Role of vav1- and src-related tyrosine kinases in macrophage activation by CpG DNA

Macrophage activation by CpG DNA requires toll-like receptor 9 and the adaptor protein MyD88. Gram-negative bacterial lipopolysaccharide also activates macrophages via a toll-like receptor pathway (TLR-4), but we and others have reported that lipopolysaccharide also stimulates tyrosine phosphorylation in macrophages. Herein we report that exposure of RAW 264.7 murine macrophages to CpG DNA (but not non-CpG DNA) provoked the rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of vav1. PP1, a selective inhibitor of src-related tyrosine kinases, blocked both the CpG DNA-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation of vav1 and the CpG DNA-mediated up-regulation of macrophage tumor necrosis factor secretion and inducible nitric-oxide synthase protein accumulation. Furthermore, we found that the inducible expression of any of three dominant interfering mutants of vav1 (a truncated protein, vavC; a form containing a point mutation in the regulatory tyrosine residue, vavYF174; and a form with an in-frame deletion of six amino acids required for the guanidine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity of vav1 for rac family GTPases, vavGEFmt) consistently inhibited CpG DNA-mediated up-regulation of tumor necrosis factor secretion and inducible nitric-oxide synthase protein accumulation in RAW-TT10 macrophages. Finally, we determined that CpG DNA-mediated up-regulation of NF-kappaB activity (but not mitogen-activated protein kinase activation) was inhibited by preincubation with PP1 or by expression of the truncated vavC mutant. Taken together, our results indicate that the tyrosine phosphorylation of vav1 by a src-related tyrosine kinase or kinases plays an important role in the macrophage response to CpG DNA.