Patent Application: US-91051806-A

Abstract:
disclosed are assays for the determination and quantification of the phosphorylation of tram . tram is rapidly phosphorylated upon lps stimulation by protein kinase c epsilon and that this phosphorylation is vital for tram to function normally . assays suitable for detecting the state of phosphorylation of tram have utility in identifying compounds which have activity in modulating tram . further disclosed are compounds which have utility in modulating the phosphorylation of tram to modulate signalling mediating by the toll like receptor 4 receptor .

Description:
the term ‘ treatment ’ as used herein refers to any regime that can benefit a human or non - human animal . the treatment may be in respect of an existing condition or may be prophylactic ( preventative treatment ). treatment may include curative , alleviation or prophylactic effects . the present invention further extends to pharmaceuticals and to pharmaceutical compositions for the modulation of the phosphorylation of tram through an alteration of its phosphorylation state or through preventing its phosphorylation . accordingly , a further aspect of the present invention provides a pharmaceutical composition for use in the modification of an immune response wherein the composition includes , as an active ingredient , a compound which modifies the phosphorylation of tram through promoting or blocking phosphorylation . pharmaceutical compositions according to the present invention , and for use in accordance with the present invention may comprise , in addition to active ingredient , a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient , carrier , buffer stabiliser or other materials well known to those skilled in the art . such materials should be non - toxic and should not interfere with the efficacy of the active ingredient . the precise nature of the carrier or other material will depend on the route of administration . the composition is preferably administered to an individual in a “ therapeutically effective amount ”, this being sufficient to show benefit to the individual . the actual amount administered , and rate and time - course of administration , will depend on the individual and condition being treated . the optimal dose can be determined based on a number of parameters including , for example the age of the individual , the magnitude of the immune response to be inhibited or induced , the precise form of the composition being administered and the route of administration . the composition may be administered via microspheres , liposomes , other microparticulate delivery systems or sustained release formulations placed in certain tissues including blood . suitable examples of sustained release carriers include semipermeable polymer matrices in the form of shared articles , e . g . suppositories or microcapsules . examples of the techniques and protocols mentioned above and other techniques and protocols which may be used in accordance with the invention can be found in remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences , 18th edition , gennaro , a . r ., lippincott williams & amp ; wilkins ; 20th edition ( dec . 15 , 2000 ) isbn 0 - 912734 - 04 - 3 and pharmaceutical dosage forms and drug delivery systems ; ansel , h . c . et al . 7 th edition isbn 0 - 683305 - 72 - 7 the entire disclosures of which is herein incorporated by reference . in the context of the present invention , an “ antibody ” should be understood to refer to an immunoglobulin or part thereof or any polypeptide comprising a binding domain which is , or is homologous to , an antibody binding domain . an “ antibody ” is an immunoglobulin , whether natural or partly or wholly synthetically produced . the term also covers any polypeptide , protein or peptide having a binding domain that is , or is homologous to , an antibody binding domain . these can be derived from natural sources , or they may be partly or wholly synthetically produced . the antibody may be an intact antibody or a fragment thereof . fragments of a whole antibody can perform the function of antigen binding . examples of such binding fragments are ( i ) the fab fragment consisting of vl , vh , cl and ch1 domains ; ( ii ) the fd fragment consisting of the vh and ch1 domains ; ( iii ) the fv fragment consisting of the vl and vh domains of a single antibody ; ( iv ) the dab fragment which consists of a vh domain ; ( v ) isolated cdr regions ; ( vi ) f ( ab ′) 2 