Transcriptome and Literature Mining Highlight the Differential Expression of ERLIN1 in Immune Cells during Sepsis

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Sepsis is a disease affecting 19 million people worldwide, and accounts for 5 million deaths annually. Efforts in finding predictive markers of sepsis development have been difficult due to the complex clinical features of the disease. Public data repositories are valuable resources for mining gene expression changes across different studies. Using such resources, we observed a consistent increase in ERLIN1—a gene coding for an ER membrane prohibitin and regulator of cholesterol—in whole blood, and across a variety of immune cells, during sepsis or sepsis-like conditions. We verified this finding by exposing the whole blood of healthy volunteers to a combination of lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan in order to simulate sepsis. We observed an increase in ERLIN1 in whole-blood neutrophils and HL60 cell lines during sepsis; however, the protein was expressed differently in other immune blood cells. The current available studies on ERLIN1 and sepsis indicate a knowledge gap between the functions of ERLIN1, calcium balance, and cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis, and sepsis. Together with experimental data, we think that ERLIN1 is modulated differently in immune cells in response to infection, and has important implications for ER functions and/or ER membrane protein components during sepsis. ABSTRACT: Sepsis results from the dysregulation of the host immune system. This highly variable disease affects 19 million people globally, and accounts for 5 million deaths annually. In transcriptomic datasets curated from public repositories, we observed a consistent upregulation (3.26–5.29 fold) of ERLIN1—a gene coding for an ER membrane prohibitin and a regulator of inositol 1, 4, 5-trisphosphate receptors and sterol regulatory element-binding proteins—under septic conditions in healthy neutrophils, monocytes, and whole blood. In vitro expression of the ERLIN1 gene and proteins was measured by stimulating the whole blood of healthy volunteers to a combination of lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan. Septic stimulation induced a significant increase in ERLIN1 expression; however, ERLIN1 was differentially expressed among the immune blood cell subsets. ERLIN1 was uniquely increased in whole blood neutrophils, and confirmed in the differentiated HL60 cell line. The scarcity of ERLIN1 in sepsis literature indicates a knowledge gap between the functions of ERLIN1, calcium homeostasis, and cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthesis, and sepsis. In combination with experimental data, we bring forth the hypothesis that ERLIN1 is variably modulated among immune cells in response to cellular perturbations, and has implications for ER functions and/or ER membrane protein components during sepsis.