scholarly journals ImmGen report: sexual dimorphism in the immune system transcriptome

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shani Talia Gal-Oz ◽  
Barbara Maier ◽  
Hideyuki Yoshida ◽  
Kumba Seddu ◽  
Nitzan Elbaz ◽  
...  

Abstract Sexual dimorphism in the mammalian immune system is manifested as more frequent and severe infectious diseases in males and, on the other hand, higher rates of autoimmune disease in females, yet insights underlying those differences are still lacking. Here we characterize sex differences in the immune system by RNA and ATAC sequence profiling of untreated and interferon-induced immune cell types in male and female mice. We detect very few differentially expressed genes between male and female immune cells except in macrophages from three different tissues. Accordingly, very few genomic regions display differences in accessibility between sexes. Transcriptional sexual dimorphism in macrophages is mediated by genes of innate immune pathways, and increases after interferon stimulation. Thus, the stronger immune response of females may be due to more activated innate immune pathways prior to pathogen invasion.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise Liu ◽  
Léa Karpf ◽  
Delphine Bohl

Inflammation is a shared hallmark between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). For long, studies were conducted on tissues of post-mortem patients and neuroinflammation was thought to be only bystander result of the disease with the immune system reacting to dying neurons. In the last two decades, thanks to improving technologies, the identification of causal genes and the development of new tools and models, the involvement of inflammation has emerged as a potential driver of the diseases and evolved as a new area of intense research. In this review, we present the current knowledge about neuroinflammation in ALS, ALS-FTD, and FTD patients and animal models and we discuss reasons of failures linked to therapeutic trials with immunomodulator drugs. Then we present the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology and its interest as a new tool to have a better immunopathological comprehension of both diseases in a human context. The iPSC technology giving the unique opportunity to study cells across differentiation and maturation times, brings the hope to shed light on the different mechanisms linking neurodegeneration and activation of the immune system. Protocols available to differentiate iPSC into different immune cell types are presented. Finally, we discuss the interest in studying monocultures of iPS-derived immune cells, co-cultures with neurons and 3D cultures with different cell types, as more integrated cellular approaches. The hope is that the future work with human iPS-derived cells helps not only to identify disease-specific defects in the different cell types but also to decipher the synergistic effects between neurons and immune cells. These new cellular tools could help to find new therapeutic approaches for all patients with ALS, ALS-FTD, and FTD.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Dobreva ◽  
David Brown ◽  
Jong Hwee Park ◽  
Matt Thomson

AbstractAn individual’s immune system is driven by both genetic and environmental factors that vary over time. To better understand the temporal and inter-individual variability of gene expression within distinct immune cell types, we developed a platform that leverages multiplexed single-cell sequencing and out-of-clinic capillary blood extraction to enable simplified, cost-effective profiling of the human immune system across people and time at single-cell resolution. Using the platform, we detect widespread differences in cell type-specific gene expression between subjects that are stable over multiple days.SummaryIncreasing evidence implicates the immune system in an overwhelming number of diseases, and distinct cell types play specific roles in their pathogenesis.1,2 Studies of peripheral blood have uncovered a wealth of associations between gene expression, environmental factors, disease risk, and therapeutic efficacy.4 For example, in rheumatoid arthritis, multiple mechanistic paths have been found that lead to disease, and gene expression of specific immune cell types can be used as a predictor of therapeutic non-response.12 Furthermore, vaccines, drugs, and chemotherapy have been shown to yield different efficacy based on time of administration, and such findings have been linked to the time-dependence of gene expression in downstream pathways.21,22,23 However, human immune studies of gene expression between individuals and across time remain limited to a few cell types or time points per subject, constraining our understanding of how networks of heterogeneous cells making up each individual’s immune system respond to adverse events and change over time.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 1201-1208
Author(s):  
Igor Krizaj

Secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) molecules constitute a family of proteins that are involved functionally in many biological processes. In particular, they participate in diverse pathophysiological settings as enzymes that release free fatty acids and lysophospholipids from phospholipids in biological membranes, or as ligands for various cellular receptors. In this review the confirmed or expected functions of sPLA2s in the mammalian immune system are surveyed. Some of the twelve mammalian sPLA2 molecules constitute part of the so-called innate immune system by virtue of their antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal activities. They are also involved in acute inflammation, a protective reaction of the body to infection or injury. The acute inflammation sometimes escapes regulation, becomes chronic and can evolve into a severe pathology. One or more types of sPLA2 are involved in asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and cancer. sPLA2s are thus important therapeutic targets as well as biotherapeutic molecules. Improving the selectivity of inhibitors of sPLA2s to be able to target a particular sPLA2 could therefore be one of the most important tasks for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e000363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Chuah ◽  
Valerie Chew

Immunotherapy is a rapidly growing field for cancer treatment. In contrast to conventional cancer therapies, immunotherapeutic strategies focus on reactivating the immune system to mount an antitumor response. Despite the encouraging outcome in clinical trials, a large proportion of patients still do not respond to treatment and many experience different degrees of immune-related adverse events. Furthermore, it is now increasingly appreciated that even many conventional cancer therapies such as radiotherapy could have a positive impact on the host immune system for better clinical response. Hence, there is a need to better understand tumor immunity in order to design immunotherapeutic strategies, especially evidence-based combination therapies, for improved clinical outcomes. With this aim, cancer research turned its attention to profiling the immune contexture of either the tumor microenvironment (TME) or peripheral blood to uncover mechanisms and biomarkers which might aid in precision immunotherapeutics. Conventional technologies used for this purpose were limited by the depth and dimensionality of the data. Advances in newer techniques have, however, greatly improved the breadth and depth, as well as the quantity and quality of data that can be obtained. The result of these advances is a wealth of new information and insights on how the TME could be affected by various immune cell-types, and how this might in turn impact the clinical outcome of cancer patients . We highlight herein some of the high-dimensional technologies currently employed in immune profiling in cancer and summarize the insights and potential benefits they could bring in designing better cancer immunotherapies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Noah ◽  
Thomas M. Li ◽  
Leandro M. Martinez ◽  
Susumu Wada ◽  
Jacob B. Swanson ◽  
...  

Tendon injuries are a common clinical condition with limited treatment options. The cellular components of the innate immune system, such as neutrophils and macrophages, have been studied in tendon injuries. However, the adaptive immune system, comprising specialized lymphocytes, plays an important role in orchestrating the healing of numerous tissues, but less is known about these cells in tendon healing. To gain a greater understanding of the biological processes that regulate tendon healing, we determined how the cellular components of the adaptive and innate immune system respond to a tendon injury using two-month-old male mice. We observed that lymphatic vasculature is present in the epitenon and superficial regions of Achilles tendons, and that the lymphatics drain into the popliteal lymph node. We then created an acute Achilles tenotomy followed by repair, and collected tendons and popliteal lymph nodes 1, 2, and 4 wk after injury. Tendon injury resulted in a robust adaptive immune cell response that followed an initial innate immune cell response in tendons and lymph nodes. Monocytes, neutrophils, and macrophages initially accumulated at 1 wk after injury in tendons, while dendritic cells and CD4+ T cells peaked at 2 wk after injury. B cells and CD8+ T cells progressively increased over time. In parallel, immune cells of the popliteal lymph node demonstrated a similarly coordinated response to the injury. These results suggest that there is an adaptive immune response to tendon injury, and adaptive immune cells may play a role in regulating tendon healing. NEW & NOTEWORTHY While the innate immune system, consisting of macrophages and related hematopoietic cells, has been studied in tendon injury, less is known about the adaptive immune system. Using a mouse model of Achilles tendon tenotomy and repair, we observed an adaptive immune cell response, consisting of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and B cells, which occur through 4 wk after tendon injury. This response appeared to be coordinated by the draining popliteal lymph node.


