scholarly journals A Natural Immunological Adjuvant Enhances T Cell Clonal Expansion through a CD28-dependent, Interleukin (IL)-2–independent Mechanism

1998 ◽  
Vol 187 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Khoruts ◽  
Anna Mondino ◽  
Kathryn A. Pape ◽  
Steven L. Reiner ◽  
Marc K. Jenkins

The adoptive transfer of naive CD4+ T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic T cells was used to investigate the mechanisms by which the adjuvant lipopolysaccharide (LPS) enhance T cell clonal expansion in vivo. Subcutaneous administration of soluble antigen (Ag) resulted in rapid and transient accumulation of the Ag-specific T cells in the draining lymph nodes (LNs), which was preceded by the production of interleukin (IL)-2. CD28-deficient, Ag-specific T cells produced only small amounts of IL-2 in response to soluble Ag and did not accumulate in the LN to the same extent as wild-type T cells. Injection of Ag and LPS, a natural immunological adjuvant, enhanced IL-2 production and LN accumulation of wild-type, Ag-specific T cells but had no significant effect on CD28-deficient, Ag-specific T cells. Therefore, CD28 is critical for Ag-driven IL-2 production and T cell proliferation in vivo, and is essential for the LPS-mediated enhancement of these events. However, enhancement of IL-2 production could not explain the LPS-dependent increase of T cell accumulation because IL-2–deficient, Ag-specific T cells accumulated to a greater extent in the LN than wild-type T cells in response to Ag plus LPS. These results indicate that adjuvants improve T cell proliferation in vivo via a CD28-dependent signal that can operate in the absence of IL-2.

Blood ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 90 (11) ◽  
pp. 4513-4521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Körholz ◽  
Ursula Banning ◽  
Halvard Bönig ◽  
Markus Grewe ◽  
Marion Schneider ◽  
...  

Abstract Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a potent T-cell stimulating factor, which has recently been used for pre-clinical in vivo immunotherapy. Here, the IL-15 effect on CD3-stimulated peripheral human T cells was investigated. IL-15 induced a significant T-cell proliferation and upregulated CD25 expression. IL-15 significantly enhanced T-cell production of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and IL-10. Between 10- and 100-fold greater concentrations of IL-15 were necessary to reach a biological effect equivalent to that of IL-2. Blockade of IL-2 binding to the high-affinity IL-2 receptor did not affect the IL-15 effects, suggesting that IL-15 did not act by inducing endogenous IL-2. Exogenously administered IL-10 significantly reduced the IL-15 and IL-2–mediated IFN-γ and TNF-α production, whereas T-cell proliferation and CD25 expression were not affected. The inhibitory effects of exogenously administered IL-10 on T-cell cytokine production appeared indirect, and are likely secondary to decreased IL-12 production by accessory cells. Inhibition of endogenous IL-10 binding to the IL-10 receptor significantly increased IFN-γ and TNF-α release from T cells. These data suggest that endogenous IL-10 can regulate activated T-cell production of IFN-γ and TNF-α via a paracrine negative feedback loop. The observations of this study could be of relevance for the therapeutic use of IL-15 in vivo.


