Fig. 1

Blocking CDK7 suppresses the inflammatory response to stimuli. a Schematic of transcriptional initiation and elongation. CDK7 regulates the transcriptional process by phosphorylating RNA Pol II. b Western blot analysis of RNA Pol II phosphorylation and CDK7 expression in mTHP-1 cells treated with the indicated concentrations of THZ1 (0, 20, 40, 100, 200 nM) for the indicated times. c Top 10 enriched GO biological processes based on RNA-seq from LPS-stimulated MDMs pretreated with or without 30 nM THZ1. The bar diagram displayed the enriched GO biological processes in THZ1-pretreated cells versus LPS-stimulated cells. d Transcriptional levels of inflammatory genes in response to LPS in cells pretreated with 30 nM THZ1 at 8 h after stimulation. e Transcriptional levels of inflammatory genes in response to H1N1 infection in cells pretreated with 30 nM THZ1 at 24 h after stimulation. f MDMs were stimulated with LPS in the presence of 30 nM THZ1 for 8 h, and supernatant was collected to test the release of cytokines. g Western blot analysis of RNA Pol II phosphorylation and CDK7 expression in mTHP-1 cells pretreated with 30 nM THZ1 at 6 h after stimulation. h Western blot analysis of RNA Pol II phosphorylation and CDK7 expression in mTHP-1 cells pretreated with 30 nM SY-1365 or 10 μM BS-181 at 6 h after stimulation. Data are the mean ± SD, n = 3 or 4 in b, d to h. ***P < 0.001, **P < 0.01, and *P < 0.05 by one-way ANOVA in d to h or two-way ANOVA in b