PLoS ONE (Jan 2015)

A Short Peptide That Mimics the Binding Domain of TGF-β1 Presents Potent Anti-Inflammatory Activity.

  • Emília R Vaz,
  • Patrícia T Fujimura,
  • Galber R Araujo,
  • Carlos A T da Silva,
  • Rangel L Silva,
  • Thiago M Cunha,
  • Mônica Lopes-Ferreira,
  • Carla Lima,
  • Márcio J Ferreira,
  • Jair P Cunha-Junior,
  • Ernesto A Taketomi,
  • Luiz R Goulart,
  • Carlos Ueira-Vieira

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136116
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 8
p. e0136116

Abstract

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The transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) is a pleiotropic cytokine with multiple roles in development, wound healing, and immune regulation. TGF-β1-mediated immune dysfunction may lead to pathological conditions, such as inflammation. Chronic inflammatory process is characterized by a continuous release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and the inhibition or the blockage of these cytokines signaling pathways are considered a target treatment. In this context, despite the high numbers of TGF-β-targeted pathways, the inducible regulatory T cells (iTreg) to control inflammation seems to be a promising approach. Our aim was to develop novel peptides through phage display (PhD) technology that could mimic TGF-β1 function with higher potency. Specific mimetic peptides were obtained through a PhD subtraction strategy from whole cell binding using TGF-β1 recombinant as a competitor during elution step. We have selected a peptide that seems to play an important role on cellular differentiation and modulation of TNF-α and IL-10 cytokines. The synthetic pm26TGF-β1 peptide tested in PBMC significantly down-modulated TNF-α and up-regulated IL-10 responses, leading to regulatory T cells (Treg) phenotype differentiation. Furthermore, the synthetic peptide was able to decrease leukocytes rolling in BALB/C mice and neutrophils migration during inflammatory process in C57BL/6 mice. These data suggest that this peptide may be useful for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, especially because it displays potent anti-inflammatory properties and do not exhibit neutrophils' chemoattraction.