scholarly journals Tetrameric Complexes of Human Histocompatibility Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-G Bind to Peripheral Blood Myelomonocytic Cells

1999 ◽  
Vol 189 (7) ◽  
pp. 1149-1156 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S.J. Allan ◽  
Marco Colonna ◽  
Lewis L. Lanier ◽  
Tatyana D. Churakova ◽  
John S. Abrams ◽  
...  

The nonclassical MHC class I molecule human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G is selectively expressed on fetal trophoblast tissue at the maternal–fetal interface in pregnancy. It has long been suggested that HLA-G may inhibit maternal natural killer (NK) cells through interaction with particular NK cell receptors (KIRs). To investigate interactions of HLA-G, we constructed phycoerythrin-labeled tetrameric complexes of HLA-G refolded with a self-peptide. These HLA-G tetramers failed to bind to NK cells and cells transfected with CD94/NKG2 and killer immunoglobulin-like NK receptors. In contrast, HLA-G tetramers did bind to peripheral blood monocytes, staining a CD16+CD14mid subset with greater intensity. On transfectants, HLA-G tetramers bound to inhibitory immunoglobulin-like transcript (ILT)2 and ILT4 receptors. However, staining in the presence of antibodies reactive with ILT receptors revealed that the interaction of HLA-G tetramers with blood monocytes was largely due to binding to ILT4. These results suggest that the primary role of HLA-G may be the modulation of myelomonocytic cell behavior in pregnancy.

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1802
Author(s):  
Nayoung Kim ◽  
Mi Yeon Kim ◽  
Woo Seon Choi ◽  
Eunbi Yi ◽  
Hyo Jung Lee ◽  
...  

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate cytotoxic lymphocytes that provide early protection against cancer. NK cell cytotoxicity against cancer cells is triggered by multiple activating receptors that recognize specific ligands expressed on target cells. We previously demonstrated that glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3β, but not GSK-3α, is a negative regulator of NK cell functions via diverse activating receptors, including NKG2D and NKp30. However, the role of GSK-3 isoforms in the regulation of specific ligands on target cells is poorly understood, which remains a challenge limiting GSK-3 targeting for NK cell-based therapy. Here, we demonstrate that GSK-3α rather than GSK-3β is the primary isoform restraining the expression of NKG2D ligands, particularly ULBP2/5/6, on tumor cells, thereby regulating their susceptibility to NK cells. GSK-3α also regulated the expression of the NKp30 ligand B7-H6, but not the DNAM-1 ligands PVR or nectin-2. This regulation occurred independently of BCR-ABL1 mutation that confers tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) resistance. Mechanistically, an increase in PI3K/Akt signaling in concert with c-Myc was required for ligand upregulation in response to GSK-3α inhibition. Importantly, GSK-3α inhibition improved cancer surveillance by human NK cells in vivo. Collectively, our results highlight the distinct role of GSK-3 isoforms in the regulation of NK cell reactivity against target cells and suggest that GSK-3α modulation could be used to enhance tumor cell susceptibility to NK cells in an NKG2D- and NKp30-dependent manner.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. eabc2331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose M. Ayuso ◽  
Shujah Rehman ◽  
Maria Virumbrales-Munoz ◽  
Patrick H. McMinn ◽  
Peter Geiger ◽  
...  

Solid tumors generate a suppressive environment that imposes an overwhelming burden on the immune system. Nutrient depletion, waste product accumulation, hypoxia, and pH acidification severely compromise the capacity of effector immune cells such as T and natural killer (NK) cells to destroy cancer cells. However, the specific molecular mechanisms driving immune suppression, as well as the capacity of immune cells to adapt to the suppressive environment, are not completely understood. Thus, here, we used an in vitro microfluidic tumor-on-a-chip platform to evaluate how NK cells respond to the tumor-induced suppressive environment. The results demonstrated that the suppressive environment created by the tumor gradually eroded NK cell cytotoxic capacity, leading to compromised NK cell surveillance and tumor tolerance. Further, NK cell exhaustion persisted for an extended period of time after removing NK cells from the microfluidic platform. Last, the addition of checkpoint inhibitors and immunomodulatory agents alleviated NK cell exhaustion.


