This R21/R33 application is a test of concept study and potentially able to facilitate the development of novel non-traditional therapeutics that provides alternative treatment for infected patients. Emerging antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria pose a significant threat to general health and welfare. Phagocytosis, along with other innate immune responses, exerts crucial impacts on the outcomes of the patients suffered from bacterial infections. In this proposal, we will use macrophages as a cellular model to develop a novel approach in order to enhance the myeloid cell-mediated phagocytosis and clearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Based on our published and preliminary data, we found that miR-15a/16 attenuates phagocytosis and bacterial clearance by targeting on the TLR4-associated pathways in vitro. Deletion of miR-15a/16 (miR- 15a/16-/-) in myeloid cells significantly decreases the bacterial infection-associated mortality in septic mice. Consistently, miR-15a/16 deficiency (miR-15a/16-/-) results in augmented phagocytosis and generation of bactericidal reactive oxygen species (ROS) in macrophages. Our preliminary data further showed that bacteria and their derivatives robustly enhanced the release of exosomes. Interestingly, many secreted miR-15a/16 were released via exosome-shuttled manner (preliminary data). We therefore propose to develop miR-15a/16 inhibitor-enriched exosomes and hypothesize that these miR-15a/16 inhibitor-enriched exosomes can significantly enhance phagocyte-mediated bacterial clearance and improve the outcomes after bacterial infection. This high-risk/high-reward approach is fundamentally different from traditional microbicidal strategies that target the bacteria themselves, and is expected to be highly complementary with direct antibiotic approaches. R21 phase aims are to confirm the effect of miR-15a/16 deficiency on the clearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and to generate the miR-15a/16 inhibitor-enriched exosomes R33 phase aims are: to characterize the uptake of miR-15a/16 inhibitor-enriched exosomes by phagocytes in vivo and to assess the toxicity and inflammatory effects of miR-15a/16 inhibitor-enriched exosomes.

Public Health Relevance

This R21/R33 application is a test of concept study and potentially able to facilitate the development of a novel therapy for bacterial infections. We propose to develop a novel method and generate miR-15a/16 inhibitor- enriched exosomes which enhance the phagocytosis and clearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
1R21AI121644-01
Application #
9021096
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAI1)
Program Officer
Xu, Zuoyu
Project Start
2015-12-01
Project End
2017-11-30
Budget Start
2015-12-01
Budget End
2016-11-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Boston University
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
604483045
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
Lee, Heedoo; Zhang, Duo; Laskin, Debra L et al. (2018) Functional Evidence of Pulmonary Extracellular Vesicles in Infectious and Noninfectious Lung Inflammation. J Immunol 201:1500-1509
Zhang, Duo; Lee, Heedoo; Wang, Xiaoyun et al. (2018) Exosome-Mediated Small RNA Delivery: A Novel Therapeutic Approach for Inflammatory Lung Responses. Mol Ther 26:2119-2130
Lee, Heedoo; Abston, Eric; Zhang, Duo et al. (2018) Extracellular Vesicle: An Emerging Mediator of Intercellular Crosstalk in Lung Inflammation and Injury. Front Immunol 9:924
Zhang, Duo; Lee, Heedoo; Haspel, Jeffrey A et al. (2017) Long noncoding RNA FOXD3-AS1 regulates oxidative stress-induced apoptosis via sponging microRNA-150. FASEB J 31:4472-4481
Zhu, Ziwen; Zhang, Duo; Lee, Heedoo et al. (2017) Macrophage-derived apoptotic bodies promote the proliferation of the recipient cells via shuttling microRNA-221/222. J Leukoc Biol 101:1349-1359
Lee, Heedoo; Zhang, Duo; Rai, Ashish et al. (2017) The Obstacles to Current Extracellular Vesicle-Mediated Drug Delivery Research. J Pharm Pharm 4:156-158
Lee, Heedoo; Zhang, Duo; Wu, Jingxuan et al. (2017) Lung Epithelial Cell-Derived Microvesicles Regulate Macrophage Migration via MicroRNA-17/221-Induced Integrin ?1 Recycling. J Immunol 199:1453-1464
Zhang, Duo; Lee, Heedoo; Zhu, Ziwen et al. (2017) Enrichment of selective miRNAs in exosomes and delivery of exosomal miRNAs in vitro and in vivo. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 312:L110-L121
Zhang, Duo; Lee, Heedoo; Cao, Yong et al. (2016) miR-185 mediates lung epithelial cell death after oxidative stress. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 310:L700-10
Zhu, Ziwen; Zhang, Duo; Lee, Heedoo et al. (2016) Caenorhabditis elegans: An important tool for dissecting microRNA functions. Biomed Genet Genom 1:34-36

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