Blood ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 114 (22) ◽  
pp. 2424-2424
Author(s):  
Yiming Huang ◽  
Larry D Bozulic ◽  
Thomas Miller ◽  
Hong Xu ◽  
Yujie Wen ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 2424 Poster Board II-401 We previously reported that CD8+TCR- facilitating cells (FC) induce the generation of chimeric regulatory T cells (Treg) in vivo. Transplantation of a mixture of CD8+/TCR- FC and hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) into ablated recipients results in chimerism and tolerance. Treg harvested from the spleen of chimeras (chimeric Treg) potently increase long-term donor chimerism in secondary NOD recipient mice. Here, we evaluated whether chimeric Treg enhance engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in an antigen-specific manner. To prepare mixed chimeras (B6 → NOD), NOD recipients were conditioned with 950 cGy TBI and transplanted with 10,000 B6 HSC and 1,000 NOD HSC plus 45,000 CD8+TCR- B6 FC. At 5 weeks, CD8-CD4+CD25bright chimeric Treg were sorted from spleens of the mixed chimeras (B6 → NOD). 100,000 chimeric Treg were then mixed with 10,000 B6 HSC (donor-specific) + 10,000 B10.BR HSC (third-party) and transplanted into conditioned NOD recipients in competitive repopulation assays. NOD mice given HSC plus nonchimeric naïve B6 Treg or HSC alone served as controls. Two of the four animals that received HSC alone engrafted and exhibited an average of 6.7% donor B6 chimerism at 30 days, 11.2% at 60 days, and 10.6% at 90 days. Three of five animals given HSC plus naïve B6 Treg engrafted with 21.3% donor B6 chimerism at 30 days, 28.8% at 60 days, and 28.9% at 90 days. In contrast, eight of nine recipients of HSC + chimeric Treg engrafted. These animals exhibited a significantly higher level of donor B6 chimerism, ranging from 56.3% at 30 days, 75.4% at 60 days to 85% at 90 days (P = 0.034). None of the recipients engrafted with the MHC-disparate third-party B10.BR HSC. We then assessed the suppressive function of chimeric Tregin vitro by using MLR suppressor cell assays. CD8-/CD4+/CD25bright Treg were sorted from chimeric spleens 5 wks to 12 wks after HSC + FC transplantation. As shown in the Figure 1, Treg from naïve B6 mice resulted in 1.9 fold; 1.3 fold and 1.1 fold inhibition of proliferation at 1:1, 1:0.25, 1:0.125 responder/Treg ratios (n = 3). In contrast, chimeric Treg potently suppressed T cell proliferation by 10.5 fold; 3.2 fold; and 1.7 fold at responder/Treg ratios of 1:1, 1:0.25, 1:0.125 (n = 4). Chimeric Treg significantly suppressed T cell proliferation at responder/Treg ratios of 1:1 and 1:0.25 compared with naïve B6 Treg (P < 0.05). NOD responder splenocytes remained hypoproliferative in response to B6 stimulator and chimeric Treg compared with stimulator plus B6 Treg, suggesting that chimeric Treg are significantly more potent than naïve B6 Treg in suppressing effector T cell proliferation in vitro. These data show that chimeric Treg enhance donor B6 HSC engraftment but not third-party B10.BR HSC, demonstrating that chimeric Treg function in vivo in an antigen-specific fashion. These data also show that the mechanism of FC function in vivo is associated with the establishment of an antigen-specific regulatory feedback loop. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures: Bozulic: Regenerex: Employment. Ildstad:Regenerex: Equity Ownership.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 4484-4484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Pierini ◽  
Lucrezia Colonna ◽  
Maite Alvarez ◽  
Dominik Schneidawind ◽  
Byung-Su Kim ◽  
...  

