Background
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of mortality worldwide. It is a disabling condition resulting from damage inflicted by noxious particles and gases, mainly from cigarette smoke leading to airway remodeling and poorly-reversible airflow obstruction [
1]. COPD patients are often prone to episodes of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD), which drive the disease and are associated with higher mortality risks, decreased quality of life, accelerated loss of lung function and enormous health care costs [
2].
COPD is seriously complicated by bacterial and viral infections. Bacteria, viruses and co-infection with both, have been shown to be important in precipitating AECOPD, with viruses being detected in 40 to 60% in PCR-based studies [
3]. Viral infections are also associated with more severe exacerbations [
4]. Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) make up approximately 50% of all viruses isolated from COPD patients [
5]. The viral load at AECOPD is significantly higher than in the stable state [
6]. The sputum viral load correlates with sputum neutrophilia and interleukin-8 levels [
7], i.e., the activation of innate inflammation.
Respiratory tract epithelium is the primary target for viral pathogens. Attachment of most HRV serotypes to bronchial and alveolar airway epithelial cells is mediated by intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1; CD54), in more than 60%, and is essential for host-cell entry, while low-density-lipoprotein receptor and related molecules are receptors for only 10% of HRV serotypes [
8]. ICAM-1 is a member of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily that contains five Ig-like domains, a transmembrane domain, and a short cytoplasmic tail [
9]; it is expressed constitutively on a wide variety of cells (including respiratory epithelial cells), but generally at a low basal level [
10], and further inducible by the inflammatory mediators [
11]. Physiologically, ICAM-1 plays a key role in stabilizing cell-cell interactions and it also facilitates leukocyte per-endothelial transmigration from blood into inflamed tissues [
12].
Exposure of small-airway epithelial cells from physiologically normal smokers to cigarette smoke causes increased cell ICAM-1 expression [
13]. Clinical studies have demonstrated elevated level of serum (soluble) ICAM-1 in COPD-smokers compared to non-COPD active smokers [
14]. HRV itself up-regulates membrane-bound ICAM-1 expression via a NF-κβ-dependent mechanism [
15]. However, the expression of ICAM-1 has not been directly investigated in large or small airways in COPD patients, which could be crucial for understanding their susceptibility to viral infections and the natural history of COPD. Anti-ICAM-1 antibody has been shown to inhibit major group HRV replication in vitro, as well as HRV-induced inflammation and lung virus RNA levels in a mice model [
16].
Although most attention has been on HRV, ICAM-1 may serve as an adhesion molecule for
Haemophilus influenzae (via bacterial P5 fimbriae), which is the main bacterial pathogen in COPD [
17]. Thus, ICAM-1 is an attractive target to block not only virus-receptor binding, but also to check ICAM-1-mediated NTHi adhesion to respiratory cells.
In the present study, we have taken a new direction for human work, and test the potential for clinical relevance of some of these previous observations. We have investigated whether ICAM-1 expression is upregulated in the epithelium of airways, and alveoli, in both “normal” smokers and in patients with airflow obstruction.
Discussion
This is the first comprehensive report of increased ICAM-1 protein expression in epithelium of both the large and small airways in smokers but especially in patients with chronic airflow limitation. This group consisted both of frank COPD plus individuals with small airway obstruction only, but we combined them because their data were very similar. There was some up-regulation in the alveolar epithelium, but this was less marked than in the airways, and uniform between smokers and all CAL groups. We also found increased ICAM-1 expression in goblet cells in large airway epithelium from smokers and CAL, but more marked in CAL. Moreover, ICAM-1 expression, both at the mRNA and protein level, was upregulated in cultured bronchial epithelial cells exposed to cigarette smoke extract. These findings, taken as a whole, may be crucial for understanding the vulnerability of smokers and especially patients with airflow obstruction to airway infections, specifically with HRV and NTHi, although for the latter, platelet-activating factor receptor (PAFr) upregulation may be of even greater importance [
18,
19].
Clinical relevance of increased ICAM-1 expression in the pathogenesis of smoking-related airway diseases including COPD has been suggested previously, but mainly through indirect data, as discussed in introduction [
13,
25]. Moreover, higher ICAM-1 protein expression was reported in the basal cells of bronchial epithelium from individuals with “bronchitis”, compared to normal individuals [
26], but sputum concentrations of sICAM-1 did not significantly correlate with FEV
1 [
27]. Systemically, serum-sICAM-1 was higher in COPD patients than either non-smoking healthy subjects or smokers without COPD [
28]. Additionally, higher concentrations of serum sICAM-1 in COPD did relate with worsening spirometry [
29]. However, in contrast, Noguera et al. showed lower serum levels of sICAM-1 in patients with stable COPD than in healthy non-smokers [
30]. In our study, we did not find any correlation between cellular ICAM-1-expression in the airway and either age or lung function in the CAL group, but ICAM-1 expression in both the large and small airways was significantly correlated with smoking history, with a wide range of pack-years represented.