Author(s):  
Luis Sánchez-del-Campo ◽  
Román Martí-Díaz ◽  
María F. Montenegro ◽  
Rebeca González-Guerrero ◽  
Trinidad Hernández-Caselles ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The application of immune-based therapies has revolutionized cancer treatment. Yet how the immune system responds to phenotypically heterogeneous populations within tumors is poorly understood. In melanoma, one of the major determinants of phenotypic identity is the lineage survival oncogene MITF that integrates diverse microenvironmental cues to coordinate melanoma survival, senescence bypass, differentiation, proliferation, invasion, metabolism and DNA damage repair. Whether MITF also controls the immune response is unknown. Methods By using several mouse melanoma models, we examine the potential role of MITF to modulate the anti-melanoma immune response. ChIP-seq data analysis, ChIP-qPCR, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, and luciferase reporter assays were utilized to identify ADAM10 as a direct MITF target gene. Western blotting, confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, and natural killer (NK) cytotoxicity assays were used to determine the underlying mechanisms by which MITF-driven phenotypic plasticity modulates melanoma NK cell-mediated killing. Results Here we show that MITF regulates expression of ADAM10, a key sheddase that cleaves the MICA/B family of ligands for NK cells. By controlling melanoma recognition by NK-cells MITF thereby controls the melanoma response to the innate immune system. Consequently, while melanoma MITFLow cells can be effectively suppressed by NK-mediated killing, MITF-expressing cells escape NK cell surveillance. Conclusion Our results reveal how modulation of MITF activity can impact the anti-melanoma immune response with implications for the application of anti-melanoma immunotherapies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 656
Author(s):  
Hantae Jo ◽  
Byungsun Cha ◽  
Haneul Kim ◽  
Sofia Brito ◽  
Byeong Mun Kwak ◽  
...  

Natural killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes that can directly destroy cancer cells. When NK cells are activated, CD56 and CD107a markers are able to recognize cancer cells and release perforin and granzyme B proteins that induce apoptosis in the targeted cells. In this study, we focused on the role of phytoncides in activating NK cells and promoting anticancer effects. We tested the effects of several phytoncide compounds on NK-92mi cells and demonstrated that α-pinene treatment exhibited higher anticancer effects, as observed by the increased levels of perforin, granzyme B, CD56 and CD107a. Furthermore, α-pinene treatment in NK-92mi cells increased NK cell cytotoxicity in two different cell lines, and immunoblot assays revealed that the ERK/AKT pathway is involved in NK cell cytotoxicity in response to phytoncides. Furthermore, CT-26 colon cancer cells were allografted subcutaneously into BALB/c mice, and α-pinene treatment then inhibited allografted tumor growth. Our findings demonstrate that α-pinene activates NK cells and increases NK cell cytotoxicity, suggesting it is a potential compound for cancer immunotherapy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A578-A578
Author(s):  
Andreia Maia ◽  
Joana Lerias ◽  
Markus Maeurer ◽  
Mireia Castillo-Martin