fragments , a bivalent fragment comprising two linked fab fragments ( vii ) single chain fv molecules ( scfv ), wherein a vh domain and a vl domain are linked by a peptide linker which allows the two domains to associate to form an antigen binding site ; ( viii ) bispecific single chain fv dimers and ( ix ) multivalent or multispecific fragments constructed by gene fusion . antibodies can be modified in a number of ways and accordingly the term “ antibody ” should be construed as covering any binding member or substance having a binding domain with the required specificity . the antibody of the invention may be a monoclonal antibody , or a fragment , derivative , functional equivalent or homologue thereof . the constant region of the antibody may be of any suitable immunoglobulin subtype . the term “ antibody ” includes antibodies which have been “ humanised ” or produced using techniques such as cdr grafting . such techniques are well known to the person skilled in the art . specific binding members of and for use in the present invention may be produced in any suitable way , either naturally or synthetically . such methods may include , for example , traditional hybridoma techniques , recombinant dna techniques , or phage display techniques using antibody libraries . such production techniques would be known to the person skilled in the art , however , other antibody production techniques are described in antibodies : a laboratory manual , eds . harlow et al ., cold spring harbor laboratory , 1988 . unless otherwise defined , all technical and scientific terms used herein have the meaning commonly understood by a person who is skilled in the art in the field of the present invention . throughout the specification , unless the context demands otherwise , the terms ‘ comprise ’ or ‘ include ’, or variations such as ‘ comprises ’ or ‘ comprising ’, ‘ includes ’ or ‘ including ’ will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers , but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers . the present invention will now be described with reference to the following examples which are provided for the purpose of illustration and are not intended to be construed as being limiting on the present invention , and further , with reference to the figures . fig1 : tram was cloned from cdna using ( a ) primers tram - n ( seq id no : 2 ) and tram - c ( seq id no : 3 ), targeting the 5 ′ and 3 ′ ends of tram , respectively , and ( b ) the rsulting pcr product was cloned into several vectors , ( c ) site directed mutagenesis was performed using specific primers 4ser ( seq id no : 4 ) and 4serrev ( seq id no : 5 ) to mutate the first 4 serines in tram to alanines and specific primers ser 16 ( seq id no : 6 ) and ser16rev ( seq id no : 7 ) to mutate the serine at position 16 alone to an alanine . fig2 : ( a ) gst - tram is phosphorylated upon incubation with thp1 lysates that have been treated with lps for varying lengths of time . ( b ) this phosphorylation of tram does not occur when the cells are treated with polyi : c . ( c ) this lps - dependent phosphorylation is abolished when the first 4 serines of tram are mutated to alanines . ( d ) following gst - tram pulldowns with lysates from thp1 cells treated for 30 min with lps , the samples were incubated with increasing amounts of the pan pkc inhibitor , bisindolylmaleimide ( bis ), for 1 hour . this caused a decrease in the phosphorylation of tram . ( e ) immunodepletion of the thp1 lysates was performed using a pkcε antibody , a pkcζ antibody or an igg control antibody prior to incubation with the gst - tram . removal of pkcε from the lysates prevented lps - dependent phosphorylation of tram . ( f ) lysates taken from pkcε - deficient mefs cannot phosphorylate gst - tram while mefs reconstituted with pkcζ can . ( g ) recombinant pkcε ( repkcε ) or pkcζ ( repkcζ ) was incubated directly with gst - tram for 15 minutes prior to a kinase assay being performed . repkcε phosphorylated wt - tram but not mal . fig3 : ( a ) when the serine at position 16 is mutated to an alanine , gst - tram can no longer be phosphorylated following incubation with thp1 lysates . ( b ) pcdna3 . 1 alone ( ev ), wt - tram / pcdna3 . 1 and ser16 - tram / pcdna3 . 1 were all transfected into hek293 cells seeded in 96 - well plates . the nf - κb or isre - luciferase reporter gene and the renilla luciferase internal control plasmid were also transfected in . 