scholarly journals 2215

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (S1) ◽  
pp. 3-3
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Moran ◽  
Robert M. Immormino ◽  
Hideki Nakano ◽  
David Peden ◽  
Donald N. Cook

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Allergic asthma is a chronic lung disease driven by inappropriate inflammatory responses against inhaled allergens. Neuropilin-2 (NRP2) is a pleiotropic transmembrane receptor expressed in the lung, but its role in allergic airway inflammation is unknown. Here, we characterized NRP2 expression in lung immune cells and investigated the effects of NRP2 deficiency on airway inflammation. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: NRP2 expression by lung immune cells from NRP2 reporter mice was determined by flow cytometry. NRP2 expression by human alveolar macrophages (AM) from healthy individuals was determined by mRNA analysis and flow cytometry. Airway inflammation in NRP2-deficient mice was assessed by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cytology and inflammatory gene expression in lung tissue. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: NRP2 expression in lung immune cells was negligible under steady-state conditions. In contrast, inhalational exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) adjuvant dramatically induced NRP2 expression in AM, as 63.3% of AM from LPS-treated mice were NRP2+ compared with 1.5% of AM from control mice. Ex vivo treatment of human AM with LPS resulted in a 1.5-fold and 2.6-fold increase in NRP2 mRNA and surface protein expression, respectively. Compared to littermate controls, NRP2-deficient mice had greater numbers of BAL leukocytes and increased lung expression of the T helper type 2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-5. Furthermore, NRP2 deficiency resulted in stochastic development of allergic airway inflammation, as spontaneous airway eosinophilia was detected in 25% (2/8) of NRP2-deficient mice compared with 0% (0/8) of littermate controls. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: NRP2 is expressed by activated human and murine AM and suppresses the spontaneous development of allergic airway inflammation. These findings suggest that NRP2 may play a key role in allergic asthma pathogenesis, and could prove to be an important therapeutic target in patients with asthma and other allergic diseases.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 4315-4324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara L. Coleman ◽  
Odette M. Shaw

The potential of fruit proanthocyanidins to modulate airway inflammation through interactions with immune cells and the microbiome.


2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xia Ke ◽  
Jiangju Huang ◽  
Quan Chen ◽  
Suling Hong ◽  
Daoyin Zhu

Purpose. Allergic asthma is characterized by chronic airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness driven by allergen-specific T helper (Th)2 cells. Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination has been documented to suppress Th2 responses and allergic airway inflammation in animal models. Since interleukin (IL)-12 is capable of inhibiting Th2 responses, we sought to investigate whether IL-12 could function as an adjuvant to increase the efficacy of BCG vaccination against allergic asthma. Methods. BALB/c neonatal mice (24 mice, 48-72 h old) were randomly divided into 3 subgroups (n = 8 for each group) to be immunized with PBS (control) or BCG with or without DNA plasmid-expressing IL-12. All of the mice were then sensitized and provoked with ovalbumin (OVA) to establish a model of allergic asthma. Results. Mice vaccinated with BCG alone showed a significant reduction in airway inflammation, percentage of eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and serum OVA-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels in comparison with control animals. The suppressive effects of BCG were substantially augmented by the combination with IL-12. Furthermore, a decreased IL-4 and increased interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) production in BAL fluid were observed in animals inoculated with BCG alone or with IL-12 relative to control animals. Conclusion. Our data indicate that the combined vaccination with BCG and IL-12 yields a favorable outcome in prevention of experimental allergic airway inflammation, which is likely mediated through triggering a shift from a Th2 response to a Th1 response.


2007 ◽  
Vol 293 (3) ◽  
pp. L730-L739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill R. Johnson ◽  
Filip K. Swirski ◽  
Beata U. Gajewska ◽  
Ryan E. Wiley ◽  
Ramzi Fattouh ◽  
...  

