Molecular basis for lipopolysaccharide mimetic action of Taxol and flavolipin

We previously reported that Taxol, which mimics the action of LPS on murine macrophages, induces signals via mouse TLR4/MD-2, but not via human TLR4/MD-2. Here we investigated the molecular basis for this species-specific action of Taxol. Expression of mouse MD-2 conferred both LPS and Taxol responsiveness on HEK293 cells expressing mouse TLR4, whereas expression of human MD-2 conferred LPS responsiveness alone, suggesting that MD-2 is responsible for the species-specificity of Taxol responsiveness. Furthermore, mouse MD-2 mutants, in which Gln-22 was changed to other amino acids, showed dramatically reduced ability to confer Taxol responsiveness, although their ability to confer LPS responsiveness was not affected. These results indicated that Gln-22 of mouse MD-2 is essential for Taxol signaling, but not for LPS signaling. In this study, we also found that the TLR4/MD-2 complex, together with CD14, mediated signal transduction induced by flavolipin, an amino acid-containing lipid unique to Flavobacterium meningosepticum.