p38MAPK, Rho/ROCK and PKC pathways are involved in influenza-induced cytoskeletal rearrangement and hyperpermeability in PMVEC via phosphorylating ERM

• Influenza virus induced ERM phosphorylation and permeability increases in PMVEC.
• p38MAPK, Rho/ROCK and PKC pathways are involved in influenza virus-induced ERM phosphorylation.
• p38MAPK, Rho/ROCK and PKC pathways are responsible for influenza virus-induced hypermeability.

Severe influenza infections are featured by acute lung injury, a syndrome of pulmonary microvascular leak. A growing number of evidences have shown that the pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVEC) are critical target of influenza virus, promoting microvascular leak. It is reported that there are multiple mechanisms by which influenza virus could elicit increased pulmonary endothelial permeability, in both direct and indirect manners. Ezrin/radixin/moesin family proteins, the linkers between plasma membrane and actin cytoskeleton, have been reported to be involved in cell adhesion, motility and may modulate endothelial permeability. Studies have also shown that ERM is phosphorylated in response to various stimuli via p38MAPK, Rho/ROCK or PKC pathways. However, it is unclear that whether influenza infection could induce ERM phosphorylation and its relocalization. In the present study, we have found that there are cytoskeletal reorganization and permeability increases in the course of influenza virus infection, accompanied by upregulated levels of p-ERM. p-ERM's aggregation along the periphery of PMVEC upon influenza virus infection was detected via confocal microscopy. Furthermore, we sought to determine the role of p38MAPK, Rho/ROCK and PKC pathways in ERM phosphorylation as well as their involvement in influenza virus-induced endothelial malfunction. The activation of p38MAPK, Rho/ROCK and PKC pathways upon influenza virus stimulation were observed, as evidenced by the evaluation of phosphorylated p38 (p-p38), phosphorylated MKK (p-MKK) in p38MAPK pathway, ROCK1 in Rho/ROCK pathway and phosphorylated PKC (p-PKC) in PKC pathway. We also showed that virus-induced ERM phosphorylation was reduced by using p38MAPK inhibitor, SB203580 (20 μM), Rho/ROCK inhibitor, Y27632 (20 μM), PKC inhibitor, LY317615 (10 μM). Additionally, influenza virus-induced F-actin reorganization and hyperpermeability were attenuated by pretreatment with SB203580, Y27632 and LY317615. Taken together, we provide the first evidence that p38MAPK, Rho/ROCK and PKC are involved in influenza-induced cytoskeletal changes and permeability increases in PMVEC via phosphorylating ERM.