24 hours later the reporter gene activity was measured and the data expressed as mean fold stimulation relative to control levels . the graph shows that wt - tram can activate both the nf - κb and isre pathways while the ser16 - tram mutant cannot activate either pathway . ( c ) a similar experiment was then carried out in hek293 - tlr4 cells and 24 hours post transfection the cells were incubated with and without lps ( 1 μg / ml ) for 6 hours . the results show that wt - tram increases the ability of lps to activate both nf - κb and isre while the ser16 - tram mutant acts as a dominant negative and reduces the ability of lps to stimulate nf - kb and isre . ( d ) hek293 cells were incubated with and without the pkc inhibitor , bisindolylmaleimide ( bis ), for 1 hour prior to transfection with pcdna3 . 1 , myd88 / pcdna3 . 1 or wt - tram / pcdna3 . 1 and the nf - κb - luciferase reporter gene and renilla luciferase internal control plasmid . the inhibitor had no effect on the ability of myd88 to activate the nf - κb pathway but it inhibited the ability of tram to activate this pathway . fig4 shows that tram is phosphorylated on the serine 16 residue . ( a ) hek293 - tlr4 cells overexpressing flag - tagged tram were stimulated with 1 μg / ml lps for 30 min . flag - tagged tram was immunoprecipitated using an antibody to flag and blotted with a phosphoserine antibody . ( b ) thp1 cells incubated with and without the pkc inhibitor bis for 1 hour prior to stimulation with lps , ( c ) pkcε −/− mefs and pkcε −/− mefs that had been reconstituted with pkcε following stimulation with 1 μg / ml lps for the indicated lengths of time and ( d ) pkcε −/− mefs and pkcε −/− mefs that had been reconstituted with pkcε following stimulation with lps , polyi : c or malp2 for 30 minutes . fig5 shows that tram and pkcε are both essential for complete lps signaling . ( a ) cells from pkcε −/− mefs and pkcε −/− mefs that had been reconstituted with pkcε ( top four panels ) or tram −/− mefs and wt mefs ( bottom four panels ) were stimulated for the indicated times with 1 μg / ml lps or 5 μg / ml polyi : c and the lysates were immunoblotted for phosphorylated ( tyr 180 / 182 ) and total p38 . ( b )— pkcε −/− mefs and pkcε −/− mefs that had been reconstituted with pkcε were treated with 1 μg / ml lps or 5 μg / ml polyi : c for the indicated times , run on a non - reducing page gel and immunoblotted for irf3 . ( c ) the isre luciferase reporter gene and the control renilla luciferase reporter gene were transfected into the above cell types . 24 hours post - transfection the cells were stimulated with 1 μg / ml lps or 5 μg / ml polyi : c for 6 hours . the data represents mean fold stimulation of luciferase activity relative to control levels . ( d ), ( e ) the above cell types were stimulated with the indicated concentrations of lps or polyi : c for 24 hours and then a rantes elisa was performed . results shown are representative of at least three experiments . fig6 : trams16a is attenuated relative to wt tram in reconstituting tram - deficient mefs . wt tram , trams16a and empty vector were transfected into tram - deficient mefs . 24 hours post transfection . ( a ) cells were stimulated with lps ( 1 μg / ml ) for a further 24 h and the culture supernatants were assayed for rantes by elisa . ( b ) cells were stimulated with lps ( 1 μg / ml ) for 30 minutes and the lysates were assayed for p38 by western blot . results shown are representative of at least three experiments . fig7 shows that the amount of tram present in the membrane fraction was decreased upon lps stimulation suggesting that tram is disappearing from the membrane . fig8 shows when the serine 16 residue was mutated to a glutamic acid , this mutation caused a significant decrease in the amount of tram present in the membrane ( fig8 a , compare lane 3 to 1 ) suggesting that the phosphorylation of tram on serine 16 causes depletion of tram from the membrane , and further that depletion of endogenous tram in thp1 cells treated with lps ( fig8 b ) was also detected , and further that pkcε −/− mefs flag - tram did not become depleted from the membrane upon lps stimulation ( fig8 c ). this evidence suggests that the phosphorylation of tram on serine 16 by pkcε is required for tram to be depleted from the membrane . cells : hek293 cells and hek293 cells stably transfected with tlr4 ( hek293 - tlr4 ) were cultured in dulbecco &# 39 ; s modified eagles medium ( dmem ) supplemented with 10 % fetal calf serum ( fcs ), 100 units / ml penicillin , 100 mg / ml streptomycin and 2 mm glutamine . thp1 cells were cultured in rpmi supplemented with 10 % fcs , 100 units / ml penicillin , 100 mg / ml streptomycin and 2 mm glutamine . reverse transcriptase - polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ): cdna was generated using spleen mrna ( bd biosciences ) as a template . 