Transcriptional activity of neutrophils exposed to high doses of colchicine: short communication

Colchicine is an antimitotic drug which binds to tubulin and at high doses results in cytoskeleton disruption. Colchicine is believed to be an anti-inflammatory agent, though its modulatory effects on the level and transcriptional activity of genes is still a matter of debate. There is growing evidence that alterations in the cytoskeleton exert specific effects on the expression of various genes. This study was undertaken to analyze whether disrupting the microtubule cytoskeleton by colchicine modulates transcriptional levels of MEFV, NF-κB p65, NLRP3, HMGB1, and caspase-3 in neutrophils from patients with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) and healthy subjects. In the present study, colchicine caused increased expression of NLRP3 (p=0.007) and MEFV (p=0.03), but had no effect on caspase-3, NF-κB p65 and HMGB1 genes in healthy neutrophils. FMF neutrophils were less responsive to the drug treatment. This study supports the hypothesis that, being an anti-inflammatory agent, colchicine at relatively high concentrations might lead to the activation of pro-inflammatory signalling pathways in neutrophils.