1. Introduction
The growth and development of keratinocytes and the establishment and maintenance of skin barriers and other skin processes depend highly on the distribution of Ca
2+ throughout the epidermis [
1]. Both intracellular and extracellular concentrations of Ca
2+ have been reported to modulate various functions in the skin, suggesting the involvement of functional calcium channels expressed in epidermal cells [
1].
Among these channels, the Ca
2+-permeable non-selective cation channel TRPV3 is highly expressed in epidermal keratinocytes [
2]. The activity of TRPV3 channels regulates important processes such as keratinocyte growth [
3], barrier formation [
4], wound healing [
5], hair growth [
6], and the perception of temperature, itch, and pain [
7,
8]. Studies on hairless mice with TRPV3 gain-of-function mutations (G573C in WBN/Kob-Ht and G573S in DS-Nh mice) have highlighted the relevance of TRPV3 in both normal and abnormal skin conditions [
9]. These mutations have been associated with hair loss, dermatitis, and pruritus [
10], and similar mutations also appeared in humans with a skin inflammatory condition called Olmsted syndrome [
11]. Additionally, TRPV3 upregulation has been observed in mouse models of atopic dermatitis (AD), and inhibition of TRPV3 channel activity has shown promise in attenuating AD symptoms [
12,
13]. Activation of TRPV3 in keratinocytes leads to the release of interleukins and other inflammatory factors, contributing to skin inflammation and itch [
14,
15,
16,
17]. Therefore, identifying novel TRPV3 inhibitors holds the potential for developing new strategies to improve skin inflammation and pruritus.
Historically, natural medicines have served as valuable candidates for drug development [
18]. Many prescription drugs developed over the past decades for health improvement and disease treatment contain active compounds derived from medicinal plant extracts [
19].
Garcinia mangostana L., commonly known as mangosteen, has gained significant attention due to its biological activities in various diseases. One of its compounds, alpha-mangostin, derived from the pericarps of mangosteen fruit, has demonstrated anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidative properties with promising anti-inflammatory effects [
20,
21]. Ointments containing mangosteen peel have been utilized to treat conditions such as eczema and skin malfunctions and for wound healing [
22]. A study also revealed that mangosteen rind extract could prevent AD by controlling inflammation and itch and improving skin barrier function [
23]. Moreover, alpha-mangostin has been found to promote wound healing and suppress cytokine expression in HaCaT cells stimulated by
P. acnes and UVB [
24,
25].
Here, we found that alpha-mangostin inhibited human TRPV3 currents in a dose-dependent manner, decreased calcium influx, reduced cell death caused by aberrant TRPV3 activity, and suppressed carvacrol-induced cytokine secretion in human keratinocytes. These findings indicate that alpha-mangostin could be developed as a drug to improve skin conditions.
3. Discussion
TRPV3 is a cation non-selective, Ca
2+-preferable channel and a member of the TRP superfamily [
29]. TRPV3, abundantly found in epithelial cells, probably is the most essential TRPV channel to skin physiology and pathophysiology [
26] and participates in various processes, including skin barrier formation [
4], hair cycle regulation [
6], and wound healing [
5]. The level of TRPV3 mRNA and/or protein in skin cells was reported to be altered in several conditions, such as dermatitis [
16,
30,
31], suggesting its potential role in the development of skin conditions [
32]. Moreover, excessive TRPV3 activity was shown to be associated with inflammation and itches in Olmsted syndrome [
10,
11,
16]. Thus, inhibiting TRPV3 activity might be beneficial in improving inflammatory skin conditions.
