The impact of circulating nucleosomes on inflammation in acute lung injury
Extracellular histones are released in two major forms: free histones and nucleosomes (DNA-bound histones). However, little distinction has been made between these two forms of circulating extracellular histones. Our study detected increased circulating nucleosomes in acute lung injury patients. Further, our group identified nucleosomes as the leading form of extracellular histones compared to free histones in the plasma of COVID-19 patients, underscoring the necessity to reassess the forms of circulating histones and nucleosome contributions to immunopathology. Functionally, nucleosomes activated macrophages and induced inflammation in different organs. Mechanistically, we observed nucleosomes activating the NF-κB signaling, while inhibition of NF-κB by sulfasalazine attenuated nucleosome-induced macrophage activation. Taken together, our study indicates that extracellular histones are predominantly released as nucleosomes, playing a critical role in the inflammation of the lungs and other organs.
Authors
- Sultan Almuntashiri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4353-6043)
- Joaquı́n Zúñiga (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7143-0281)
- Luis Jiménez-Álvarez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5326-2720)
- Alfredo Cruz‐Lagunas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5487-5919)
- Gustavo Ramírez-Martínez
- Payaningal R. Somanath
- Shaheen Islam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4814-6757)
- Wenbo Zhi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7720-7048)
- Tatiana Sofia Rodrı́guez-Reyna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5799-5016)
- Yin Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1683-4205)
- Nora E. Regino-Zamarripa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5311-9633)
- Saugata Dutta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4377-5706)
- Duo Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0361-4174)
- Xiaoyun Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9900-740X)
- Victoria Muñoz‐Guido
- María Jose Leyva‐Zilli
Institutions
- University of Georgia (US)
- Augusta University (US)
- Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center (US)
- Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (MX)
- Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias (MX)
- Tecnológico de Monterrey (MX)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The FASEB Journal
- Published
- 2024-11-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202401571rr
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Neutrophil, Myeloperoxidase and Oxidative Mechanisms
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.72
Funders
- Foundation for the National Institutes of Health