A novel anti-mycobacterial function of mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase-1

Cheung, Benny KW; Yim, Howard CH; Lee, Norris CM; Lau, Allan SY

The unexpected observations in cytokine expression lead to the investigation on the effects of MKP-1 siRNA on BCG-induced MAPK activation. MKP-1 was found to have a preferential substrate binding to p38 MAPK and JNK than ERK1/2 [7] . The phosphorylation status of MAPKs was assessed in control or MKP-1 siRNA transfected PBMo. Western blotting results demonstrated that BCGinduced both p38 MAPK and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in 15 minutes (data not shown) and peaked at 30 minutes, and then returned to basal levels in cells treated with the control siRNA ( Figure 5 ). Similar to the results of cytokine expression, phosphorylation of both p38 MAPK and ERK1/2 in response to BCG was decreased in monocytes transfected with MKP-1 siRNA instead of the expected increase in phosphorylation ( Figure 5 ). The results suggest that MKP-1 knockdown would result in reduced MAPK phosphorylation by BCG, implying that the reduced level of TNF-α production in BCG stimulated monocytes is due to reduced phosphorylation of MAPKs by MKP-1 siRNA.