This study identified alpha-mangostin as a potent TRPV3 inhibitor with an IC
50 of 0.077 ± 0.013 μM, as determined through patch-clamp recordings combined with calcium measurements. Alpha-mangostin exhibited stronger inhibitory effects on TRPV3 compared to other TRP channels, TRPV1 (IC
50 = 0.43 ± 0.27 µM) [
33], TRPV4 (IC
50 = 8.470 ± 1.725 µM) and TRPA1 (IC
50 = 5.092 ± 2.213 µM) (
Figure 2C). Several natural compounds have been reported to inhibit TRPV3 channel activity; however, some of them show similar IC
50 values on many targets (monachomycalin B, pulchranin A, B, C), while the others need to be used at higher concentrations (citrusinine II, vervacoside, coumarin osthole) (
Table 1). Moreover, alpha-mangostin inhibited both WT TRPV3 and the TRPV3 gain-of-function mutants, suggesting its potential use for treating skin diseases. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the TRPV3 inhibitory effect of alpha-mangostin is still unclear and requires further investigation.
The activation of TRPV3 leads to increased intracellular calcium levels and triggers various signaling pathways that regulate cell functions [
26]. Activation of TRPV3 with its agonist, carvacrol, has been reported to induce calcium influx and decrease cell viability and proliferation by inducing apoptosis [
15]. Higher [Ca
2+]
i levels with elevated apoptosis and skin hyperkeratosis were also reported to be associated with TRPV3 gain-of-function mutations [
11,
15]. In line with these results, we found that stimulating TRPV3 with an agonist in WT TRPV3-expressing cells increased intracellular calcium levels and decreased cell viability. In addition, our results demonstrated that stimulating TRPV3 increased intracellular calcium levels and decreased cell viability in both WT and Olmsted mutant TRPV3-expressing cells (
Figure 3,
Figure 4 and
Figure 5). However, treatment with alpha-mangostin attenuated these effects by reducing intracellular calcium levels and improving cell viability in both cell types (
Figure 3,
Figure 4 and
Figure 5).
Furthermore, activation of TRPV3 by heat or chemical stimuli was reported to induce pro-inflammatory responses in keratinocytes, including the upregulation of several cytokines, such as IL-8, IL-6, and TNF-α [
15]. In our study, activating the TRPV3 channel using carvacrol significantly increased IL-8 secretion. Although a slight increase in IL-6 was observed, it was not significant; no changes in TNF-α secretion were observed. In addition, inhibiting TRPV3 using alpha-mangostin attenuated the increased IL-8 and IL-6 secretion in carvacrol-induced keratinocytes (
Figure 5).
Garcinia mangostana (mangosteen) extracts have been used as a drug for various diseases for hundreds of years, including several skin infections, eczema, hyperkeratosis, and wounds [
20]. A previous study showed that mangosteen rind extract suppressed skin inflammation, keratinocyte proliferation, and itch sensation in an AD mouse model, suggesting its protective potential in the early phase of AD [
23]. According to our results, this effect could be attributed to the inhibition of TRP channels, especially TRPV3, on skin keratinocytes by alpha-mangostin, the primary xanthone obtained from mangosteen pericarp, as there is a clear relationship between TRPV3 and dermatitis [
41]. Moreover, applying alpha-mangostin nanoparticles in patients with acne vulgaris significantly improved the skin condition [
42]. Since the inhibition of the TRPV3 channel is expected to result in normalizing keratinocyte proliferation and inhibiting pro-inflammatory mediators in acne vulgaris [
26], the inhibitory effects of alpha-mangostin on TRPV3 and cytokine release in NHEK could play important roles in acne-related skin conditions. Besides the anti-inflammatory effect, mangosteen pericarp extract was reported to promote hair growth
in vitro [
44], which could be attributed to the inhibition of TRPV3 channels expressed in hair follicles as the activation of TRPV3 was shown to regulate hair growth negatively [
26]. The results from the current study demonstrate for the first time that the skin and hair health-improving effect of alpha-mangostin and
G. mangostana extract is mediated through the inhibition of TRP channels, especially TRPV3.
There are some limitations in our study. First, in the whole-cell patch-clamp experiments, we used ruthenium red, a non-selective TRP channel inhibitor, to obtain leak current; nevertheless, other TRP currents can be excluded due to the use of TRPV3-overexpressing HEK 293T cell line. Besides, calcium imaging but not patch-clamp measurement was used to assess the impact of alpha-mangostin on TRPV3 channel activity in keratinocytes; therefore, carvacrol and a more specific TRPV3 inhibitor, 74a were used in these experiments. Moreover, we used the CCK8 assay to measure cell viability instead of apoptosis measurement to investigate the ability to rescue Olmsted mutant-induced cell death.