HRV has been detected in lower airway specimens such as sputum from children with wheezy bronchitis [
31], and brushed cells from allergic volunteers experimentally infected with RV16 [
32] by RT-PCR and culture. Moreover, compared with normal control, cultured airway epithelial cells from patients with COPD showed increased susceptibility to RV infection, and also higher levels of mRNAs encoding ICAM-1 [
33]. In normal primary human bronchial epithelial cell cultures, HRV itself upregulated membrane-bound ICAM-1 expression via NF-κβ-dependent mechanisms [
15], suggesting a potential vicious cycle.
Interestingly, cultured epithelial basal cells were found to be more susceptible to RV infection than supra-basal cells, and basal cells also stained more for ICAM-1 expression [
34]. The potential clinical significance of ICAM-1 as a therapeutic target has been shown by blocking the ICAM-1 receptor with anti-ICAM-1 monoclonal antibodies (MAb) in an in vitro cell-culture model [
35]. In addition, corticosteroid pretreatment resulted in inhibition of HRV-induced ICAM-1 upregulation in both primary bronchial epithelial and A549 cells [
36]. and one could speculate that this might be one means by which corticosteroid therapy decreases AECOPD [
37].
Although respiratory tract ciliated cells are thought to be the major target for microbial pathogens, large airway goblet cells, an integral part of respiratory epithelium, and submucosal glandular cells, may also be involved. Empirically, airway viral infection results in mucus hypersecretion, which may play a role in the pathogenesis of severe airway obstruction in AECOPD. Notably, we showed increased ICAM-1 expression (both in number and intensity) in goblet cells and submucosal glands in the large airway of smokers, but especially in CAL patients, which was further confirmed by staining serially-sectioned airway wall-containing lung tissues with a specific Goblet Cell marker, Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS). Previous research has shown that HRV infection could upregulate ICAM-1-mRNA and inflammatory cytokines in submucosal gland cells, and, an anti-ICAM-1 antibody blocked both infection and production of these cytokines [
38]. Thus, airway goblet cells and submucosal glands may be important potential targets of HRV induced mucus hypersecretion via viral-epithelial interactions [
39], and given that there is marked hypertrophy of this glandular tissue in COPD, it again adds to the vulnerability of these patients towards HRV infections.
ICAM-1 may also serve as an adhesion receptor for NTHi [
40]. Blocking cell surface ICAM-1 with specific antibody significantly reduced the adhesion of NTHi to epithelial cells [
22]. It has been shown that NTHi itself upregulates ICAM-1 expression and HRV adherence [
41,
42]. These studies did not take into account the possibility of co-regulation of ICAM-1 with Platelet Activating Factor receptor (PAFr), which we have previously suggested to be the main airway adhesion site for pathogenic
Haemophilus [
19], with a tight correlation between PAFr expression and NTHi adhesion to airway epithelial cells [
23]. Work on potential reinforcing interactions between these two adhesion systems is now urgently needed, since novel non-antibiotic, broad anti-infective therapeutic strategies could emerge.
Alveolar epithelial cell ICAM-1 expression was increased equivalently in smokers and the CAL group, with type II cells being the predominant cell type affected. Empirically, staining was much less marked than in the airways. Burns et al. also previously reported increased ICAM-1 expression in type II pneumocytes in mice lung tissue exposed to
S. pneumoniae [
43], emphasized the possibility of ICAM-1 upregulation increasing neutrophilia, but not the possibility of increased microbial vulnerability.
The strengths of the present study include the use of abundant and relevant human tissue in well phenotyped individuals with mild-to-moderate obstructive airway disease, focusing on pathogenic mechanisms in relatively early disease with few confounding factors such as chronic bacterial infection or emphysema. We had robust numbers to give sufficient power to detect these findings, and this was confirmed by the strong statistical outcomes.
There are also a few limitations. Firstly, the study was cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of ICAM-1 expression are needed. Secondly, our control subjects were somewhat younger on average, but ages over-lapped substantially between groups and there was no suggestion of a relationship between ICAM-1 expression and age. Finally, we did not investigate viral adherence to in relation to ICAM-1 expression.
Conclusions
In conclusion, epithelial ICAM-1 expression is upregulated throughout the respiratory tract in smokers, but is especially marked in the airway epithelium in subjects with chronic airflow obstruction, even when mild. ICAM-1 expression in Goblet Cells and sub-mucosal glands in the airway wall is also markedly increased. There is also an increase in the alveolar epithelium, especially in Type-2 cells, but this is a smoking effect only, and not further enhanced in COPD. Increased expression of ICAM-1 in the respiratory tract, and mostly so in the airways, could be a crucial risk factor for infection here with the most common “respiratory” viral and bacterial pathogens, and indeed such changes in pathogen adhesion sites may underlie this vulnerability of smokers and people with COPD to these specific infections which is otherwise unexplained. Translational research in this area is still in its infancy but has huge potential to provide new therapeutic targets to modify clinical management of smoking-related airflow limitation. Thus, further clinical research on anti-ICAM-1 therapies and therapies against other up-regulated microbial adhesion sites is now warranted, and indeed urgently needed.
Acknowledgment
We are thankful to Prof. Darryl Knight (University of Newcastle, Australia) and Prof. J.C. Hogg (University of British Columbia, Canada) for assistance in providing normal small airway tissues.