Cutting edge: autoantigen Ro52 is an interferon inducible E3 ligase that ubiquitinates IRF-8 and enhances cytokine expression in macrophages

HJ Kong, DE Anderson, CH Lee, MK Jang… - The Journal of …, 2007 - journals.aai.org
HJ Kong, DE Anderson, CH Lee, MK Jang, T Tamura, P Tailor, HK Cho, JH Cheong…
The Journal of Immunology, 2007journals.aai.org
Abstract IFN regulatory factor (IRF)-8 is a transcription factor important for the development
and function of macrophages. It plays a critical role in the induction of cytokine genes,
including IL-12p40. Immunopurification and mass spectrometry analysis found that IRF-8
interacted with Ro52 in murine macrophages upon IFN-γ and TLR stimulation. Ro52 is an
IFN-inducible protein of the tripartite motif (TRIM) family and is an autoantigen present in
patients with Sjögren's syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus. Ro52 has a RING …
Abstract
IFN regulatory factor (IRF)-8 is a transcription factor important for the development and function of macrophages. It plays a critical role in the induction of cytokine genes, including IL-12p40. Immunopurification and mass spectrometry analysis found that IRF-8 interacted with Ro52 in murine macrophages upon IFN-γ and TLR stimulation. Ro52 is an IFN-inducible protein of the tripartite motif (TRIM) family and is an autoantigen present in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus. Ro52 has a RING motif and is capable of ubiquitinating itself. We show that IRF-8 is ubiquitinated by Ro52 both in vivo and in vitro. Ectopic expression of Ro52 enhanced IL-12p40 expression in IFN-γ/TLR-stimulated macrophages in an IRF-8-dependent manner. Together, Ro52 is an E3 ligase for IRF-8 that acts in a non-degradation pathway of ubiquitination, and contributes to the elicitation of innate immunity in macrophages.
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