Gut ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (12) ◽  
pp. 2203-2213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Lutckii ◽  
Benedikt Strunz ◽  
Anton Zhirkov ◽  
Olga Filipovich ◽  
Elena Rukoiatkina ◽  
...  

ObjectivesVertical transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is rare compared with other chronic viral infections, despite that newborns have an immature, and possibly more susceptible, immune system. It further remains unclear to what extent prenatal and perinatal exposure to HCV affects immune system development in neonates.DesignTo address this, we studied B cells, innate immune cells and soluble factors in a cohort of 62 children that were either unexposed, exposed uninfected or infected with HCV. Forty of these infants were followed longitudinally from birth up until 18 months of age.ResultsAs expected, evidence for B cell maturation was observed with increased age in children, whereas few age-related changes were noticed among innate immune cells. HCV-infected children had a high frequency of HCV-specific IgG-secreting B cells. Such a response was also detected in some exposed but uninfected children but not in uninfected controls. Consistent with this, both HCV-exposed uninfected and HCV-infected infants had evidence of early B cell immune maturation with an increased proportion of IgA-positive plasma cells and upregulated CD40 expression. In contrast, actual HCV viraemia, but not mere exposure, led to alterations within myeloid immune cell populations, natural killer (NK) cells and a distinct soluble factor profile with increased levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines.ConclusionOur data reveal that exposure to, and infection with, HCV causes disparate effects on adaptive B cells and innate immune cell such as myeloid cells and NK cells in infants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jang Hwan Cho ◽  
Atsushi Okuma ◽  
Katri Sofjan ◽  
Seunghee Lee ◽  
James J. Collins ◽  
...  

AbstractThe immune system is a sophisticated network of different cell types performing complex biocomputation at single-cell and consortium levels. The ability to reprogram such an interconnected multicellular system holds enormous promise in treating various diseases, as exemplified by the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells as cancer therapy. However, most CAR designs lack computation features and cannot reprogram multiple immune cell types in a coordinated manner. Here, leveraging our split, universal, and programmable (SUPRA) CAR system, we develop an inhibitory feature, achieving a three-input logic, and demonstrate that this programmable system is functional in diverse adaptive and innate immune cells. We also create an inducible multi-cellular NIMPLY circuit, kill switch, and a synthetic intercellular communication channel. Our work highlights that a simple split CAR design can generate diverse and complex phenotypes and provide a foundation for engineering an immune cell consortium with user-defined functionalities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang Geng ◽  
Xiumei Ma ◽  
Zongzhe Jiang ◽  
Wei Huang ◽  
Chenlin Gao ◽  
...  

A growing body of evidence suggests that the interaction between immune and metabolic responses is essential for maintaining tissue and organ homeostasis. These interacting disorders contribute to the development of chronic diseases associated with immune-aging such as diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In Diabetic wound (DW), innate immune cells respond to the Pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMAs) and/or Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), changes from resting to an active phenotype, and play an important role in the triggering and maintenance of inflammation. Furthermore, the abnormal activation of innate immune pathways secondary to immune-aging also plays a key role in DW healing. Here, we review studies of innate immune cellular molecular events that identify metabolic disorders in the local microenvironment of DW and provide a historical perspective. At the same time, we describe some of the recent progress, such as TLR receptor-mediated intracellular signaling pathways that lead to the activation of NF-κB and the production of various pro-inflammatory mediators, NLRP3 inflammatory via pyroptosis, induction of IL-1β and IL-18, cGAS-STING responds to mitochondrial injury and endoplasmic reticulum stress, links sensing of metabolic stress to activation of pro-inflammatory cascades. Besides, JAK-STAT is also involved in DW healing by mediating the action of various innate immune effectors. Finally, we discuss the great potential of targeting these innate immune pathways and reprogramming innate immune cell phenotypes in DW therapy.


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