Adoptive transfer of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) prevents graft versus host disease (GvHD) in several animal models and following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in clinical trials. In these models donor derived Tregs have been mainly used as they share the same major histocompatibility complex (MHC) with conventional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (Tcons) that are primarily responsible for GvHD onset and persistence. Third-party derived Tregs are a promising alternative tool for cellular therapy as they can be prepared in advance, screened for pathogens and activity and banked. In this study we explored MHC disparities between Tregs and Tcons in HCT to evaluate the impact of these different cell populations in GvHD prevention and survival after transplant. Methods and Results We evaluated the ability of highly purified Treg to suppress proliferation of C57BL/6 (H-2b) Tcons following exposure to irradiated splenocytes from BALB/C (H-2d) mice in vitro in a mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). Either donor derived C57BL/6 (H-2b) or third party FVB (H-2q) Tregs suppressed Tcon proliferation at the Treg/Tcon ratios of 1:2 and 1:4. The same Treg population effectively suppressed different MHC derived Tcons where BALB/C (H-2d) or FVB (H-2q, third-party) Tcons were incubated with irradiated splenocytes from C57BL/6 (H-2b) mice and were effectively suppressed with BALB/C (H-2d) Tregs. In the MLR, third-party Tregs present the same activation molecule expression patterns as MHC matched Tregs: CTLA4 and LAG3 expression is enhanced after stimulation with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and anti-CD3/CD28 beads, while MHC class II molecule expression is increased after 3-4 days of culture with Tcons and irradiated splenocytes. Furthermore third-party and MHC matched Tregs express the same levels of interleukin-10 (IL-10). We translated these results to in vivo studies in animal models. In these studies T cell depleted bone marrow (TCD BM) from C57BL/6 (H-2b) mice was injected into lethally irradiated (total body irradiation, 8 Gy) BALB/C (H-2d) recipient mice. 2 days later GvHD was induced by injecting luc+ donor derived Tcons (1x106/mouse). Using this model GvHD was evaluated following the adoptive transfer of freshly isolated CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Tregs derived from BALB/C (H-2d, host type), C57BL/6 (H-2b, donor type), FVB (H-2q, third-party) or BALB/B (H-2b, minor mismatched with the donor, major mismatched with the host) mice at the different Treg/Tcon ratios of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:4. As expected, donor Tregs exerted the strongest dose dependent GvHD protection (p = 0.028), while host Tregs did not improve mouse survival (p = 0.58). Third-party and minor mismatched with the donor Tregs improved mouse survival (third-party and minor mismatched with the donor respectively, p = 0.028 and p = 0.17) but mice had worse GvHD score profiles (both p< 0.001) and could not recover their weight as well as mice treated with donor Tregs (both p< 0.001). In vivoTcon bioluminescent imaging confirmed these results showing a reduced Tcon proliferation in mice treated with donor, third-party and minor mismatched with the donor Tregs, the first exerting the strongest effect (after 6 weeks of observation, p< 0.001). Conclusions Our studies indicate that MHC disparities between Tregs and Tcons do not represent an insurmountable barrier for Treg function. In vitro and in vivo data strongly suggest that Tregs can suppress Tcon proliferation without requiring MHC matching. In vivo GvHD prevention efficiency was affected by MHC disparities with donor derived Treg being the most effective, however, third party Treg also resulted in GvHD attenuation. These studies indicate that both donor and third party Treg could be effective in clinical application raising the possibility of screening and banking Treg for use. Further, these studies highlight the need for activation of the Treg on host tissues to effectively suppress conventional T cell proliferation and GvHD induction. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (23) ◽  
pp. 1876-1876
Author(s):  
Hidekazu Nishikii ◽  
Byung-Su Kim ◽  
Yasuhisa Yokoyama ◽  
Jeanette Baker ◽  
Antonio Pierini ◽  
...  

