Cloning of rat brain interleukin-18 cDNA.
The interleukin-1 (IL-1) family comprises IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta and an endogenous IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra). IL-1 has diverse actions in the brain and has been implicated in both acute and chronic neurodegeneration. However, neither IL-1 alpha nor IL-1 beta are neurotoxic per se in vivo, so other IL-1 related ligands may be important in neurodegeneration. The cytokine interleukin-18 (also called interferon gamma inducing factor, IGIF) was first isolated from the liver of mice during toxic shock. It was later proposed as a member of the IL-1 family, based on protein sequence homology with IL-1 beta and IL-1ra, and has tentatively been called IL-1 gamma. We cloned IL-18 from adult rat brain and demonstrated, by RT-PCR, that it is expressed constitutively in cerebellum, hippocampus, hypothalamus, cortex and striatum. Rat brain IL-18 shows close homology to mouse and human IL-18, and to the recently published sequence from the rat adrenal gland. Mouse pro-IL-18 and pro-IL-1 beta are processed by caspase-1. We demonstrate that caspase-1 also cleaves rat IL-18 in vitro and that the caspase inhibitor, zVAD-DCB inhibits this cleavage.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
A C
AC
Culhane
M D
MD
Hall
N J
NJ
Rothwell
G N
GN
Luheshi
D000311:Adrenal Glands / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006801:Humans; D007369:Interferon Inducers; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D007369:Interferon Inducers; D020382:Interleukin-18; D011994:Recombinant Proteins