THP-1 Cells and Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Production: An In Vitro Tool for Functional Characterization of NOD1/NOD2 Antagonists

THP-1 cells express high levels of native functional nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 1 (NOD1), NOD2, and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) receptors, and have often been used for investigating the immunomodulatory effects of small molecules. We postulated that they would represent an ideal cell-based model for our study, the aim of which was to develop a new in vitro tool for functional characterization of NOD antagonists. NOD antagonists were initially screened for their effect on NOD agonist-induced interleukin-8 (IL-8) release. Next, we examined the extent to which the selected NOD antagonists block the NOD-TLR4 synergistic crosstalk by measuring the effect of NOD antagonism on tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) secretion from doubly activated THP-1 cells. Overall, the results obtained indicate that pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion from THP-1 provides a valuable, simple and reproducible in vitro tool for functional characterization of NOD antagonists.