Abstract Background : CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) are a subpopulation of T cells which regulate the immune system, maintain self-tolerance and enhance immune tolerance after transplantation. Several groups have demonstrated that donor-derived Treg prevent the development of lethal acute graft and host disease (GVHD) in murine allogeneic transplant models. However, the low frequency of Treg limits clinical translation. To overcome the paucity of Treg, several strategies have been developed for Treg expansion. However, the activation of other immune cells and the instability of Foxp3 expression in ex vivo culture are problematic for widescale clinical usage. Recently, we showed that a single dose of agonistic antibody to DR3 (Death receptor 3, also called tumor necrosis factor super family 25; TNFSF25) into donor mice resulted in the expansion of donor derived Treg and prevented acute GVHD (Blood. 2015). Although the treatment with DR3 antibodies can preferentially expand Treg in vivo, the precise role of DR3 signaling in Treg has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the immune phenotype, gene expression profiles, and function of Treg after activation with DR3 signaling. Methods: To analyze the heterogeneous immunophenotype of Treg after DR3 signal activation, we comprehensively analyzed multicolor cytometry data using viSNE (visualization of stochastic neighbor embedding algorithm). For gene expression analysis using microarray (Affymetrix GeneChip 2.0 ST Array), CD4+Foxp3+ cells from Foxp3-GFP mice with or without DR3 activation were sorted by FACS. Normalized expression data was analyzed using TIGR Multi Experiment Viewer (MeV, version 4.9). To investigate the function of Treg after DR3 activation, CD4+CD25+Treg from wild type (WT) C57BL/6 mice (H2kb) with or without treatment of agonistic antibody to DR3 were isolated by FACS and then injected into lethally irradiated (8Gy in total) BALB/c mice (H2kd) together with 5x106 T cell depleted bone marrow (from WT C57BL/6 mice) and 1x106 T cells (C57BL/6-luciferase mice). The transplanted mice were monitored by clinical GVHD score, weight, bioluminescence imaging (BLI) for donor T cell trafficking and survival. Results: The results of viSNE showed the heterogenic elevated expression level of Nrp1, Helios (natural occurring Treg marker/transcription factor), CD103, KLRG1, CD44, ICOS, PD-1, Lag3, TIGIT (effector or inhibitory molecules), and Ki67 (proliferation marker) in Treg after DR3 activation. On the other hand, the expression of CD25, the receptor for IL-2 was down regulated. In the microarray data, a significant elevated level (>2 fold relative expression levels in DR3 activated Treg) of chemokine/cytokine (ccr3, cxcl10) and effector molecules (CD74, Gzmb) were observed. These data suggest that the effect of DR3 signaling in Treg results in not only the expansion of Treg but also their activation. In transplantation experiments, the mice that received DR3 activated Treg (5X105/mouse) showed significantly lower donor T cell proliferation compared with the mice that received non-activated Tregs (n=5 in each group, P<0.01 on day 7 and 10 after transplant). Interestingly, even a smaller number (1x105/mouse) of DR3 treated Treg suppressed donor T cell proliferation in host mice (n=5 in each group, P<0.05 on day7 and day10), and the survival of the mice in the DR3 activated Treg group was also improved compared with control GVHD group (n=10 in each group, P<0.01 in Log-rank test). These data suggested that Treg isolated after DR3 activation were more functional for the prevention in GVHD. Conclusion: In conclusion, our data demonstrate that the activation of DR3 signaling can induce Treg populations with enhanced function in vivo. These observations support for future clinical testing using human DR3 signal modulation. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Aras Toker

<p>Glatiramer acetate (GA) is approved for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), and can suppress experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a murine model of human MS. GA treatment is associated with the induction of anti-inflammatory TH2 responses and with the antigen specific expansion of regulatory T cells that counteract or inhibit pathogenic events in MS and EAE. These T cell mediated mechanisms of protection are considered to be a result of modulation of antigen presenting cells (APCs) by GA, rather than direct effects on T cells. However, it is unknown if GA preferentially targets a specific APC subset or can act through multiple APCs in vivo. In addition, GA-modulated innate cells may also exhibit direct antigen non-specific suppression of autoreactive cells. One objective of this study was to identify the in vivo target cell population of GA and to assess the potential of the target cells to antigen non-specifically suppress immune responses. Fluorophor-labelled GA bound to monocytes after intravenous injections, suggesting that monocytes may be the primary target of GA in vivo. In addition, intravenous GA treatment enhanced the intrinsic ability of monocytes to suppress T cell proliferation, both in vitro and in vivo. The findings of this study therefore suggest that GA-induced monocytes may contribute to GA therapy through direct mechanisms of antigen non-specific T cell immunosuppression. A further objective of this work was to investigate the potential of an in vivo drug targeting approach. This approach was hypothesised to increase the uptake of GA by the target cells and substantially improve GA treatment through antigen specific mechanisms such as induction of TH2 or regulatory T cells. Targeting antigens to professional APCs with an anti-MHC class II antibody resulted in significantly enhanced T cell proliferation in vitro. However, no EAE suppression occurred when GA was targeted to MHC class II in vivo. In addition, targeting GA specifically to monocytes also failed to suppress EAE. These findings suggest that GA treatment may selectively modulate monocytes to enhance their ability to inhibit autoreactive T cells, which could be part of the mechanism by which GA ameliorates MS. Targeting GA to a specific cell type may not be a powerful approach to improve treatment, because increased proliferation of GA specific T cells is not sufficient for disease suppression, and conjugation to antibodies may functionally reduce GA to a mere antigen devoid of immunomodulatory capacity.</p>


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 1342-1342
Author(s):  
Ruth Seggewiss ◽  
Karin Lore ◽  
Elisabeth Greiner ◽  
Magnus K. Magnusson ◽  
David A. Price ◽  
...  

