Protein synthesis inhibitors enhance the expression of mRNAs for early inducible inflammatory genes via mRNA stabilization.

Expression of inflammatory genes is regulated at multiple steps, including transcriptional activation and mRNA stabilization. During an investigation into the requirement of de novo protein synthesis for the induction of inflammatory genes, it was revealed that protein synthesis inhibitors unexpectedly potentiated the induction of mRNAs for primary response genes, while the inhibitors suppressed the induction of secondary inducible genes as previously described. Stimulus-induced nuclear translocation and promoter recruitment of NF-kappaB, which is responsible for the transcriptional activation of many inflammatory genes, were largely unaffected by the inhibitors. Instead, these inhibitors prolonged the half-lives of all of the primary inducible mRNAs tested. Thus, these findings emphasize the important contribution of regulated mRNA longevity to gene expression induced by pro-inflammatory stimulation.