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease that encompasses three cardinal processes: T helper (Th) cell type 2 (Th2)-polarized inflammation, bronchial hyperreactivity, and airway wall remodeling. However, the link between the immune-inflammatory phenotype and the structural-functional phenotype remains to be fully defined. The objective of these studies was to evaluate the relationship between the immunologic nature of chronic airway inflammation and the development of abnormal airway structure and function in a mouse model of chronic asthma. Using IL-4-competent and IL-4-deficient mice, we created divergent immune-inflammatory responses to chronic aeroallergen challenge. Immune-inflammatory, structural, and physiological parameters of chronic allergic airway disease were evaluated in both strains of mice. Although both strains developed airway inflammation, the profiles of the immune-inflammatory responses were markedly different: IL-4-competent mice elicited a Th2-polarized response and IL-4-deficient mice developed a Th1-polarized response. Importantly, this chronic Th1-polarized immune response was not associated with airway remodeling or bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Transient reconstitution of IL-4 in IL-4-deficient mice via an airway gene transfer approach led to partial Th2 repolarization and increased bronchial hyperresponsiveness, along with full reconstitution of airway remodeling. These data show that distinct structural-functional phenotypes associated with chronic airway inflammation are strictly dependent on the nature of the immune-inflammatory response.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inès R. H. Ben-Nejma ◽  
Aneta J. Keliris ◽  
Jasmijn Daans ◽  
Peter Ponsaerts ◽  
Marleen Verhoye ◽  
...  

AbstractAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. According to the amyloid hypothesis, the accumulation and deposition of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides play a key role in AD. Soluble Aβ (sAβ) oligomers were shown to be involved in pathological hypersynchronisation of brain resting-state networks in different transgenic developmental-onset mouse models of amyloidosis. However, the impact of protein overexpression during brain postnatal development may cause additional phenotypes unrelated to AD. To address this concern, we investigated sAβ effects on functional resting-state networks in transgenic mature-onset amyloidosis Tet-Off APP (TG) mice. TG mice and control littermates were raised on doxycycline (DOX) diet from 3d up to 3 m of age to suppress transgenic Aβ production. Thereafter, longitudinal resting-state functional MRI was performed on a 9.4 T MR-system starting from week 0 (3 m old mice) up to 28w post DOX treatment. Ex-vivo immunohistochemistry and ELISA analysis was performed to assess the development of amyloid pathology. Functional Connectivity (FC) analysis demonstrated early abnormal hypersynchronisation in the TG mice compared to the controls at 8w post DOX treatment, particularly across regions of the default mode-like network, known to be affected in AD. Ex-vivo analyses performed at this time point confirmed a 20-fold increase in total sAβ levels preceding the apparition of Aβ plaques and inflammatory responses in the TG mice compared to the controls. On the contrary at week 28, TG mice showed an overall hypoconnectivity, coinciding with a widespread deposition of Aβ plaques in the brain. By preventing developmental influence of APP and/or sAβ during brain postnatal development, we demonstrated FC abnormalities potentially driven by sAβ neurotoxicity on resting-state neuronal networks in mature-induced TG mice. Thus, the Tet-Off APP mouse model could be a powerful tool while used as a mature-onset model to shed light into amyloidosis mechanisms in AD.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (5_suppl) ◽  
pp. 88-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel M. Hidalgo ◽  
Ron Epelbaum ◽  
Valeriya Semenisty ◽  
Ravit Geva ◽  
Talia Golan ◽  
...  

