in CD4(-)CD8(-), CD4(+)CD8(-), and CD4(-)CD8(+) thymocytes but not in CD4(+)CD8(+) thymocytes. Instead, RhoA-deficient CD4(+)CD8(+) thymocytes showed an impaired mitosis. Furthermore, we found that abrogation of RhoA led to an increased apoptosis in all thymocyte subpopulations. Importantly, we show that the increased apoptosis was resulted from reduced pre-TCR expression and increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which may be because of an enhanced mitochondrial function, as manifested by increased oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis, mitochondrial membrane potential, and mitochondrial biogenesis in RhoA-deficient thymocytes. Restoration of pre-TCR expression or treatment of RhoA-deficient mice with a ROS scavenger N-acetylcysteine partially restored thymocyte development. These results suggest that RhoA is required for thymocyte development and indicate, to our knowledge, for the first time that fine-tuning of ROS production by RhoA, through a delicate control of metabolic circuit, may contribute to thymopoiesis., (Copyright © 2014 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.)

Activation of RhoA prevents NGF-induced outgrowth and causes retraction of neurites in neuronal cells, including PC12 cells. Despite its inhibitory effect on neurite outgrowth, NGF activates GTP loading of and effector binding to RhoA, setting up an apparent contradiction. According to the molecular switch hypothesis of GTPase function GTP-loading of RhoA should be sufficient to activate its effectors uniformly. However, when monitoring NGF-induced binding of GTP-RhoA to multiple targets, we noted differential interactions with its effectors. We found that NGF elicits a protein kinase A-mediated phosphorylation of RhoA on serine(188), which renders it unable to bind to Rho-associated kinase (ROK), whereas it retains the ability to interact with other RhoA targets including rhotekin, mDia-1 and PKN. We show in vitro and in vivo that phosphorylation of serine(188) represents an additional switch, capable of directing signals among effector pathways. In the context of PC12 cell differentiation, NGF-induced phosphorylation of RhoA on serine(188) prevents it from interacting with ROK, which would otherwise block neurite outgrowth. Transfection of RhoA(S188A) mutant into PC12 cells prevents NGF-induced neurite outgrowth, just like constitutively activated RhoA(14V) does, indicating the requirement of this phosphorylation site. Replacement of serine(188) with the phosphomimetic glutamate residue in RhoA(V14/S188E) selectively impairs interaction with ROK and when transfected into PC12 cells restores NGF-induced neurite outgrowth. Therefore, phosphorylation of serine(188) may serve as a novel secondary switch of RhoA capable of overriding GTP-binding-elicited effector activation to a subset of targets such as ROK, which interact with the C-terminus of RhoA.