1 - 5 μg rna was incubated with 0 . 1 μg random primers and brought to a final volume of 5 μl with depc - treated water . this was incubated at 70 ° c . for 10 min and then 4 ° c . for 2 min . reverse transcription was carried out using the moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase ( mmlv - rt ) enzyme . 4 μl 5 × buffer ( 250 mm triscl ph 8 . 3 , 375 mm kcl and 15 mm mgcl 2 ) was added along with 2 μl 100 mm dtt , 1 μl rnasin ( 40 unit / ml ), 1 μl 10 mm dntp , 1 μl mmlv - rt ( 200 unit / μl ) and 6 μl depc - treated water . this reaction was incubated at 37 ° c . for 1 hour and then 95 ° c . for 2 min to inactivate the enzyme . 5 μl of this reaction was used as a template for a pcr reaction using specific primers to the 5 ′ and 3 ′ ends of tram . 1 × dna polymerase buffer ( 1 mm triscl ph 9 . 0 , 5 mm kcl and 0 . 01 % triton ® x - 100 ), 0 . 2 mm of each dntp , 2 . 5 u taq dna polymerase , 0 . 5 μm of each specific oligonucleotide primer and 0 . 5 - 3 mm mgcl 2 were added to the template dna and the reaction mix was made up to a final volume of 50 μl using pcr grade water . 30 cycles of 94 ° c . for 1 min , 55 ° c . for 1 min and 72 ° c . for 2 min were performed in a thermal cycler . the pcr products were analysed by agarose gel electrophoresis . cloning of tram into a gst expression vector and a mammalian expression vector : the tram pcr product was ligated into the pgex - kg vector ( pharmacia ) and into the pcdna3 . 1 vector ( invitrogen ). firstly , the pcr product and vector were digested in separate reactions . 5 - 10 unit restriction endonuclease ( neb ), 1 × restriction enzyme buffer , ± 1 × bsa and 1 - 10 μg dna were made up to 10 μl with sterile water and incubated at 37 ° c . for 2 hours . the digested products were then purified using a pcr purification kit ( qiagen ). a ligation reaction consisting of 1 unit t4 dna ligase ( 1 unit / μl ) ( promega ), 2 μl t4 10 × reaction buffer , 100 - 150 ng digested vector dna and 200 - 400 ng digested pcr product , was made up to 20 μl with sterile water . this ligation mixture was left overnight at 4 ° c . and then transformed into bl21 ( de3 ) cells ( stratagene ). site directed mutagenesis of tram : the quickchange ® site directed mutagenesis kit ( stratagene ) was used to mutate certain bases in the tram gene . the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions were followed using primers containing the desired mutation . expression and purification of gst - tram : the bl21 ( de3 ) containing the tram - pgex vector were grown overnight at 37 ° c . in 10 ml lb broth in a shaking incubator . the next day the 10 ml was placed in 500 ml lb broth and grown to an od of 0 . 6 - 0 . 8 . iptg was added to the culture to a final concentration of 0 . 2 mm and this culture was incubated at 30 ° c . for a further 4 hours . the culture was then spun down in a gsa rotor in a sorvall rc5c centrifuge at 8 , 000 rpm for 15 min . the pellet was resuspended in 25 ml of netn buffer ( 20 mm tris - cl , 100 mm nacl , 1 mm edta , 0 . 5 % np40 , 10 μg / ml leupeptin , 10 μg / ml pepstatin , 1 mm pmsf , ph 8 . 0 ), sonicated for 5 min using a sonicator ( branson sonifer 250 ) and centrifuged at 18 , 000 rpm for 45 min . the supernatant was added to 6001 glutathione sepharose beads ( amersham ) and incubated at 4 ° c . for 2 hours . the beads were then washed 5 times in 15 ml netn buffer and resuspended in 600 μl netn buffer . luciferase reporter gene assays : hek293 or hek293 - tlr4 cells were seeded in 96 well plates at a density of 1 × 10 5 cells / ml . the following day the cells were transfected with the luciferase reporter plasmid of choice and the expression vectors of choice using genejuice ( novagen ), following the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . for experiments involving the detection of nf - κb and irf3 activation , 80 ng of the nf - κb or irse - luciferase reporter gene ( stratagene ) were transfected into the cells along with 40 ng of the renilla luciferase internal control plasmid ( stratagene ). after 24 hours the cells were lysed in passive lysis buffer ( promega ) and reporter gene activity was measured using a luminometer . the data was expressed as mean fold stimulation relative to control levels . kinase assay : thp1 cells were seeded at 2 × 10 5 cells / ml in a t175 flask ( sarstedt ) and incubated overnight at 37 ° c . the following day 30 ml of cells were treated with and without lps in 50 ml falcon tubes ( sarstedt ) for 1 hour . the cells were collected by centrifugation , washed once in pbs and lysed in 1 ml buffer ( 10 % glycerol ( v / v ), 50 mm naf , 20 mm tris - cl ph 8 . 