PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nishith M Shrimali
AU  - Sakshi Agarwal
AU  - Simrandeep Kaur
AU  - Sulagna Bhattacharya
AU  - Sankar Bhattacharyya
AU  - Josef T Prchal
AU  - Prasenjit Guchhait
TI  - α-ketoglutarate augments prolyl hydroxylase-2 mediated inactivation of phosphorylated-Akt to inhibit induced-thrombosis and inflammation
AID  - 10.1101/2021.06.11.448037
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.06.11.448037
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/07/2021.06.11.448037.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/07/2021.06.11.448037.full
AB  - Phosphorylation of Akt (pAkt) regulates multiple physiological and pathological processes including thrombosis and inflammation. In an approach to inhibit the pathological signalling of pAkt by prolyl-hydroxylase-2 (PHD2) we employed α-ketoglutarate (αKG), a cofactor of PHD2. Octyl-αKG supplementation to platelets promoted PHD2 activity through elevated intracellular αKG:succinate ratio and reduced aggregation in vitro by suppressing pAkt1(Thr308). Augmented PHD2 activity was confirmed by increased hydroxylated-proline alongside enhanced binding of PHD2 to pAkt in αKG-treated platelets. Contrastingly, inhibitors of PHD2 significantly increased pAkt1 in platelets. Octyl-αKG followed similar mechanism in monocytes to inhibit cytokine secretion in vitro. Our data also describe a suppressed pAkt1 and reduced activation of platelet and leukocyte obtained from mice supplemented with dietary-αKG, unaccompanied by alteration in their counts. Dietary-αKG significantly reduced clot formation and leukocyte accumulation in various organs including lung of mice treated with thrombosis-inducing agent carrageenan. Importantly, we observed a significant rescue effect of dietary-αKG on inflamed lung of SARS-CoV-2 infected hamsters. αKG significantly reduced leukocyte accumulation, clot formation and viral load alongside downmodulation of pAkt in lung of the infected animals. Therefore, our study suggests a safe implementation of dietary-αKG in prevention of Akt-driven anomalies including thrombosis and inflammation, highlighting a better pulmonary management in COVID-19.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.