Inflammasomes form as the result of the intracellular presence of danger-associated molecular patterns and mediate the release of active IL-1β, which influences a variety of inflammatory responses. Excessive inflammasome activation results in severe inflammatory conditions, but physiological IL-1β secretion is necessary for intestinal homeostasis. Here, we have described a mechanism of NLRP3 inflammasome regulation by tyrosine phosphorylation of NLRP3 at Tyr861. We demonstrated that protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor 22 (PTPN22), variants in which are associated with chronic inflammatory disorders, dephosphorylates NLRP3 upon inflammasome induction, allowing efficient NLRP3 activation and subsequent IL-1β release. In murine models, PTPN22 deficiency resulted in pronounced colitis, increased NLRP3 phosphorylation, but reduced levels of mature IL-1β. Conversely, patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that carried an autoimmunity-associated PTPN22 variant had increased IL-1β levels. Together, our results identify tyrosine phosphorylation as an important regulatory mechanism for NLRP3 that prevents aberrant inflammasome activation.
Marianne R. Spalinger, Stephanie Kasper, Claudia Gottier, Silvia Lang, Kirstin Atrott, Stephan R. Vavricka, Sylvie Scharl, Petrus M. Gutte, Markus G. Grütter, Hans-Dietmar Beer, Emmanuel Contassot, Andrew C. Chan, Xuezhi Dai, David J. Rawlings, Florian Mair, Burkhard Becher, Werner Falk, Michael Fried, Gerhard Rogler, Michael Scharl
Adoptive immunotherapy with regulatory T cells (Tregs) is a promising treatment for allograft rejection and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Emerging data indicate that, compared with polyclonal Tregs, disease-relevant antigen-specific Tregs may have numerous advantages, such as a need for fewer cells and reduced risk of nonspecific immune suppression. Current methods to generate alloantigen-specific Tregs rely on expansion with allogeneic antigen-presenting cells, which requires access to donor and recipient cells and multiple MHC mismatches. The successful use of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for the generation of antigen-specific effector T cells suggests that a similar approach could be used to generate alloantigen-specific Tregs. Here, we have described the creation of an HLA-A2–specific CAR (A2-CAR) and its application in the generation of alloantigen-specific human Tregs. In vitro, A2-CAR–expressing Tregs maintained their expected phenotype and suppressive function before, during, and after A2-CAR–mediated stimulation. In mouse models, human A2-CAR–expressing Tregs were superior to Tregs expressing an irrelevant CAR at preventing xenogeneic GVHD caused by HLA-A2+ T cells. Together, our results demonstrate that use of CAR technology to generate potent, functional, and stable alloantigen-specific human Tregs markedly enhances their therapeutic potential in transplantation and sets the stage for using this approach for making antigen-specific Tregs for therapy of multiple diseases.
Katherine G. MacDonald, Romy E. Hoeppli, Qing Huang, Jana Gillies, Dan S. Luciani, Paul C. Orban, Raewyn Broady, Megan K. Levings
Alloreactive donor T cells are the driving force in the induction of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), yet little is known about T cell metabolism in response to alloantigens after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Here, we have demonstrated that donor T cells undergo metabolic reprograming after allogeneic HCT. Specifically, we employed a murine allogeneic BM transplant model and determined that T cells switch from fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) and pyruvate oxidation via the tricarboxylic (TCA) cycle to aerobic glycolysis, thereby increasing dependence upon glutaminolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway. Glycolysis was required for optimal function of alloantigen-activated T cells and induction of GVHD, as inhibition of glycolysis by targeting mTORC1 or 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3) ameliorated GVHD mortality and morbidity. Together, our results indicate that donor T cells use glycolysis as the predominant metabolic process after allogeneic HCT and suggest that glycolysis has potential as a therapeutic target for the control of GVHD.