88 Background: BL-8040 is a novel CXCR4 antagonist being developed for multiple oncology indications. Preclinical studies demonstrated that BL-8040 increases the number of immune cells in peripheral blood and promotes CD8+ T cell infiltration into orthotropic pancreatic mouse tumors, reducing tumor load. BL-8040 is being evaluated in a Phase 2a, multicenter, open label trial in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (the COMBAT study). Patients are undergoing a 5-day period of monotherapy in which they receive daily doses of BL-8040, followed by 21-day cycles in which patients receive one dose of pembrolizumab and 3 doses/week of BL-8040 until disease progression or discontinuation. To date, 32 patients have been enrolled. Methods: On Day 1 and Day 5, blood samples were taken at pre- and post-dosing, to evaluate peripheral immune cell subset frequency by flow cytometry. In addition, core biopsies were taken from liver metastases, where possible, to assess immune cell infiltration into tumors and the tumor microenvironment (TME). Results: Here we present interim PD biomarker data from the BL-8040 monotherapy portion of the trial. Flow cytometry shows that BL-8040 monotherapy caused an approximately two-fold reduction in frequency of peripheral T regulatory cells, but had no effect on the frequency of T cells, NKT cells or cell populations that contain B cells (CD3- CD56-). Additionally, BL-8040 remained bound to CXCR4 on peripheral immune cells throughout the period of monotherapy. Analysis of available biopsies (N = 7) shows an up to 15-fold increase in the CD3+ population, and up to two-fold increase of CD8+ cells, in the tumor periphery and TME of 43% (3/7) of the patients after five days of BL-8040 monotherapy compared to baseline. Conclusions: In summary, the PD biomarker results in humans support the proposed mechanism of action for BL-8040 that was based on preclinical mouse models. Analysis of tumor biopsies is ongoing, with an emphasis on investigating the effects of BL-8040 on tumor-resident immune cells and the TME. Clinical trial information: NCT02826486.


2010 ◽  
Vol 299 (4) ◽  
pp. L472-L482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Lavoie-Lamoureux ◽  
Kantuta Moran ◽  
Guy Beauchamp ◽  
Susanne Mauel ◽  
Falko Steinbach ◽  
...  

Neutrophils are potent contributors to the lung pathophysiological changes occurring in allergic airway inflammation, which typically involve T helper type 2 (Th2) cytokine overexpression. We have previously reported that equine pulmonary endothelial cells are activated by the Th2 cytokine IL-4 and express chemotactic factors for neutrophils after stimulation. We have further explored the possible mechanisms linking Th2-driven inflammation and neutrophilia by studying the effects of recombinant equine IL-4, a prototypical Th2 cytokine, on peripheral blood neutrophils (PBN) isolated from normal animals and from horses with asthmatic airway inflammation (equine heaves). We found that IL-4 induced morphological changes in PBN, dose- and time-dependent expression of IL-8 mRNA, as well as the release of chemotactic factors for neutrophils in culture supernatants. Also, IL-4 induced a mixed inflammatory response in PBN from control and asthmatic-animals with increased expression of proinflammatory IL-8 and TNF-α but a marked inhibition of IL-1β. IL-4 type I receptor (IL-4Rα) and CD23 (FcϵRII) expression were also upregulated by IL-4. Importantly, disease as well as chronic antigenic exposure modified gene expression by PBN. Finally, we found that activation of equine neutrophils with IL-4 involved STAT6 phosphorylation and p38 MAPK and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K); the pharmacological inhibitors, SB-203580 and LY-294002, respectively, significantly reversed IL-4-induced gene modulation in PBN. Overall, results from this study add to the link between Th2-driven inflammation and neutrophilia in the equine model and further extend the characterization of IL-4 effects on neutrophils.


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 594-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rochlitzer ◽  
C. Nassenstein ◽  
A. Braun

The neurotrophins nerve growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, NT-3 (neurotrophin 3) and NT-4 are known for regulating neuron development, function and survival. Beyond this, neurotrophins were found to exert multiple effects on non-neuronal cells such as immune cells, smooth muscle and epithelial cells. In allergic asthma, airway inflammation, airway obstruction, AHR (airway hyperresponsiveness) and airway remodelling are characteristic features, indicating an intensive interaction between neuronal, structural and immune cells in the lung. In allergic asthma patients, elevated neurotrophin levels in the blood and locally in the lung are commonly observed. Additionally, structural cells of the lung and immune cells, present in the lung during airway inflammation, were shown to be capable of neurotrophin production. A functional relationship between neurotrophins and the main features of asthma was revealed, as airway obstruction, airway inflammation, AHR and airway remodelling were all shown to be stimulated by neurotrophins. The aim of the present review is to provide an overview of neurotrophin sources and target cells in the lung, concerning their possible role as mediators between structural cells, immune cells and neurons, connecting the different features of allergic asthma.


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