Cathelicidin (LL-37) causes coronary artery lesions in Kawasaki disease
by activating TLR4-NF-κB-NLRP3 signaling
Abstract
Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a kind of vasculitis with an
unidentified etiology. Cathelicidin (LL-37) may be involved in the
development of the KD process; therefore, further research to
investigate the molecular mechanism of LL-37 involvement in KD is
warranted. Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used
to detect the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, NLRP3, and LL-37 in the sera of
healthy subjects, children with KD, and children with pneumonia.
Subsequently, human recombinant LL-37 or/and TLR4-specific inhibitor
TAK-242 stimulated HCAECs cells, CCK-8 was used to detect cell
proliferation, flow cytometry to detect apoptosis, transmission electron
microscopy to observe cytoskeletal changes, Transwell to measure cell
migration ability, ELISA to detect inflammatory factor levels, Western
blotting to analyze protein levels of TLR4 and NF-κB p-65, and qRT-PCR
to determine LL-37, NLRP3 mRNA levels. Results: In this study, we found
that the level of LL-37 was highly expressed in the serum of children
with KD, and after LL-37 stimulation, apoptosis was significantly
increased in HCAECs, and the expression levels of TLR4, NLRP3 and
inflammatory factors in cells were significantly enhanced. Intervention
with the TLR4-specific inhibitor TAK-242 significantly alleviated the
LL-37 effects on cellular inflammation, TLR4, NLRP3 promotion effect.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that LL-37 induces an inflammatory
response in endothelial cells via TLR4-NF-κB, leading to coronary artery
injury in KD, providing a potential target to treat KD.