4. Materials and Methods
4.1. Chemicals
2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB), carvacrol, GSK-1016790A (GSK101), allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), A-967079 (A967), ruthenium red (RR) and α-mangostin (α-MG) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Saint Louis, MO, USA), 74a was purchased from Tocris Bioscience (Ellisville, MO, USA). Stock solutions, including 100 mM 2-APB, 300 mM 1 M carvacrol, 300 µM GSK101, 100 mM AITC, 10 mM ruthenium red,10 mM 74a, and 1 mM and 3 mM α-mangostin, were prepared in DMSO and stored in a freezer (-20 °C).
4.2. Cell culture
NHEK, Catalog No. 00192627, Lonza, Basel, SWISS) were grown in Keratinocyte Growth medium BulletKitTM (KGMTM, Lonza), at 37 °C in a 5% CO2 incubator and sub-cultured when they reached at least 70% confluence.
HEK 293T cells were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (Cat. No. CRL-3216, ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA). TRPV3-overexpressing HEK 293T cells were supplied by Prof. Wan Lee (Dongguk University College of Medicine, Gyeongju, South Korea). HEK 293T cells expressing TRPV3 mutants (G573S, G573C) were made by transient transfection. These cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM, Welgene, Daegu, Korea) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS; Welgene) and 1% penicillin/streptomycin (P/S; Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Blasticidin S (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA; 10 µg/ml) was used as the selection antibiotic for TRPV3-overexpressing HEK 293T cells. Cells were incubated at 37 °C in a 10% CO2 incubator.
4.3. Construct of cDNA and transfection
Plasmids carrying TRPV3 (pReceiver-M02), TRPV4 (pReceiver-M29), and TRPA1 (pReceiver-M29) were bought from Genecopoeia (Rockville, MD, USA). Using the Quick Change II XL Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA), mutant TRPV3 channels were generated using the PCR-based site-directed mutagenesis method. The forward and reverse primers for the G573S mutant were 5′-GGGGTTTCCAGTCCATGAGCATGTACAGCGTCATG-3′ and 5′-CATGACGCTGTACATGCTCATGGACTGGAAACCCC-3′, respectively. The forward and reverse primers for the G573C mutant were 5′-GGGGTTTCCAGTCCATGTGCATGTACAGCGTCATG-3′ and 5′-CATGACGCTGTACATGCACATGGACTGGAAACCCC-3′, respectively. Sequencing was used to confirm mutagenesis.
TRPV3 (WT and mutants), TRPV4, and TRPA1 plasmids were transiently transfected into HEK 293T cells, as previously described [
45,
46]. pEGFP (pEGFP-N1, Life Technologies) was co-transfected with the plasmid carrying TRPV3 WT or the TRPV3 mutants into HEK 293T cells to identify transfected cells. Turbofect reagent (Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) was used for transfection. All experiments were performed after a further 24 – 36 h incubation after transfection.
4.4. Electrophysiological recording
Axopatch 200A amplifier and Digidata 1440A digitizer (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA) were used for patch-clamp recording as described previously [
46,
47].
The composition of the bath solution and pipette solution used to measure TRPV3, TRPV4, and TRPA1 current are presented in
Table 2.
In the whole-cell configuration, voltage ramps from −100 to +100 mV over 1 s were applied every 20 s, and the holding potential was set at 0 mV. Sampling at 10 kHz and low-pass filtering at 5 kHz (w-c) were applied for all recorded currents. Recorded data were analyzed using Clampfit ver. 10.7 and Origin 2021b (Microcal, Northampton, MA, USA).