Abstract We and others have shown that the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib (STI571, Gleevec®) inhibits T-cell proliferation and activation at concentrations achieved in vivo. At 10μM, imatinib inhibited T-cell receptor (TCR)-mediated proliferation of purified peripheral blood T-cells almost completely. Up-regulation of the activation markers CD25 and CD69 at 24h in response to TCR cross-linking was suppressed by imatinib at a mean IC50 of 5.4μM and 7.3μM, respectively and IL-2 production was also severely impaired. However, these assays may not fully reflect the response to clinical relevant antigens. Therefore, we chose to investigate the antigen-triggered proliferation of memory CD8+ T-cells specific for immunodominant CMV and EBV HLA-A2 peptide epitopes. We used HLA-peptide tetramers to identify healthy blood donors with detectable CMV- or EBV-specific CD8+ T-cell populations. Purified T-cells from these donors were then stimulated with the CMV peptide pp65495–503 or the EBV peptide BMFLI259–267. Antigen-induced proliferation was measured by dilution of the vital dye CFSE over a period of 4 or 8 days. The magnitude of the virusspecific CD8+ T-cell population ranged from 0.5 % to 7.1% of CD8+ T-cells for CMV and from 0.05% to 0.35% of CD8+ T-cells for EBV. Antigen-specific CD8+ T-cells from all 10 donors studied proliferated in response to the CMV peptide. In 8 from 10 donors, imatinib reduced CMV peptide induced proliferation. With increasing imatinib concentrations (range: 5 – 10μM), we observed dose dependent reduction of both the number of cells undergoing cell division and the average number of divisions completed per cell. Comparable inhibition of specific T-cell proliferation in response to the EBV-derived peptide was observed in two donors. Immunoblots demonstrated that imatinib substantially reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of ZAP70 and LAT in response to TCR-mediated activation in Jurkat T-cells. Sequence comparisons of all 90 tyrosine kinase genes in the human genome for homology in the ATP binding pocket identified Lck, which is required for ZAP70 activation, as a likely target for imatinib. Our results indicate that imatinib may interfere with clinically important T-cell effector functions. As concentrations sufficient for half-maximal inhibition of TCR signalling are achieved in vivo, imatinib could increase the risk of opportunistic infections and impact on GVH and GVL reactions post-transplantation especially when used in conjuction with other immunosuppressive agents. Therefore, close monitoring of patients on imatinib for CMV reactivation or EBV-induced lymphoproliferative diseases, especially in stem cell transplant recipients, appears warranted.


Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 2537-2537
Author(s):  
Jaebok Choi ◽  
Julie Ritchey ◽  
Jessica Su ◽  
Julie Prior ◽  
Edward Ziga ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 2537 Introduction: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) have been shown to mitigate graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) while preserving the beneficial graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effect in animal models of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). However, three major obstacles prevent their use in human clinical trials: the low numbers of Tregs, loss of suppressor activity following in vitro expansion, and the lack of Treg-specific markers to purify expanded Tregs. The locus of the Foxp3 gene, the master regulator of Tregs, is unmethylated and expressed only in Tregs. We have recently reported that the hypomethylating agent azacitidine (AzaC) induces FOXP3 expression in non-Tregs, converting them into Tregs in vitro and in vivo when administered after allogeneic BMT completely mitigating GvHD without abrogating GvL (Choi, et al Blood 2010). Three possible mechanisms for these effects include: 1) AzaC induces FOXP3+ Tregs, which in turn mitigate GvHD without abrogating GvL by regulating alloreactive donor T cells, 2) AzaC directly suppresses the proliferation of alloreactive donor T cells reducing GvHD, 3) AzaC alters donor T cell trafficking to GvHD target organs to prevent GvHD without altering interaction of donor T cells with recipient leukemia or trafficking of leukemic cells. Methods: Balb/c (CD45.2+, H-2Kd) were lethally irradiated one day prior to injection of T cell-depleted BM cells isolated from B6 (CD45.1+, H-2Kb) and luciferase-expressing A20 leukemia cells derived from Balb/c. Allogeneic donor T cells isolated from B6 (CD45.2+, H-2Kb) were given 11 days after BMT. AzaC (2 mg/kg) was administrated subcutaneously every other day (4 doses total) starting 4 days after T cell injection. In vivo bioluminescence imaging (BLI) was performed to assess leukemia cell localization. For T cell proliferation/trafficking analyses, Balb/c were lethally irradiated one day prior to injection of T cell-depleted BM cells isolated from B6 (CD45.1+). Allogeneic donor T cells isolated from B6 (CD45.2+) were transduced with Click Beetle Red luciferase and were given 11 days after BMT, followed by AzaC treatment as described above. BLI was performed to track the donor T cells. Results: While neither T cell or leukemia cell trafficking was affected by the AzaC treatment, proliferation of donor T cells was significantly reduced compared to mice treated with PBS. The observed reduced T cell proliferation is not likely due to the direct effect of AzaC on T cells since the AzaC treatment preserved GvL activity comparable with the PBS control group. In addition, T cells isolated from both AzaC and PBS groups were equally reactive against third party antigen presenting cells, based on mixed lymphocyte reactions and cytotoxic T lymphocyte killing assays. These data along with our previous report demonstrating that the AzaC treatment increases Tregs in vivo strongly suggest that the therapeutic effect of AzaC on GvHD and GvL are mediated by the AzaC-induced Tregs which preferentially target alloreactive T cells while preferentially sparing anti-tumor T cells. Currently, secondary transplantation of Treg-depleted/replete T cells isolated from AzaC/PBS-treated recipient mice is underway to further confirm that donor T cells in the AzaC-treated mice are fully functional and that alloresponses of donor T cells are regulated by AzaC-induced Tregs. Conclusions: In vivo administration of AzaC after donor T cell infusion mitigates GvHD while preserving GvL via peripheral conversion of alloreactive donor T cells to FOXP3+ Tregs that preferentially inhibit alloreactive T cells while sparing anti-tumor T cells. These data provides the foundation for future clinical trials using epigenetic therapy aimed at mitigating GvHD without abrogating GvL and overcoming HLA barriers. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 124 (21) ◽  
pp. 845-845
Author(s):  
Yongxia Wu ◽  
David Bastian ◽  
Jessica Lauren Heinrichs ◽  
Jianing Fu ◽  
Hung Nguyen ◽  
...  