0 , 2 mm edta , 137 mm nacl , 1 % np - 40 , 1 mm pmsf , 10 μg / ml leupeptin , 1 mm na 3 vo 4 ) for 10 minutes . the cell debris was centrifuged for 10 min at 13 , 000 rpm and the supernatant was removed to a fresh tube for use in the kinase assay . 50 μl of the purified gst - tram on the glutathione beads was placed in an eppendorf tube and the appropriate lysate was added to the tube and incubated for 2 hours at 4 ° c . the beads were spun down at 2 , 000 rpm for 5 min and then washed three times in kinase buffer ( 20 mm hepes , ph 7 . 5 , 10 mm mgac , 0 . 03 % trition , 100 μg / ml phosphotidylserine , 20 mm β - glycerol phosphate , 0 . 01 % ( w / v ) leupeptin and 100 μm na 3 vo 4 ). these beads were then resuspended in 30 μl kinase buffer containing 20 μm cold atp and 5 μci [ γ 32 p ] atp and incubated at 37 ° c . for 30 min . 20 μl sample buffer ( 50 mm tris - cl , ph 6 . 8 , 10 % glycerol ( v / v ), 2 % sds ( w / v ), 0 . 1 % bromophenol blue ( w / v ) and 5 % β - mercaptoethanol ) was added to the tube and the sample was boiled for 5 mins . the sample was then run on a 10 % sds - page gel and transferred to nitrocellulose . the nitrocellulose was placed in a autorad cassette ( kodak ) and an piece of x - ray film was placed on top . this was left at − 80 ° c . overnight and the film was then developed . membrane fractionation : hek293 - tlr4 cells were seeded at 1 × 10 5 cells / ml overnight and then transfected with the appropriate plasmids . 24 hrs post - transfection the cells were treated as directed in the results section and then scrapped into 300 μl of membrane buffer ( 20 mm tris , ph 7 . 5 , 10 mm mgcl 2 , 1 mm edta , 250 μm sucrose , 200 μm pmsf ). the cells were lysed using 30 strokes of a dounce homogenizer and spun in hardwall beckman tubes at 100 , 000 rpm for 1 hr at 4 ° c . the supernatant , i . e . the cytosolic fraction , was removed to a fresh tube and the pellet , i . e . the membrane fraction , was resuspended in 50 μl sample buffer ( 50 mm tris - cl , ph 6 . 8 , 10 % glycerol ( v / v ), 2 % sds ( w / v ), 0 . 1 % bromophenol blue ( w / v ) and 5 % β - mercaptoethanol ). the cytosolic fraction was concentrated down to 50 μl using a centricon ym - 10 ( millipore ). the samples were run on a 12 % sds - page gel . fabgennix ( texas , usa ), using a synthetic peptide corresponding to amino acids 7 to 21 of tram ( kin scp lsl swg krh ) with a phosphoserine incorporated instead of the serine at amino acid 16 , generated and purified a phospho - specific antibody towards tram phosphorylated on serine 16 . the validity of the antibody was confirmed when the band predicted to the phosphorylated tram was not present in samples taken from tram - deficient mefs ( data not shown ). the indicated cells were seeded at 1 × 10 5 cells / ml overnight in 24 well plates and then transfected with the appropriate plasmids . 24 hours post - transfection the cells were treated with the appropriate stimuli for 24 hours . using a 1 in 5 dilution of the supernatant as the sample , a rantes elisa was performed , using the r & amp ; d systems &# 39 ; mouse rantes kit , following the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . the appropriate cells were seeded at 2 × 10 5 cells / ml overnight and then treated with the appropriate stimuli . the cells were washed in pbs and scrapped into 100 μl non - reducing sample buffer ( 50 mm tris - cl , ph 6 . 8 , 10 % glycerol ( v / v ), 0 . 1 % bromophenol blue ( w / v ) and 5 % β - mercaptoethanol ). 20 μl of this was run on a non - reducing page gel , transferred onto nitrocellulose and blotted for irf3 . cloning of the tram gene and generation of mutants : the cdna sequence from tram was retrieved from genebank ( accession number nm — 021649 ). specific primers to the 5 ′ and 3 ′ end of tram ( fig1 a ) were used to amplify up the tram cdna using mrna generated from the spleen ( fig1 b ). this cdna was cloned into the pgex - kg vector to allow for expression of a gst - tram fusion protein in bacteria . it was also cloned into the mammalian expression vector pcdna3 . 