4.5. Calcium imaging
Fura-2 AM (Thermo fisher scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) was utilized as a fluorescent indicator to measure calcium signal, as described previously [
50]. Fura-2 acetoxymethyl ester (Fura-2 AM is a widely used fluorescent calcium indicator. After crossing the cell membrane and entering the cytosol, Fura-2 AM is cleaved into its activated form, Fura-2 [
48]. After binding to the cytosolic free Ca
2+, the peak excitation of Fura-2 shifts from 380 nm (Ca
2+-free state) to 340 nm (Ca
2+-bound state), while the peak emission remains unchanged at around 510 nm. To measure the cytosolic Ca
2+ level, a sequential excitation of Fura-2 is performed at 340 nm and 380 nm, then the emission signals resulting from each excitation wavelength are measured, and the ratio of these signals is calculated. By comparing this emission ratio to the emission ratios obtained from known concentrations of free Ca
2+, it is possible to calibrate the measurements [
49]. Briefly, Fura-2 AM (1 µM) was added to NHEK or TRPV3-overexpressing HEK 293T cells in normal Tyrode (NT) solution comprising 145 mM NaCl, 3.6 mM KCl, 1.3 mM CaCl
2, 1 mM MgCl
2, 5 mM glucose, 20 mM sorbitol and 10 mM HEPES (pH 7.4, adjusted with NaOH), incubated for 30 min at 37 °C. The loaded cells were centrifuged and resuspended in NT solution. G573S or G573C transfected cells were prepared in NT solution without calcium using a similar protocol. Samples were excited using a wavelength of 380 nm for 20 msec, followed by 340 nm for 100 msec, and fluorescence at 510 nm was recorded. Recorded data were then analyzed using NIS-Element AR Version 5.00.00 (Nikon).
The change in the fluorescence ratio when the cells were excited at 340 nm and 380 nm (ΔF340/380) during the measurements was calculated by subtracting the ratio obtained at the beginning of the experiment from each subsequent ratio obtained at different time points. Since higher F340/380 implies a higher Ca2+ level, these values allow the assessment of the relative changes in the intracellular Ca2+ level over time.
4.6. Viability assay
The cell counting kit-8 (CCK8; Dojindo Laboratories, Japan) was employed for viability assay. Keratinocytes (104 cells/well) plated in 96-well plates were incubated for about one day before exposing them to alpha-mangostin for 24 h. Transiently transfected HEK 293T cells (5×104 cells/well) in 96-well plates were plated and exposed to carvacrol, 74a, or alpha-mangostin 6 h after transfection, followed by 24 h incubation. The optical density (O.D., 450 nm) of each well was measured after incubating the cells with CCK-8 solution (10 μM) for 2 h. The normalized O.D. value of each well compared to the mock group was used to determine cell viability.
4.7. Cytokine assay
Keratinocytes were first plated in 24-well plates (5×104 cells/well) for 24 h, then 300 µM carvacrol, 10 µM 74a, or 1 µM alpha-mangostin were added, followed by a 24-h incubation before collecting the cell culture supernatant to measure the cytokine content. Assays were performed using an ELISA kit (KOMA Biotech Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea) following the supplier’s guidelines.
4.8. Statistical analysis
All results in this study are shown as means ± standard error of the mean. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) combined with Bonferroni’s post hoc comparison was applied for multiple comparisons as appropriate. Statistical analyses were conducted using Origin 8.0 and Prism 6.0 software; p-values lower than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, B.J.K., J.H.N and W.K.K.; methodology, B.J.K..; software, H.J.K.; validation, T.H.D. and J.Y.K.; formal analysis, T.H.D. and J.Y.K.; investigation, T.H.D., H.J.K and J.Y.K.; data curation, T.H.D.; writing—original draft preparation, T.H.D.; writing—review and editing, B.J.K., J.H.N and W.K.K.; visualization, T.H.D. and J.Y.K.; supervision, J.H.N.; project administration, J.H.N.; funding acquisition, J.H.N and W.K.K. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.