Hung D. Nguyen, Shilpak Chatterjee, Kelley M.K. Haarberg, Yongxia Wu, David Bastian, Jessica Heinrichs, Jianing Fu, Anusara Daenthanasanmak, Steven Schutt, Sharad Shrestha, Chen Liu, Honglin Wang, Hongbo Chi, Shikhar Mehrotra, Xue-Zhong Yu
Avian H7N9 influenza viruses are group 2 influenza A viruses that have been identified as the etiologic agent for a current major outbreak that began in China in 2013 and may pose a pandemic threat. Here, we examined the human H7-reactive antibody response in 75 recipients of a monovalent inactivated A/Shanghai/02/2013 H7N9 vaccine. After 2 doses of vaccine, the majority of donors had memory B cells that secreted IgGs specific for H7 HA, with dominant responses against single HA subtypes, although frequencies of H7-reactive B cells ranged widely between donors. We isolated 12 naturally occurring mAbs with low half-maximal effective concentrations for binding, 5 of which possessed neutralizing and HA-inhibiting activities. The 5 neutralizing mAbs exhibited narrow breadth of reactivity with influenza H7 strains. Epitope-mapping studies using neutralization escape mutant analysis, deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, and x-ray crystallography revealed that these neutralizing mAbs bind near the receptor-binding pocket on HA. All 5 neutralizing mAbs possessed low numbers of somatic mutations, suggesting the clones arose from naive B cells. The most potent mAb, H7.167, was tested as a prophylactic treatment in a mouse intranasal virus challenge study, and systemic administration of the mAb markedly reduced viral lung titers.
Natalie J. Thornburg, Heng Zhang, Sandhya Bangaru, Gopal Sapparapu, Nurgun Kose, Rebecca M. Lampley, Robin G. Bombardi, Yingchun Yu, Stephen Graham, Andre Branchizio, Sandra M. Yoder, Michael T. Rock, C. Buddy Creech, Kathryn M. Edwards, David Lee, Sheng Li, Ian A. Wilson, Adolfo García-Sastre, Randy A. Albrecht, James E. Crowe Jr.
Acute and chronic tissue injury results in the generation of a myriad of environmental cues that macrophages respond to by changing their phenotype and function. This phenotypic regulation is critical for controlling tissue inflammation and resolution. Here, we have identified the adaptor protein disabled homolog 2 (DAB2) as a regulator of phenotypic switching in macrophages.
Samantha E. Adamson, Rachael Griffiths, Radim Moravec, Subramanian Senthivinayagam, Garren Montgomery, Wenshu Chen, Jenny Han, Poonam R. Sharma, Garrett R. Mullins, Stacey A. Gorski, Jonathan A. Cooper, Alexandra Kadl, Kyle Enfield, Thomas J. Braciale, Thurl E. Harris, Norbert Leitinger
The generation of naive T cells is dependent on thymic output, but in adults, the naive T cell pool is primarily maintained by peripheral proliferation. Naive T cells have long been regarded as relatively quiescent cells; however, it was recently shown that IL-8 production is a signatory effector function of naive T cells, at least in newborns. How this functional signature relates to naive T cell dynamics and aging is unknown. Using a cohort of children and adolescents who underwent neonatal thymectomy, we demonstrate that the naive CD4+ T cell compartment in healthy humans is functionally heterogeneous and that this functional diversity is lost after neonatal thymectomy. Thymic tissue regeneration later in life resulted in functional restoration of the naive T cell compartment, implicating the thymus as having functional regenerative capacity. Together, these data shed further light on functional differentiation within the naive T cell compartment and the importance of the thymus in human naive T cell homeostasis and premature aging. In addition, these results affect and alter our current understanding on the identification of truly naive T cells and recent thymic emigrants.