Abstract Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains a life threatening complication after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). Donor T cells are the key pathogenic effectors in the induction of GVHD. MicroRNAs (miRs) have been shown to play an important role in orchestrating immune response, among which miR-17-92 cluster is one of the best characterized miR clusters that encodes 6 miRs including 17, 18a, 19a, 20a, 19b-1 and 92-1. Although regulatory functions of miR-17-92 cluster have been elaborated in a variety of immune responses including anti-infection, anti-tumor, and autoimmunity, the role of this miR cluster in the modulation of T-cell response to alloantigens and the development of GVHD has not been explored previously. Based on the previous report that miR-17-92 promotes Th1 responses and inhibits induced regulatory T-cell (iTreg) differentiation in vitro, we hypothesized that blockade of miR-17-92 would constrain T-cell alloresponse and attenuate GVHD. To evaluate the function of miR-17-92 on T-cell alloresponse, we utilized the mice with miR-17-92 conditional knock-out (KO) on T cells as donors, and compared the alloresponse of WT and KO T cells after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT). We observed that KO T cells had substantially reduced ability to proliferate and produce IFNγ as compared to WT counterparts 4 days after cell transfer. Interestingly, CD4 but not CD8 KO T cells had increased cell death in the population of fast-dividing T cells. Thus, miR-17-92 cluster promotes activation and expansion of both CD4 and CD8 T cells, and inhibits activation-induced cell death of CD4 but not CD8 T cells at the early stage of alloresponse in vivo. We further evaluated the role of miR-17-92 on T cells in the development of acute GVHD in a fully MHC-mismatched BMT model. In sharp contrast to WT T cells that caused severe GVHD and resulted in 100% mortality of the recipients, KO T cells were impaired in causing severe GVHD reflected by mild clinical manifestations and no mortality. These observations were extended to MHC-matched but minor antigen-mismatched as well as haploidentical BMT models that are more clinically relevant. We next addressed the critical question whether T cells deficient for miR-17-92 are still capable of mediating graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect. Using A20 lymphoma and P815 mastocytoma cell lines, we demonstrated that the KO T cells essentially retained the GVL activity in MHC-mismatched and haploidentical BMT model, respectively. Mechanistic studies revealed that miR-17-92 promoted CD4 T-cell proliferation, survival, migration to target organs, and Th1-differentiation, but reduced Th2-differentiation and iTreg generation. However, miR-17-92 had less impact on CD8 T-cell proliferation, survival, IFNγ production, and cytolytic activity reflected by granzyme B and CD107a expression. Moreover, miR-17-92 negatively regulated TNFα production by both CD4 and CD8 T cells. We therefore conclude that miR-17-92 cluster is required for T cells to induce severe GVHD, but it is dispensable for T cells to mediate the GVL effect. To increase translational potential of our findings, we designed the locked nucleic acid (LNA) antagomirs specific for miR-17 or miR-19, which have been reported to be the key members in this cluster. We observed that the treatment with anti-miR-17 significantly inhibited T-cell expansion and IFNγ production in response to alloantigen in vivo, and anti-miR-19 was more effective. Furthermore, our ongoing experiment showed the treatment with anti-miR-17 or anti-miR-19 was able to considerably attenuate the severity of GVHD as compared to scrambled antagomir in a MHC-mismatched BMT model. Taken together, the current work reveals that miR-17-92 cluster is essential for T-cell alloresponse and GVHD development, and validates miR-17-92 cluster as promising therapeutic target for the control of GVHD while preserving GVL activity in allogeneic HCT. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2004 ◽  
Vol 72 (12) ◽  
pp. 7045-7054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella E. Erfurth ◽  
Sabine Gröbner ◽  
Uwe Kramer ◽  
Dani S. J. Gunst ◽  
Irena Soldanova ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Yersinia enterocolitica evades innate immunity by expression of a variety of pathogenicity factors. Therefore, adaptive immunity including CD4+ T cells plays an important role in defense against Y. enterocolitica. We investigated whether Y. enterocolitica might target dendritic cells (DC) involved in adaptive T-cell responses. For this purpose, murine DC were infected with Y. enterocolitica wild-type and mutant strains prior to incubation with ovalbumin (OVA) as antigen and 5-(6)-carboxyfluorescein diacetate N-succinimidyl ester-labeled OVA-specific T cells from DO11.10 mice. While T-cell proliferation was partially affected by infection of DC with plasmid-cured and YopP-deficient Yersinia mutant strains, no T-cell proliferation occurred after infection of DC with wild-type Y. enterocolitica. Infection of DC with Y. enterocolitica wild type resulted in decreased up-regulation of major histocompatibility complex class II, CD54 (intercellular adhesion molecule 1), CD 80, and CD86 expression. Experiments with plasmid-cured Y. enterocolitica or a YopP-deficient mutant strain revealed that YopP accounts for inhibition of surface molecule expression. Wild-type Y. enterocolitica suppressed the release of KC, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-10 (IL-10), and IL-12 by DC, while infection of DC with plasmid-cured Y. enterocolitica or with the YopP-deficient mutant resulted in the production of these cytokines. Moreover, infection with wild-type Y. enterocolitica induced apoptosis in DC mediated by YopP. Apoptosis occurred despite translocation of NF-κB to the nucleus, as demonstrated by electromobility shift assays. Together, these data demonstrate that Y. enterocolitica targets functions of murine DC that are required for T-cell activation. This might contribute to evasion of adaptive immune responses by Y. enterocolitica.


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