1 . to generate mutants of tram site directed mutagenesis was performed . primers were designed ( fig1 c ) to allow for the mutation of the serines at position 6 , 10 , 14 and 16 ( called 4ser mutant ). primers were also designed to mutate serine 16 alone ( called ser16 mutant ). tram is phosphorylated upon lps stimulation : tram is myristoylated , and in resting cells is located in the membrane ( unpublished data ). several myristoylated proteins undergo an electrostatic switch which involves them being phosphorylated and repelled from the membrane . an assay was therefore devised to determine if tram was phosphorylated . purified gst - tram on glutathione beads was incubated for 2 hours with lysates from thp1 cells , that had been treated with and without lps . the samples were then centrifuged causing gst - tram on the glutathione beads , along with any proteins it interacted with , to be pulled down . a kinase assay was then performed , by incubating the beads with [ γ 32 p ] atp for 30 minutes . the samples were then run on a 10 % sds - page gel , transferred onto nitrocellulose and the incorporated radioactivity was measured using x - ray film . the results ( fig2 a ) show that tram is indeed phosphorylated and that this phosphorylation is lps dependent . this phosphorylation did not occur when the cells were treated with other stimuli , such as polyi : c ( fig2 b ). 4 serines closest to the n terminus were identified . these 4 serines were subsequently mutated . following this mutation , lps dependent phosphorylation was abolished ( fig2 c ). protein kinase c has been shown to phosphorylate the myristoylated protein , marcks , so to investigate if tram was phosphorylated by pkc , the pan pkc inhibitor bisindolylmaleimide ( bis ) was used . as above , gst - tram was incubated with lysates from thp1 cells , treated with lps and was pulled down using glutathione beads . increasing amounts of bis were added to the beads for 1 hour and then the kinase assay was performed as above . bis inhibited lps dependent phosphorylation of tram ( fig2 c ). this strongly indicated that a member of the pkc kinase family was responsible for phosphorylation of tram in response to lps . immunodepletion of the thp1 lysates was perform by incubating the lysates with a pkcε specific antibody ( santa cruz ) attached to protein g beads ( sigma ). a pkc zeta ( pkcζ ) antibody was used as a control to check for specificity . the antibody was removed by centrifugation , removing pkcε or pkcζ from the lysates . a control igg antibody was also used . these lysates were then incubated with gst - tram as above and a kinase assay was performed . fig2 e shows that the removal of pkcε from the lysates abolishes the phosphorylation of tram . this suggests that pkcε is phosphorylating tram in response to lps . the removal of pkcζ had no effect on the phosphorylation of tram suggesting that pkcζ does not phosphorylate tram . this theory was further strengthened by the fact that recombinant pkcε ( repkcε ) ( calbiochem ) phosphorylated gst - tram ( fig2 g ) and lysates from pkcε - deficient mefs could not phosphorylate gst - tram ( fig2 f ). recombinant pkcζ did not phosphorylate tram again suggesting specificity ( fig2 g ). serine 16 is a candidate for pkcε phosphorylation so we mutated serine 16 to an alanine and found that the lps dependent phosphorylation of tram was severally impaired ( fig3 a ). as the serine at position 16 is the only one of four serines that is conserved in the mouse , this serine was mutated . lps dependent phosphorylation of tram was severally impaired ( fig3 a ). to investigate if this phosphorylation of tram was essential for it to function properly , the serine at position 16 was mutated to an alanine and the ability of this mutant to drive the nf - κb and irf3 pathways was investigated . wt - tram or the ser16 - tram were transfected into hek293 cells along with either the nf - κb or isre - luciferase reporter gene . as shown previously , tram can drive both nf - κb and isre luciferase . however , when the serine 16 was mutated tram could no longer activate either pathway ( fig3 b ). mutating the serine 16 also reduced the ability of lps to stimulate the nf - κb and isre pathways ( fig3 c ). this mutant must act as a dominant negative on these pathways . further evidence that phosphorylation of tram by pkc is essential for it to function correctly is the fact that the pkc