Studies investigating the mechanisms of action of several widely used therapeutics such as statins and aspirin suggest a role for SPM in mediating their anti-inflammatory activities. For example, aspirin, in addition to inhibiting prostaglandin and thromboxane formation, promotes the formation epimeric forms of the resolvins, protectins and lipoxins via the acetylation of COX-2
[7,45][27][28]. Indeed, this reaction ablates the ability of the enzyme to catalyze the formation of PGG
2 while retaining its ability to oxygenate AA on carbon 15 and DHA on carbon 17. These mediators display similar binding affinities to the cognate receptor for the ALOX-derived molecules while displaying enhanced stability to metabolic inactivation
[110][29]. The ability of aspirin, in particular low dose aspirin, to upregulate the formation of these molecules was also established in humans, whereby Chiang and colleagues demonstrated in a randomized trial that low dose aspirin, at variance to high dose aspirin, upregulated plasma 15-epi-LXA
4 (also referred to as AT-LXA
4) concentrations
[111][30]. Intriguingly, the ability of aspirin to increase 15-epi-LXA
4 concentrations in healthy volunteers was observed to be dependent on gender and age. Where, a positive correlation was observed in females with age, whilst a negative correlation was found in males in the ability of aspirin to increase plasma 15-epi-LXA
4 [112][31]. The gender-specific differences in AT-SPM regulation appear to be tissue or potentially condition-specific. In a separate study, the regulation of 15-epi-LXA
4 by aspirin in gingival crevicular fluid of patients with periodontal disease was not observed to be different between males and females
[113][32]. These findings suggest that while aspirin may regulate the formation of AT-SPM in distinct tissues; factors such as age, gender and disease may have an influence on the individual mediators being regulated (i.e., 15-epi-LXA
4 vs. 17R-RvD1 vs. 17R-PD1) and the direction of change (i.e., upregulated or downregulated). Thus, future studies will need to establish which of these autacoids is diagnostic of aspirin efficacy in specific patient populations and target tissue or fluid (e.g., plasma).
Another class of drugs that regulates SPM formation is the statins. In experimental lung inflammation, Lovastatin increases 15-epi-LXA
4 concentrations via the upregulation of 14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid by airway epithelial cells
[47][33]. Atorvastatin was observed to also upregulate 15-epi-LXA
4 levels in the heart, albeit via a different mechanism to that observed in the lung. Indeed,
in this context atorvastatin regulates cyclooxygenase-2 and 5-lipoxygenase activity to increase 15-epi-LXA
4 levels
[48][34].
We recently observed that, iIn vascular endothelial cells, atorvastatin also regulates COX-2 activity by promoting nitrosylation of the enzyme, a reaction that was dependent on the activity of the nitric oxide synthase
[11][35]. This mechanism contributed to the upregulation of 13-series resolvins (RvT) that display potent immune regulatory activity on phagocytes. Indeed, pharmacological inhibition of COX-2 activity blocked RvT formation and reversed the protective activities of atorvastatin in both experimental joint inflammation and bacterial infections
[11,114][35][36].
Recent studies suggest that dexamethasone may also upregulate SPM formation
[115][37]. In experimental allergic inflammation levels of the DHA-derived protectins and those of resolvin pathway marker 17-HDHA were increased by this corticosteroid.
We also observed tTh
at this regulation of SPM levels by this potent anti-inflammatory drug was retained in human airway inflammation, with levels of several SPM, including the DHA-derived PD1 and the n-3 DPA-derived MaR1
n-3 DPA, being markedly upregulated in plasma of patients with COVID-19 treated with dexamethasone
[53][24]. Intriguingly, these observations were linked with the upregulation of several SPM biosynthetic enzymes in circulating leukocytes from patients treated with dexamethasone
[53][24]. These observations suggest that dexamethasone increases SPM formation by regulating the expression of their biosynthetic enzymes.