Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) was cloned over 2 decades ago and its identification in part led to the discovery of a super family of tumor necrosis factors (TNFs) and their receptors. TNFα signals through two transmembrane receptors, TNFR1 and TNFR2, and regulates a number of critical cell functions including cell proliferation, survival, differentiation, and apoptosis. Macrophages are the major producers of TNFα and interestingly are also highly responsive to TNFα. Aberrant TNFα production and TNF receptor signaling have been associated with the pathogenesis of several diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, atherosclerosis, psoriasis, sepsis, diabetes, and obesity. TNFα has been shown to play a pivotal role in orchestrating the cytokine cascade in many inflammatory diseases and because of this role as a "master-regulator" of inflammatory cytokine production, it has been proposed as a therapeutic target for a number of diseases. Indeed anti-TNFα drugs are now licensed for treating certain inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. In this review we discuss the discovery of TNFα and its actions especially in regulating macrophage biology. Given its importance in several human diseases, we also briefly discuss the role of anti-TNFα therapeutics in the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

Adenovirus (Ad) vectors are promising candidates for both gene transfer and vaccine applications. In this study, we investigated the role of TLR2 in innate and adaptive immune responses to Ad and/or the transgene it expresses following systemic injection. We found that Ad directly activates ERK1/2 in vivo, but that initiation of ERK1/2 activation is primarily a MyD88/TLR2-independent, but Kupffer cell-dependent, event. The complexity of Ad-induced innate immune responses was confirmed when we also found that both TLR2 and MyD88 functions are required for the sustained activation of ERK1/2. Although we found that the initial activation of NF-κB by Ads is dependent upon MyD88, but independent of TLR2 in (non-Kupffer cells) the liver, TLR2 significantly influenced the Ad-induced late phase NF-κB activation. These very rapid responses were positively correlated with subsequent innate immune responses to the Ad vector, as our results confirmed that the induction of several cytokines and chemokines, and the expression of innate immune response genes following Ad injection were TLR2 dependent in vivo. The requirement of TLR2 in Ad-induced innate responses also correlated with significantly altered adaptive immune responses. For example, our results demonstrate that the generation of Ad-neutralizing Abs, and anti-transgene-specific Abs elicited subsequent to Ad vector treatments, are both dependent upon TLR2 functionality. Finally, we found that several Ad-induced innate immune responses are dependent on both TLR2 and TLR9. Therefore, this study confirms that several (but not all) Ad-induced innate and adaptive immune responses are TLR dependent.

TNFα (tumour necrosis factor α) is a multifunctional cytokine involved in the pathophysiology of many chronic inflammatory diseases. TNFα activation of the NF-κB (nuclear factor κB) signalling pathway particularly in macrophages has been implicated in many diseases. We demonstrate in the present study that GRK2 and GRK5 (G-protein-coupled-receptor kinases 2 and 5) regulate TNFα-induced NF-κB signalling in Raw 264.7 macrophages. RNAi (RNA interference) knockdown of GRK2 or GRK5 in macrophages significantly inhibited TNFα-induced IκBα (inhibitory κBα) phosphorylation and degradation, NF-κB activation and expression of the NF-κB-regulated gene MIP1β (macrophage inflammatory protein 1β). Consistent with these results, overexpression of GRK2 or GRK5 enhanced TNFα-induced NF-κB activity. In addition, we show that GRK2 and GRK5 interacted with IκBα via the N-terminal domain of IκBα and that IκBα is a substrate for GRK2 and GRK5 in vitro. Furthermore, we also found that GRK5, but not GRK2, phosphorylated IκBα at the same amino acid residues (Ser³²/Ser³⁶) as that of IKKβ (IκB kinase β). Interestingly, associated with these results, knockdown of IKKβ in Raw 264.7 macrophages did not affect TNFα-induced IκBα phosphorylation. Taken together, these results demonstrate that both GRK2 and GRK5 are important and novel mediators of a non-traditional IκBα/NF-κB signalling pathway.

Significance: Inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases. Many deleterious effects of inflammation are mediated through increased production of proinflammatory mediators, known as cytokines and chemokines. Many current therapies for these diseases involve blocking single proinflammatory mediators, such as TNF, using parenteral administration of recombinant binding proteins. We demonstrate here that a genetic modification in the mouse that increases the expression of an endogenous antiinflammatory protein, tristetraprolin (TTP), results in protection against mouse models for several human inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis, presumably by decreasing the production of proinflammatory cytokines. Our results suggest that increasing TTP expression may be an effective therapeutic strategy in the treatment of certain inflammatory diseases.