title: Modulation of Toll-like Receptor 9 Responses through Synthetic Immunostimulatory Motifs of DNA.
abstract: Bacterial, plasmid, and synthetic DNA containing unmethylated CpG dinucleotides in specific sequence contexts activate the vertebrate innate immune system. A pattern recognition receptor (PRR), toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), recognizes CpG DNA and activates signaling cascade leading to the secretion of a number of cytokines and chemokines. Our extensive structure-immunostimulatory activity relationship studies showed that a number of synthetic pyrimidine (Y) and purine (R) nucleotides are accepted by the receptor as substitutes for natural deoxycytidine and deoxyguanosine in a CpG dinucleotide. These studies permitted development of synthetic immunostimulatory motifs YpG, CpR, and YpR and established the nucleotide motif recognition pattern of the receptor. A number of site-specific chemical modifications in the flanking sequences to the CpG dinucleotide permitted modulation of immunostimulatory affects in a predictable manner. Our studies also showed that TLR9 recognizes and reads the CpG DNA sequence from the 5'-end. Design of oligonucleotides with two 5'-ends, immunomers, resulted in potent immunomodulatory agents with distinct cytokine profiles. Immunomers containing synthetic immunostimulatory motifs produced different cytokine induction profiles compared with natural CpG motifs. Importantly, some of these synthetic motifs showed optimal activity in both mouse and human systems without requiring to change sequences, suggesting overriding the species-dependent specificity of the receptor by the use of synthetic motifs. In this article, we review current understanding of structural recognition and functional modulation of TLR9 receptor by second-generation immunomodulatory oligonucleotides and their potential application as wide spectrum therapeutic agents.
authors.affiliation: Hybridon, Inc., Cambridge, Massuchusetts 02139, USA. sagrawal@hybridon.com
authors.forename: Sudhir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.forename: Ekambar R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kandimalla
mesh_terms: D024509:3' Flanking Region / Q000502:physiology; D024506:5' Flanking Region / Q000502:physiology; D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D003596:Cytosine / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006147:Guanine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; C495371:TLR9 protein, human; D051217:Toll-Like Receptor 9; D006147:Guanine; D003596:Cytosine