Journal article

TNF-α suppresses the expression of clock genes by interfering with E-box-mediated transcription

  • Cavadini, Gionata Division of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland
  • Petrzilka, Saskia Division of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland
  • Kohler, Philipp Division of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland
  • Jud, Corinne Institute of Biochemistry, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Tobler, Irene Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Switzerland
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    23.06.2007
Published in:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - 2007, vol. 104, no. 31, p. 12843-12848
English Production of TNF-α and IL-1 in infectious and autoimmune diseases is associated with fever, fatigue, and sleep disturbances, which are collectively referred to as sickness behavior syndrome. In mice TNF-α and IL-1 increase nonrapid eye movement sleep. Because clock genes regulate the circadian rhythm and thereby locomotor activity and may alter sleep architecture we assessed the influence of TNF-α on the circadian timing system. TNF-α is shown here to suppress the expression of the PAR bZip clock-controlled genes Dbp, Tef, and Hlf and of the period genes Per1, Per2, and Per3 in fibroblasts in vitro and in vivo in the liver of mice infused with the cytokine. The effect of TNF-α on clock genes is shared by IL-1β, but not by IFN-α, and IL-6. Furthermore, TNF-α interferes with the expression of Dbp in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and causes prolonged rest periods in the dark when mice show spontaneous locomotor activity. Using clock reporter genes TNF-α is found here to inhibit CLOCK-BMAL1-induced activation of E-box regulatory elements-dependent clock gene promoters. We suggest that the increase of TNF-α and IL-1β, as seen in infectious and autoimmune diseases, impairs clock gene functions and causes fatigue.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Médecine
Language
  • English
Classification
Biological sciences
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/300468
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