IMR Press / FBE / Volume 4 / Issue 7 / DOI: 10.2741/E552

Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article

Cigarette smoke enhances chemotaxis via acetylation of proline-glycine-proline

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1 Department of Medicine University of Alabama at Birmingham 1918 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294
2 National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London UK SW7 2, AZ

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2012, 4(7), 2402–2409; https://doi.org/10.2741/E552
Published: 1 June 2012
Abstract

Several chronic lung diseases have been linked to cigarette smoking (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and cancer are associated with increased tobacco use). We recently described a collagen fragment, prolineglycine-proline (PGP), chemotactic for neutrophils, that appears to play a role in COPD, cystic fibrosis, and bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome. PGP can exist in either its native or acetylated form (NAcPGP), although the mechanism of N-terminal-acetylation remains unknown. This work investigates the possibility that cigarette smoke (CS) and its components acetylate PGP, describing a possible mechanism for some of the chronic inflammation seen in tobacco-associated disease. CSE and CSC (3.56 and 12.38 ng/ml NAcPGP respectively, p less than 0.01) and its components (acrolein, acetaldehyde, and methyl glyoxal) acetylated PGP (0.51, 1.03, and 0.23 ng/ml NAcPGP, p less than 0.01). Both N-acetyl-cysteine and carbocysteine (scavengers of reactive aldehydes) blocked chemical acetylation of PGP by CS (100% and 97% inhibition, respectively, p less than 0.01). NAcPGP is more chemoattractive to neutrophils, and less susceptible to degradation by Leukotriene-A4-Hydrolase (detected in the lung). These experiments propose a mechanism for the increased neutrophil recruitment seen in smokingassociated lung diseases.

Keywords
PGP
Neutrophils
Acetylation
Cigarette Smoke
Acetaldehyde
Acrolein
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