inhibitor , bisindolylmaleimide , inhibits the ability of tram to activate the nf - κb pathway but has no effect on myd88 ( fig3 d ). this evidence suggests that serine 16 needs to be phosphorylated by pkcε for tram to function properly . in order to confirm that phosphorylation of the serine 16 residue was sufficient to allow tram to leave the membrane , the serine 16 residue was mutated to a glutamic acid . the resulting mutant ( ser16glu ) served as a positive glycosylation control , wherein the glutamic acid residue mimics the serine residue when it is in a glycosylated state . this mutation caused a significant decrease in the amount of tram present in the membrane ( fig8 a , compare lane 3 to 1 ) suggesting that the phosphorylation of tram on serine 16 causes depletion of tram from the membrane . depletion of endogenous tram in thp1 cells treated with lps ( fig8 b ) was also detected . finally , in pkcε −/− mefs flag - tram did not become depleted from the membrane upon lps stimulation ( fig8 c ). this evidence suggests that the phosphorylation of tram on serine 16 by pkcε is required for tram to be depleted from the membrane . we tested phosphorylation of overexpressed tram using a phosphoserine antibody . hek293 - tlr4 cells transfected with flag - tram and stimulated with lps . flag - tram was immunoprecipitated from the cells and lysates were blotted with an anti - phosphoserine antibody . as can be see from fig4 a , tram showed an increase in serine phosphorylation in cells treated with lps for 30 minutes . in order to establish whether endogenous tram is phosphorylated on serine 16 by pkcε , an antibody was raised to a synthetic peptide comprising of amino acid 7 to 21 of tram with a phosphoserine inserted instead of a serine at amino acid 16 . immunoblotting lysates from thp1 cells treated with lps , showed tram phosphorylation on serine 16 appearing after 15 minutes and peaking at 45 minutes ( fig4 b , lane 1 - 6 ). incubation of these cells with the pkc inhibitor bis for 1 hr prior to stimulation with lps prevented the phosphorylation of tram ( fig4 b , lane 7 - 12 ). immunoblotting of lysates from pkcε −/− mefs reconstituted with pkcε , treated with lps for 15 and 30 minutes , revealed a band of the correct molecular weight as tram ( fig4 c , top panel , lane 9 and 10 ). the phosphorylation occurred earlier in this cell type than the thp1 cells as the effect was waning by 45 minutes ( lane 11 ) and was not evident at 60 minutes ( lane 12 ). levels of total tram were not altered in the lysates over the time course ( fig4 c , second panel ). importantly no band was detected in lysates generated from pkcε −/− mefs ( fig4 c , top panel , lane 1 - 6 ) and no bands were detected in tram - deficient cells attesting to the specificity of the antibody ( data not shown ). finally treatment of pkcε expressing mefs with the tlr2 ligand malp2 or the tlr3 ligand polyi : c for 30 minutes had no effect ( fig4 d ). tram - dependent signaling in pkcε −/− mefs was then tested . in both tram −/− mefs and pkcε −/− mefs the phosphorylation of p38 in cells treated with lps was significantly reduced in comparison to their corresponding wild - type mefs ( fig5 a top panel compare lanes 9 - 11 to 3 - 5 ). importantly , there was no reduction in p38 phosphorylation in response to polyi : c in pkcε −/− mefs or tram −/− mefs ( fig5 a panel 3 , compare right and left hand sides ). we also tested the activation of irf3 by lps as indicated by its dimerisation . irf3 dimerisation induced by lps was reduced in pkcε −/− mef relative to mefs expressing pkcε ( fig5 b , compare lane 2 and 3 to lane 4 and 5 ). there was no reduction in irf3 dimerisation in pkcε −/− mef in response to polyi : c ( fig5 c , compare lane 2 and 3 to lane 4 and 5 ). as shown by yamamoto et al . this response was also impaired in tram - deficient mefs in response to lps but not polyi : c . activation of an irf3 - linked reporter gene was tested and this was impaired in lps - treated pkcε −/− mefs but was normal in polyi : c - treated pkcε −/− mefs ( fig5 c , right panel ). similar results were obtained in tram - deficient mefs . induction of rantes was then assessed as a readout for the tram pathway . in tram −/− mefs the levels of rantes produced in response to lps stimulation was dramatically reduced in comparison to the corresponding wild type mefs ( fig5 d , left panel ). the levels of rantes production in response to polyi : c was not affected ( fig5 d , right panel ). importantly , this response was also impaired in pkcε −/− cells . as shown in fig5 e ( left panel ), induction of rantes by lps was impaired relative to pkcε expressing cells . there was no difference in the response to polyi : c when both cells types were compared ( fig5 e , right panel ). as the production of rantes is a marker associated with the tram signalling pathway , the impairment in its production in pkcε −/− cells and tram −/− mefs cells further supports the observation that tram must be phosphorylated by protein kinase c epsilon and that this phosphorylation is essential for its function . the clear impairment in tram - dependent responses following lps treatment in pkcε −/− cells , with the same responses being intact in polyi : c - treated cells , coupled with impaired signaling by trams16a , strongly suggested that tram phosphorylation by pkcε is essential for tram function . to provide further evidence for this we examined the ability of trams16a to reconstitute signaling in tram - deficient mefs . treatment of wild type mefs with lps , induced rantes production while treatment of tram −/− mefs with lps caused little or no induction of rantes production ( fig6 a ). the response of the tram - deficient cells could be reconstituted with wild type tram . significantly , trams16a was less capable of reconstituting the signal however similarly , the phosphorylation of p38 in tram - deficient cells upon lps stimulation was reconstituted with overexpression of wt tram . trams16a could not reconstitute this signal ( fig6 b ). it is therefore concluded that phosphorylation of serine 16 by protein kinase c epsilon must be required for tram to function normally upon lps stimulation . levels of tram in the membrane are reduced upon lps stimulation the myristoylation of tram promotes membrane localization . it is known that certain myristoylated proteins dissociate from the membrane upon phosphorylation . it was further investigated whether phosphorylation of tram by pkcε would cause a redistribution of tram . flag - tram / pcdna3 . 1 was transfected into hek293 - tlr4 cells and these cells were then stimulated with or without lps for 30 minutes . the cells were fractionated into membrane and cytosolic fractions . the amount of tram present in the membrane fraction was decreased upon lps stimulation suggesting that tram is disappearing from the membrane ( fig7 a , top panel compare lane 3 to lane 1 ). tram could not be detected in the cytosolic fraction . this was not due to degradation , since the levels of tram in the cell lysates remained constant ( fig7 a , third panel ). the depletion of tram from the membrane was pkcε dependent , since the addition of the pkc inhibitor bis 1 hour prior to lps stimulation caused flag - tram to remain in the membrane even after lps stimulation ( fig7 a , lane 7 ). when tested for depletion of trams16a , no depletion from the membrane was observed ( fig7 a , second panel ). depletion of endogenous tram in thp1 cells treated with lps ( fig7 b ) was also detected . finally , in pkcε −/− mefs flag - tram did not become depleted from the membrane upon lps stimulation ( fig7 c ). this evidence suggests that the phosphorylation of tram on serine 16 by pkcε is required for tram to be depleted from the membrane . tram acts as a bridging adaptor between tlr4 and trif and plays a vital role in the signalling cascade activated by lps . tram is myristoylated and this allows it to associate with the plasma membrane . tram is also phosphorylated . in response to lps , tram becomes phosphorylated and this can be measured in - vitro using a kinase assay described here . this phosphorylation is vital for tram to function normally and may be involved in an electrostatic switch , allowing tram to move out of the membrane . all documents referred to in this specification are herein incorporated by reference . various modifications and variations to the described embodiments of the inventions will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention . although the invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments , it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments . indeed , various modifications of the described modes of carrying out the invention which are obvious to those skilled in the art are intended to be covered by the present invention . 1 . janeway , c . a ., jr ., medzhitov , r ., 2002 . annu rev immunol 20 , 197 - 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