Targeted inhibition of STATs and IRFs as a potential treatment strategy in cardiovascular disease

• Published in: Oncotarget 2016-07, Vol.7 (30), p.48788-48812
• Main Authors: Szelag, Malgorzata, Piaszyk-Borychowska, Anna, Plens-Galaska, Martyna, Wesoly, Joanna, Bluyssen, Hans A R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anticholesteremic Agents - therapeutic use; Atherosclerosis - drug therapy; Atherosclerosis - pathology; Clinical Trials as Topic; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical - methods; Humans; Inflammation - drug therapy; Inflammation - pathology; Interferon Regulatory Factors - antagonists & inhibitors; Interferon Regulatory Factors - metabolism; Interferon-alpha - metabolism; Interferon-gamma - metabolism; Interleukin-6 - metabolism; Molecular Docking Simulation; Molecular Targeted Therapy - methods; Molecular Targeted Therapy - trends; Phosphorylation; Plaque, Atherosclerotic - drug therapy; Plaque, Atherosclerotic - pathology; Review; Signal Transduction - drug effects; STAT Transcription Factors - antagonists & inhibitors; STAT Transcription Factors - metabolism; Toll-Like Receptor 4 - metabolism
• ISSN: 1949-2553; 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.9195

Key factors contributing to early stages of atherosclerosis and plaque development include the pro-inflammatory cytokines Interferon (IFN)α, IFNγ and Interleukin (IL)-6 and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) stimuli. Together, they trigger activation of Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) and Interferon Regulatory Factor (IRF) families. In particular, STAT1, 2 and 3; IRF1 and 8 have recently been recognized as prominent modulators of inflammation, especially in immune and vascular cells during atherosclerosis. Moreover, inflammation-mediated activation of these STATs and IRFs coordinates a platform for synergistic amplification leading to pro-atherogenic responses.Searches for STAT3-targeting compounds, exploring the pTyr-SH2 interaction area of STAT3, yielded many small molecules including natural products. Only a few inhibitors for other STATs, but none for IRFs, are described. Promising results for several STAT3 inhibitors in recent clinical trials predicts STAT3-inhibiting strategies may find their way to the clinic. However, many of these inhibitors do not seem STAT-specific, display toxicity and are not very potent. This illustrates the need for better models, and screening and validation tools for novel STAT and IRF inhibitors.This review presents a summary of these findings. It postulates STAT1, STAT2 and STAT3 and IRF1 and IRF8 as interesting therapeutic targets and targeted inhibition could be a potential treatment strategy in CVDs. In addition, it proposes a pipeline approach that combines comparative in silico docking of STAT-SH2 and IRF-DBD models with in vitro STAT and IRF activation inhibition validation, as a novel tool to screen multi-million compound libraries and identify specific inhibitors for STATs and IRFs.