Aquaporin gene therapy corrects Sjögren’s syndrome phenotype in mice
Loading...
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2016-05-02
Type of Work
Department
Program
Citation of Original Publication
Lai, Zhennan et al. "Aquaporin gene therapy corrects Sjögren’s syndrome phenotype in mice." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 20 ( May 2, 2016): 5694-5699. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1601992113
Rights
This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0
Public Domain Mark 1.0
Subjects
Abstract
Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is a chronic autoimmune diseasethat is estimated to affect 35 million people worldwide. Currently, noeffective treatments exist for Sjögren’s syndrome, and there is alimited understanding of the physiological mechanisms associatedwith xerostomia and hyposalivation. The present work revealed thataquaporin 5 expression, a water channel critical for salivary glandfluid secretion, is regulated by bone morphogenetic protein 6. In-creased expression of this cytokine is strongly associated with themost common symptom of primary Sjögren’s syndrome, the loss ofsalivary gland function. This finding led us to develop a therapy inthe treatment of Sjögren’s syndrome by increasing the water perme-ability of the gland to restore saliva flow. Our study demonstratesthat the targeted increase of gland permeability not only resulted inthe restoration of secretory gland function but also resolved thehallmark salivary gland inflammation and systemic inflammation as-sociated with disease. Secretory function also increased in the lacri-mal gland, suggesting this local therapy could treat the systemicsymptoms associated with primary Sjögren’ssyndrome.