Theo van den Broek, Eveline M. Delemarre, Willemijn J.M. Janssen, Rutger A.J. Nievelstein, Jasper C. Broen, Kiki Tesselaar, Jose A.M. Borghans, Edward E.S. Nieuwenhuis, Berent J. Prakken, Michal Mokry, Nicolaas J.G. Jansen, Femke van Wijk
T regulatory cells (Tregs) control immune homeostasis by preventing inappropriate responses to self and nonharmful foreign antigens. Tregs use multiple mechanisms to control immune responses, all of which require these cells to be near their targets of suppression; however, it is not known how Treg-to-target proximity is controlled. Here, we found that Tregs attract CD4+ and CD8+ T cells by producing chemokines. Specifically, Tregs produced both CCL3 and CCL4 in response to stimulation, and production of these chemokines was critical for migration of target T cells, as Tregs from
Scott J. Patterson, Anne M. Pesenacker, Adele Y. Wang, Jana Gillies, Majid Mojibian, Kim Morishita, Rusung Tan, Timothy J. Kieffer, C. Bruce Verchere, Constadina Panagiotopoulos, Megan K. Levings
Tumor cells frequently escape from CD8+ T cell recognition by abrogating MHC-I antigen presentation. Deficiency in processing components, like the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP), results in strongly decreased surface display of peptide/MHC-I complexes. We previously identified a class of hidden self-antigens known as T cell epitopes associated with impaired peptide processing (TEIPP), which emerge on tumor cells with such processing defects. In the present study, we analyzed thymus selection and peripheral behavior of T cells with specificity for the prototypic TEIPP antigen, the “self” TRH4 peptide/Db complex. TEIPP T cells were efficiently selected in the thymus, egressed with a naive phenotype, and could be exploited for immunotherapy against immune-escaped, TAP-deficient tumor cells expressing low levels of MHC-I (MHC-Ilo). In contrast, overt thymus deletion and functionally impaired TEIPP T cells were observed in mice deficient for TAP1 due to TEIPP antigen presentation on all body cells in these mice. Our results strongly support the concept that TEIPPs derive from ubiquitous, nonmutated self-antigens and constitute a class of immunogenic neoantigens that are unmasked during tumor immune evasion. These data suggest that TEIPP-specific CD8+ T cells are promising candidates in the treatment of tumors that have escaped from conventional immunotherapies.
Elien M. Doorduijn, Marjolein Sluijter, Bianca J. Querido, Cláudia C. Oliveira, Adnane Achour, Ferry Ossendorp, Sjoerd H. van der Burg, Thorbald van Hall
The immunoregulatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is encoded in a functionally polymorphic locus that is linked to the susceptibility of autoimmune and infectious diseases. The
Jie Yao, Lin Leng, Maor Sauler, Weiling Fu, Junsong Zheng, Yi Zhang, Xin Du, Xiaoqing Yu, Patty Lee, Richard Bucala
In vivo protection by antimicrobial neutralizing Abs can require the contribution of effector functions mediated by Fc-Fcγ receptor (Fc-FcγR) interactions for optimal efficacy. In influenza, broadly neutralizing anti-hemagglutinin (anti-HA) stalk mAbs require Fc-FcγR interactions to mediate in vivo protection, but strain-specific anti-HA head mAbs do not. Whether this rule applies only to anti-stalk Abs or is applicable to any broadly neutralizing Ab (bNAb) against influenza is unknown. Here, we characterized the contribution of Fc-FcγR interactions during in vivo protection for a panel of 13 anti-HA mAbs, including bNAbs and non-neutralizing Abs, against both the stalk and head domains. All classes of broadly binding anti-HA mAbs required Fc-FcγR interactions to provide protection in vivo, including those mAbs that bind the HA head and those that do not neutralize virus in vitro. Further, a broadly neutralizing anti-neuraminidase (anti-NA) mAb also required FcγRs to provide protection in vivo, but a strain-specific anti-NA mAb did not. Thus, these findings suggest that the breadth of reactivity of anti-influenza Abs, regardless of their epitope, necessitates interactions with FcγRs on effector cell populations to mediate in vivo protection. These findings will guide the design of antiviral Ab therapeutics and inform vaccine design to elicit Abs with optimal binding properties and effector functions.
David J. DiLillo, Peter Palese, Patrick C. Wilson, Jeffrey V. Ravetch