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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Inflammation

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1558307

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in P2X7 Antagonists: From Mechanistic Insights to Therapeutic ApplicationsView all 5 articles

ATP/P2X7 receptor signal aggravates ischemic stroke injury by activating Th17 cells via STAT3/IL-21 pathway

Provisionally accepted
Wenying  LiuWenying Liu1,2Denghui  LiDenghui Li2Mengjie  ZhangMengjie Zhang2Jun  YinJun Yin2Peng  WangPeng Wang2Paiyu  LiuPaiyu Liu2Zhiqiang  SongZhiqiang Song1Bing  NiBing Ni2*Yanmeng  PengYanmeng Peng3*
  • 1Department of Dermatology, Southwest Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China
  • 2Department of Pathophysiology, College of High Altitude Military Medicine,, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China
  • 3Department of Rehabilitation, Southwest Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: During cerebral ischemia, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is released into the extracellular matrix from damaged neurons and glial cells, functioning as a danger signal. However, the involvement of ATP/P2X7 signaling in regulating the infiltrated lymphocytes during ischemiareperfusion (IR) injury remain unclear.The expression level of P2X7 was evaluated in infiltrated lymphocytes from experimental stroke mice. To further elucidate the role of P2X7 signaling in infiltrated immune cells during ischemic stroke, P2X7-knockout (KO) mice and Rag2 -/-mice were utilized. Additionally, in vitro experiments were conducted to explore the underlying mechanisms.Results: Flow cytometry analysis revealed that the expression of P2X7 was mainly expressed in CD4 + and CD8 + T cells among the infiltrated lymphocytes in stroke lesions of the mice. P2X7-KO mice exhibited smaller infarct sizes and improved neurological function compared to wild-type mice.Rag2 -/-mice that received P2X7-KO CD4 + T cells demonstrated reduced ischemic-reperfusion injury and a decreased level of IL-17A and frequency of Th17 cells compared to Rag2 -/-mice that received wild type CD4 + T cells. Transcriptome sequencing and in vitro experiments indicate that P2X7 may mediate the expression of IL-21 and regulating the synthesis of IL-17A and the differentiation of Th17 cells. We also confirmed that P2X7 receptor regulates IL-21 through STAT3 signaling.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the loss of ATP/P2X7 signaling in CD4 + T cells may inhibit the pSTAT3, IL-21 pathway, leading to reduced differentiation of Th17 cells and ultimately mitigating IR injury. This provides novel insights into the role of ATP/P2X7-mediated signaling in T cell inflammation during ischemic stroke.

Keywords: :ATP, P2X7 receptor, Ischemia stroke, CD4 + T cells, IL-17A, IL-21, P-STAT3

Received: 10 Jan 2025; Accepted: 01 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Li, Zhang, Yin, Wang, Liu, Song, Ni and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Bing Ni, Department of Pathophysiology, College of High Altitude Military Medicine,, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, China
Yanmeng Peng, Department of Rehabilitation, Southwest Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China

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