The Met-196 → Arg variation of human Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor 2 (TNFR2) affects TNF-α-induced apoptosis by impaired NF-κB signaling and target gene expression

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced signaling is pivotally involved in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases. A polymorphism in the TNF receptor 2 (TNFR2) gene resulting in a juxtamembrane inversion from methionine (TNFR2^196MET) to arginine (TNFR2^196ARG) has been genetically associated with an increased risk for systemic lupus erythematosus and familial rheumatoid arthritis. Albeit the mutation does not affect the TNF binding kinetics of TNFR2, the present study provides evidence that the mutation results in a significantly lower capability to induce TNFR2-mediated NF-κB activation. Pretriggering of TNFR2 with a receptor-specific mutein leads to an enhancement of TNFR1-induced apoptosis, which is further increased in cells carrying the TNFR2^196ARG variant. A diminished induction of NF-κB-dependent target genes conveying either anti-apoptotic or pro-inflammatory functions, such as cIAP1, TRAF1, IL-6, or IL-8 is observed. The mutated form TNFR2^196ARG shows a reduction of inducible TRAF2 recruitment upon TNF-α stimulation. The findings suggest a common molecular mechanism for the involvement of the TNFR2^196ARG variant in the etiopathogenesis of different chronic inflammatory disorders.