Role of the membrane anchoring and cytoplasmic domains in intracellular transport and localization of viral glycoproteins

Abstract

Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) binds to nucleotide sequences between -80 and -70 bp upstream of the transcriptional start site in the interleukin-8 (IL-8) promoter and is crucial for transcription of the IL-8 gene. We showed that exogenous nitric oxide in the form of a nitric oxide donor significantly reduced IL-8 mRNA in cytokine-activated ECV304. Similarly, nitric oxide significantly reduced migration of polymorphonuclear neutrophils through cytokine-activated ECV304 monolayers, an IL-8-dependent process. Using a luciferase reporter construct containing the NF-κB site of the IL-8 gene, we showed that exposing cytokine-activated ECV304 to exogenous nitric oxide resulted in significant reduction of NF-κB binding. Follow-up studies using a luciferase reporter construct possessing a mutated NF-κB site confirmed that the luciferase activity observed in the NF-κB reporter resulted from NF-κB binding. These studies demonstrate that nitric oxide, supplied exogenously into reactions containing activated endothelium, down-regulates pro-inflammatory activity, such as the secretion of chemokines, and functional activity, such as transendothelial migration of neutrophils. Key words: interleukin-8, nuclear factor κ B, transendothelial migration, nitric oxide.