Tg2 inhibitors for improving mucociliary clearance in respiratory diseases

Abstract

In asthma, modification of gel-forming respiratory mucins leading to their tethering to the apical pole of epithelial cells, are believed to participate in airway obstruction by mucus plugs. These changes have been linked to local production of Th2 cytokines, resulting in mucus cell hyperplasia and increased MUC5AC production. The inventors showed that severe eosinophil asthma was associated with overexpression of transglutaminase 2 (TG2), an enzyme recently involved in intestinal mucin reticulation. Moreover, the bronchial epithelium from asthmatic patients or control subjects was reconstituted in vitro by culturing cells at the air-liquid interface and the hypersecretory differentiation was modeled by exposing control bronchial epithelial to IL-13. The inventors showed TG2 expression was upregulated upon IL-13-mediated hypersecretory differentiation and correlated with MUC5AC expression. IL-13 promoted MU5AC tethering to in vitro reconstituted hypersecretory epithelium, and this was blocked by a TG2 inhibitor. In conclusion, the inventors showed that TG2 participates in respiratory mucin modifications in asthma, and contribute to mucus tethering to the airway wall, supporting the use of TG2 inhibitors for improving mucociliary clearance in asthma, but more generally in respiratory diseases.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.