Transglutaminase 2: a novel therapeutic target for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis using selective small molecule inhibitors

Shaun Fell*, Zhuo Wang, Andy Blanchard, Carmel Nanthakumar, Martin Griffin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of a site-directed TG2-selective inhibitor on the lung myofibroblast phenotype and ECM deposition to elucidate TG2 as a novel therapeutic target in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)—an incurable progressive fibrotic disease. IPF fibroblasts showed increased expression of TG2, α smooth muscle actin (αSMA) and fibronectin (FN) with increased extracellular TG2 and transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) compared to normal human lung fibroblasts (NHLFs) which do not express αSMA and express lower levels of FN. The myofibroblast phenotype shown by IPF fibroblasts could be reversed by selective TG2 inhibition with a reduction in matrix FN and TGFβ1 deposition. TG2 transduction or TGFβ1 treatment of NHLFs led to a comparable phenotype to that of IPF fibroblasts which was reversible following selective TG2 inhibition. Addition of exogenous TG2 to NHLFs also induced the myofibroblast phenotype by a mechanism involving TGFβ1 activation which could be ameliorated by selective TG2 inhibition. SMAD3-deleted IPF fibroblasts via CRISPR-cas9 genome editing, showed reduced TG2 protein levels following TGFβ1 stimulation. This study demonstrates a key role for TG2 in the induction of the myofibroblast phenotype and shows the potential for TG2-selective inhibitors as therapeutic agents for the treatment of fibrotic lung diseases like IPF.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)205-217
Number of pages13
JournalAmino Acids
Volume53
Issue number2
Early online date21 Jan 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Funding: This work was supported by a GSK-CASE Studentship between BBSRC and GlaxoSmithKline to MG.

Keywords

  • Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
  • Myofibroblasts
  • Transforming growth factor β1
  • Transglutaminase 2

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Transglutaminase 2: a novel therapeutic target for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis using selective small molecule inhibitors'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this