although it is well established that mutations in the nod2 gene increase susceptibility to crohn &# 39 ; s disease , the role of nod2 in the pathogenesis of crohn &# 39 ; s disease heretofore was elusive . variants in nod2 result in deficient intestinal intestinal expression of α - defensins and excessive secretion of il - 1β , causing increased inflammation . thus , reduced intestinal expression of human α - defensins cause the over - production of il - 1β in patients with inflammatory complications . lipopolysaccharide ( lps ) activated , 35 s - methionine - labeled human monocytes treated with human α - defensins hnp - 1 or hd - 5 in the presence and absence of atp were examined . media and cell - associated fractions were harvested separately and il - 1β was recovered from each by immunoprecipitation . the resulting immuno - precipitates were analyzed by sds - page and autoradiography . referring now to fig2 , in the absence of atp , lps activated monocytes released about 10 % of 35 s - methionine - labeled proil - 1β ( 31 kda ) into the media , but no mature ( 17 kda ) il - 1β was detected . as expected , addition of atp to the lps - activated monocyte culture led to the release of 90 % of newly synthesized proil - 1β from the cell and more than 90 % of the proil - 1β was processed to mature il - 1β and detected in the media . surprisingly , the release of proil - 1β from the lps - activated monocyte culture was completely blocked by the addition of 10 ug / ml of hd - 5 , see fig2 . as further demonstrated in fig2 , 20 ug / ml of hnp - 1 was also sufficient to block proil - 1β production . further analysis demonstrated that of physiological concentrations of 5 ug to 100 ug / ml , both hnp - 1 and hd - 5 blocked atp mediated proil - 1β release in a dose dependant manner . of course , blocking proil - 1β prevents the production and release of mature il - 1β proteins . however , hnp - 1 and hd - 5 does not appear to affect the processing of proil - 1β after it is released extracellularly . thus , if lps - activated human monocytes are first treated with atp , and then subsequently treated with α - defensins , some proil - 1β may escape extracellularly and be processed into mature il - 1β . fig3 demonstrates this phenomenon . fig3 also demonstrates that both hnp - 1 and hd - 5 blocked atp mediated proil - 1β release in a dose dependant manner . the inventors further investigated the role of α - defensins in il - 1β maturation in a murine model of colitis . after administration of 4 % dextran sulfate sulfate sodium ( dss ) in drinking water for 7 days to induce colitis , all mmp - 7 knockout mice , which lack the mature intestinal α - defensins , died of severe intestinal inflammation and loss of body weight . conversely , all wild - type control mice survived with only mild colitis and loss of body weight . thus , α - defensins function as a negative regulator of the posttranslational processing and release of il - 1β . in addition to their antimicrobial activity , α - defensins play an important role in inflammation by controlling the production of il - 1β . accordingly the following therapeutic approaches are effective to reduce inflammation and tissue destruction . a pharmaceutical composition for therapeutic supplementation of a metabolic pathway to reduce inflammation by blocking il - 1β release is desirable . the pharmaceutical composition may comprise a human α - defensin in a therapeutically effective amount , or an amide , ester or salt thereof and a pharmaceutically effective carrier . pharmaceutically effective carriers include any and all solvents , disburse media , coatings , anti - bacterial and anti - fungal agents , isotonic and absorption delaying agents , and the like compatible with pharmaceutical administration . the use of media agents for pharmaceutically active substances is well known in the art . preferably , the pharmaceutical composition is orally administered ; however the pharmaceutical composition may be injected or administered in any other manner suitable to effectively reduce inflammation . the pharmaceutical composition has an inhibiting action on the release of interleukin - 1β through the supplementation of the human α - defensins in a therapeutically effective amount . in one embodiment of the invention , the human α - defensin is human neutrophil defensin 1 ( hnp - 1 ). in another embodiment , the human α - defensin is human α - defensin 5 ( hd - 5 ). however , it is contemplated that many human α - defensins produced by neutrophils or by paneth cells may be effective to reduce inflammation when present in a pharmaceutically acceptable manner . the isolation and purification of natural defensin peptides are well described in the scientific and patent literature . in particular , such methods are described in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 242 , 902 ; 4 , 543 , 252 ; 4 , 659 , 692 ; and 4 , 705 , 777 the subject matter of which are hereby incorporated by reference . the present application also contemplates the method for treating inflammation in mammalian tissues . in the method , a human α - defensin is administered to a mammal in an amount effective to inhibit the post transitional processing release of interleukin - 1β . the administration is preferably accomplished by injecting or orally administering a pharmaceutical composition to the mammal , however , it is contemplated that any other well - known methods of administering proteins to a mammal may be utilized . as noted above , the α - defensin that is administered is human neutrophil defensin 1 ( hnp - 1 ) in one embodiment and human α - defensin 5 ( hd - 5 ) in another embodiment . however , any α - defensin produced by neutrophils or paneth cells that is effective to inhibit post transational processing is release of interleukin - 1β is contemplated as being within the scope of this method . preferably , the method for treating inflammation is carried out on a human ; however any type of mammal may be subject of the administration . the subject matter of the present application is further illustrated by the following examples which in no way should be construed as being further limiting . contents of all cited references and patents cited throughout this application hereby expressly incorporated by reference . peripheral blood monocytes where isolated from healthy volunteers and patients with inflammatory bowel disease and suspended in monocyte maintenance medium ( rpmi 1640 medium , 5 % fbs 25 mm hepes and 1 % pen / strep ). blood samples from healthy volunteers were collected at the auburn university medical clinic under an approved protocol . blood samples from inflammatory bowel disease patients were provided by dr . w . park mcgehee of of internal medicine associates of opelika , ala ., u . s . a . monocytes were first primed with lipopolysaccharides ( lps ). monocytes were allowed to adhere for two hours , after which medium supernatants were discarded . attached cells were rinsed twice with maintenance medium and incubated in 1 ml of maintenance medium overnight at 37 ° c . in a 5 % co 2 environment . the following morning lps was added to some walls to achieve a final concentration of 10 ng / ml and the cultures were activated for two hours at 37 ° c . the media was then removed and 1 ml of fresh medium ( rpmi 1640 containing 1 % fvs 25 mm hepes and 5 mm nahco 3 ) was added to each well . these lps - activated monocytes where then treated with atp and subsequently , monocytes were selectively treated with α - defensins for interleukin - 1β post transitional processing and release studies . human α - defensin hnp - 1 was obtained from peptide international of louisville , ky ., u . s . a . recombinant human α - defensin hd - 5 was provided by dr . edith porter of california state university , los angeles , u . s . a . the quality of the synthetic peptides were verified by their anti - bacterial activity . synthetic human α - defensin hnp - 1 was further purified by hplc and compared to the natural hnp - 1 by acid - urea page . lps - activated human monocytes were treated with 0 , 1 , 10 and 100 micrograms at 37 ° c . for three hours . it was also treated with 2 mm atp for il - 1β maturation . supernatants were then collected after a 5 minute centrifugation in microphage tubes . the concentration of mature il - 1β and the supernatants was quantified by elisa ( r & amp ; d systems ). because the elisa is reported by the manufacturer to recognize both pro and mature il - 1β species , presence of proil - 1β and mature il - 1β in the supernatant and cell lysates was also determined by western blot analysis . briefly , proteins were precipitated from the supernatants by addition of trichloroacetic acid ( tca : 7 . 5 % final concentration ) and cholic acid ( 0 . 1 % final concentration ) to each sample . the percipate proteins were washed twice with 100 % acetone to extract residual tca and dissolved in 0 . 1 ml of sds - page sampled buffer . the cells where then washed once with pbs and lysed into 0 . 2 ml of lysis washed once with pbs and lysed into 0 . 2 ml of lysis buffer ( 25 mm hepes 300 mm nacl 1 . 5 mm mgcl 2 , 0 . 