Detecting and Modulating the NF-kB Activity in Human Immune Cells: Generation of Human Cell Lines with Altered Levels of NF-κB

Abstract

NF-kappaB plays a pivotal role in immunity and inflammation and is considered to be a promising candidate for drug development. However, global suppression of NF-kappaB may have undesirable side-effects. Our data and the results of others suggest that each of the five NF-kappaB subunits may have a specific function in controlling the expression of inflammatory mediators in immune cells. Identifying the role for each NF-kappaB subunit in primary human immune cells will allow a more targeted approach to inhibiting NF-kappaB subunit-specific cellular functions. However, results obtained with primary human cells can often be inconsistent due to donor heterogeneity. Therefore one possible approach could be to generate human immune cell lines with stably inhibited expression of specific NF-kappaB subunit(s) as described in this chapter.