2 mm edta , 1 % triton x - 100 , 2 mg / ml leupeptin and 10 mg / ml pmf ). cell lysates and tsa precipitated proteins from the supernatants where then subjected to 12 % sds - page gels and then transferred to pvdv membranes for western blot analysis . il - 1β was probed with goat anti - il - 1β antibody and detected with the rabbit anti - goat igg - horesradish peroxidase conjugate . as demonstrated in fig2 , hd - 5 and hnp - 1 operate to inhibit the production of proil - 1β for lps activated human monocytes . column 1 , labeled “ lps only ” demonstrates that 4 million cell equivalents activated with 20 ng / ml of lps and incubated for two hours produces proil - 1β proteins . column 2 (“ atp 2 mm ”) demonstrates that four million cell equivalents are activated with 20 ng / ml lps and further activated with 2 mm of atp incubated for 3 hours produces less proil - 1β and significant amount of mature il - 1β protein . column 3 (“ atp + ice inhibitor ”) contains a control inhibitor ( yvad - cmk , 100 μm ) for the atp saturation path and , as demonstrated therein , 4 million cell equivalents treated with 20 ng / ml of lps and further treated with atp and with the ci inhibitor produces a substantial amount of proil - 1β , but no mature il - 1β proteins . columns 4 , 5 and 6 all demonstrate the effect of increasing an amount of hd - 5 on 4 million cell equivalents activated with lps . as demonstrated in columns 4 , 5 , 6 , no proil - 1β nor any mature il - 1β proteins were expressed . columns 7 , 8 , and 9 demonstrate the effect of hnp - 1 on il - 1β expression . when 4 million cell equivalents are activated with 10 ng / ml of lps and incubated for 2 hours and then treated with 20 mg / ml of hnp - 1 , some proil - 1β was displayed , but no mature il - 1β was demonstrated . the increase of 20 - 50 mg , represented by columns 8 and 9 demonstrate that no proil - 1β and no mature il - 1β proteins were produced . fig3 demonstrates that human α - defensins block the release of proil - 1β from atp stimulated human monocytes . lps - activated , 35 s - methionine / cysteine - labeled human monocytes were treated with 1 mm atp with or without hnp - 1 or hd - 5 for 3 hours . media were harvested separately . il - 1β was recovered by immunoprecipitation . the resulting immunoprecipitates were analyzed by sds - page and autoradiography . as demonstrated in fig3 , column 1 , when atp alone is used to treat human monocytes , a substantial amount of both proil - 1β and mature il - 1β is produced . columns 2 - 4 demonstrate that when 20 - 100 μg / ml of hnp - 1 are added to atp activated cells , no proil - 1β is released and mature il - 1β is inhibited in a dose dependant manner . likewise , columns 5 and 6 demonstrate that that when 20 and 100 μg / ml of hd - 1 are added to atp activated human monocytes , no proil - 1β is released and mature il - 1β is inhibited in a dose dependant manner . since the α - defensins inhibit the release of proil - 1β in a dose dependant manner , the amount of proil - 1β that escapes extracellularly to mature into mature il - 1β is also reduced in a dose dependant manner . as aforementioned , hnp - 1 and hd - 5 does not appear to affect the processing of proil - 1β after it is released extracellularly . accordingly , the results of the experiments confirm that both hnp - 1 and hd - 5 block atp mediated proil - 1β release in a dose dependant manner , and substantially completely block proil - 1β and mature il - 1β in lps activated cells . thus , α - defensins are a key inhibitor of interleukin - 1β release and have a substantial effect on reducing inflammation when used in a pharmaceutical composition or method of administering to a mammal . those skilled in the art will recognize , or will be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation , many equivalents to the specified embodiments of the invention disclosed herein . such equivalents are intended to be encompassed by the following claims that particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter regarded as the invention .
human α - defensins are inhibitors of interleukin - 1β post transitional processing and release . interleukin - 1β is a key cytokine involved in the initiation and amplification of the inflammatory process , including the inflammation of diseases such as crohn &# 39 ; s disease and ulcerative colitis . particularly , human neutrophil defensin - 1 produced mainly by neutrophils , and human α - defensin 5 produced by paneth cells has been found to block interleukin - 1β post transitional processing and release . thus , a pharmaceutical composition and method for treating inflammation in the mammalian tissues is herein disclosed . the pharmaceutical composition is a therapeutic supplementation of a metabolic pathway to reduce inflammation comprising a human α - defensins in a therapeutically effective amount or an amide , ester or salt thereof and a pharmaceutically effective carrier . the method for treating inflammation in mammalian tissues includes administering a human α - defensins to a mammal in an amount effective to inhibit the post translational processing and release of interleukin - 1β .