BackgroundAdoptive immunotherapy relies on the use of T-cells to target tumour cells, through Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class I recognition(1). However, many tumours display alterations in the MHC-I pathway, a well-described immune evasion mechanism(2). Natural Killer (NK) cells recognize transformed cells independently from the presence of MHC-I and may be a reliable therapeutic option for patients with altered tumour MHC-I expression. The source of NK cells may be autologous or allogeneic and NK cells are also clinically relevant recipients of transgenic receptors (TCRs or antibodies) targeting tumour cells. NK cells have been categorized according to their CD56 and CD16 surface expression into different subpopulations: cytotoxic (CD56+CD16+) and regulatory (CD56brightCD16-)(3). Expanding cytotoxic NK cells is challenging, since the frequency of NK cells is low in peripheral blood(4) and there is also – at this point – not an optimal expansion protocol available.The goal of this project is to determine the best cytokine combination that facilitates expansion of cytotoxic NK cells that either target tumor cells directly or serve as recipients for transgenic receptors.MethodsPeripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) were extracted using Ficoll methodology from blood donors and cultured in T25 flasks with Cell Genix Medium supplemented with 10% human serum and antibiotics. NK cells were expanded supplemented with feeder cells (ratio 1:1) and different cytokine combinations (1000 U/mL of IL-2, 10 U/ml of IL-12, 180 U/mL of IL-15 and/or 1 U/mL of IL-21) during 20 days. The immunophenotype of expanded NK cells was analyzed at days 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 by flow cytometry. The cytotoxicity of NK cells was measured by a CD107a Assay or by a Total Cytotoxicity and Apoptosis Assay at days 10 and 20. Thirteen different cytokine combinations were tested.Results4/13 cytokine combinations produced a statistically significant increase of the absolute number of NK cells with a higher percentage of cytotoxic NK cells (figure 1). However, induction of cytotoxicity was not associated with a strong NK cell expansion. The regulatory NK cells subset (CD56brightCD16-) showed the highest percentage of CD107a-expressing cells, more than the CD56+CD16+, the most cytotoxic subpopulation of NK cells.Abstract 542 Figure 1Representative percentage of NK cells in total lymphocytes (A), CD56+CD16+ subpopulation in total NK cells (B), and CD56brightCD16- subpopulation amongst total NK cells (C) at different time points (5, 10, 15 and 20 days) expanded from PBMCs* p-value < 0.05ConclusionsThis work shows that we are able to grow and efficiently expand NK cells from PBMCs with different cytokine combinations leading to clinically relevant NK cell numbers as well as cytotoxic functions. This enables to produce NK cell products for therapy and as recipients for transgenic tumor antigen-specific receptors.AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank the Champalimaud Foundation Biobank, the Vivarium Facility and the Flow Cytometry Platform of the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown.Ethics ApprovalThis study was approved by the Champalimaud Foundation Ethics Committee and by the Ethics Research Committee of NOVA Medical School of NOVA University of Lisbon.ConsentWritten informed consent was obtained from the blood donors to use their samples for research purposes.ReferencesRosenberg SA, Restifo NP, Yang JC, Morgan RA, Mark E. Adoptive cell transfer: a clinical path to effective cancer immunotherapy. Nat Rev Cancer 2008;8(4):299–308.Aptsiauri N, Ruiz-Cabello F, Garrido F. The transition from HLA-I positive to HLA-I negative primary tumors: the road to escape from T-cell responses. Curr Opin Immunol 2018;51:123–32.Di Vito C, Mikulak J, Mavilio D. On the way to become a natural killer cell. Front Immunol. 2019;10(August):1–15.Zotto G Del, Antonini F, Pesce S, Moretta F, Moretta L. Comprehensive phenotyping of human PB NK Cells by Flow Cytometry. 2020;1–9.


Blood ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-164
Author(s):  
V Pistoia ◽  
S Zupo ◽  
A Corcione ◽  
S Roncella ◽  
L Matera ◽  
...  

Highly purified natural killer (NK) cell suspensions were tested for their capacity to release colony-stimulating activity (CSA) in vitro. NK cell suspensions comprised primarily CD16+ cells and were devoid of CD3+ T cells, CD15+ monocytes, and of B cells. CSA was detected in the NK cell supernatants and sustained the growth of myeloid colonies from both normal peripheral blood and bone marrow. CSA could be in part inhibited by pretreating NK cell culture supernatants with a specific goat anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) antiserum. The inhibition, however, was never complete, a finding that suggests that additional factors were responsible for CSA. Incubation of NK cells with K562 cells (an NK-sensitive target) or with normal bone marrow cells resulted in the appearance of a strong colony- inhibiting activity (CIA) in the culture supernatants. Such CIA was demonstrable in an experimental system where bone marrow or peripheral blood progenitors were induced to form myeloid colonies in the presence of conditioned medium by CSA-producing giant cell tumor (GCT) cells. Stimulation of NK cells with NK-insensitive targets failed to induce CIA production. Neutralizing antitumor necrosis factor (TNF) monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) were found capable of inhibiting CIA present in the supernatants of NK cells stimulated with K562 cells. Following treatment with anti-TNF antibodies, CSA was again detectable in the same supernatants. This finding indicates that induction of TNF production did not concomitantly switch off CSA production by NK cells. Pretreatment of NK cells with recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) or gamma interferon (r gamma IFN) did not change the amount of CSA released. However, treatment with rIL-2 caused the appearance of a factor in the NK cell supernatants capable of sustaining the formation of colonies of a larger size.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A159-A159
Author(s):  
Michael Whang ◽  
Ming-Hong Xie ◽  
Kate Jamboretz ◽  
Hadia Lemar ◽  
Chao Guo ◽  
...  

BackgroundPeripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells are mature cytotoxic innate lymphocytes possessing an inherent capacity for tumor cell killing, thus making them attractive candidates for adoptive cell therapy. These NK cells are also amenable to CRISPR and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) genomic engineering for enhanced functions. Moreover, NK cells possess an inherent capacity for off-the-shelf therapy since they are not known to cause graft-versus-host disease, unlike T cells. Presently, approved CAR cell therapy is custom-made from each patient‘s own T cells, a process that can limit patient pool, narrow therapeutic window, and contribute to product variability. In this study, we investigate whether peripheral blood NK cells from a selected donor can be edited, engineered, and expanded sufficiently for off-the-shelf use in a wide patient population.MethodsUsing the CRISPR/Cas9 system, we knocked out CISH expression in isolated peripheral blood NK cells from 3 healthy donors. Subsequently, we expanded edited NK cells by using IL-2 and sequential stimulations using NKSTIM, a modified K562 stimulatory cell line expressing membrane-bound form of IL-15 (mbIL-15) and 4-1BBL. IL-12 and IL-18 were added twice during expansion to drive memory-like NK cell differentiation. We transduced the expanded NK cells to express engineered CD19-targeted CAR and mbIL-15 during an interval between the first and second NKSTIM pulses. We assessed NK cell cytotoxicity against Nalm6 target cells by IncuCyte.ResultsIsolated peripheral blood NK cells from 3 healthy donors were successfully edited using CRISPR/Cas9, engineered to express high levels of CAR, extensively expanded using a series of NKSTIM pulses in the presence of IL-2, and differentiated into memory-like NK cells using IL-12 and IL-18. Interestingly, NK cells from the 3 donors exhibited distinct outcomes. NK cells from one donor reached a peak expansion limit of approximately 7-million-fold before undergoing contraction whereas NK cells from two donors continued to expand over the length of the study surpassing 100-million-fold expansion, without appearing to have reached a terminal expansion limit. At the end of the study, NK cells from one donor exceeded 1-billion-fold expansion and maintained 88% cytolytic activity compared to Nkarta’s standard process control in a 72-hour IncuCyte assay.ConclusionsIn this study, we demonstrate that healthy donor-derived peripheral blood NK cells are capable of expanding over billion-fold while maintaining potency. These results provide a rationale for the development of off-the-shelf CAR NK cell therapies using NK cells from donors selected to provide optimal product characteristics.Ethics ApprovalHuman samples were collected with written informed consent by an approved vendor.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Gianchecchi ◽  
Domenico V. Delfino ◽  
Alessandra Fierabracci

Autoimmune diseases recognize a multifactorial pathogenesis, although the exact mechanism responsible for their onset remains to be fully elucidated. Over the past few years, the role of natural killer (NK) cells in shaping immune responses has been highlighted even though their involvement is profoundly linked to the subpopulation involved and to the site where such interaction takes place. The aberrant number and functionality of NK cells have been reported in several different autoimmune disorders. In the present review, we report the most recent findings regarding the involvement of NK cells in both systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes (T1D), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), primary Sjögren syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. In T1D, innate inflammation induces NK cell activation, disrupting the Treg function. In addition, certain genetic variants identified as risk factors for T1D influenced the activation of NK cells promoting their cytotoxic activity. The role of NK cells has also been demonstrated in the pathogenesis of PBC mediating direct or indirect biliary epithelial cell destruction. NK cell frequency and number were enhanced in both the peripheral blood and the liver of patients and associated with increased NK cell cytotoxic activity and perforin expression levels. NK cells were also involved in the perpetuation of disease through autoreactive CD4 T cell activation in the presence of antigen-presenting cells. In systemic sclerosis (SSc), in addition to phenotypic abnormalities, patients presented a reduction in CD56hi NK-cells. Moreover, NK cells presented a deficient killing activity. The influence of the activating and inhibitory killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) has been investigated in SSc and SLE susceptibility. Furthermore, autoantibodies to KIRs have been identified in different systemic autoimmune conditions. Because of its role in modulating the immune-mediated pathology, NK subpopulation could represent a potential marker for disease activity and target for therapeutic intervention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Kiekens ◽  
Wouter Van Loocke ◽  
Sylvie Taveirne ◽  
Sigrid Wahlen ◽  
Eva Persyn ◽  
...  

T-bet and Eomes are transcription factors that are known to be important in maturation and function of murine natural killer (NK) cells. Reduced T-BET and EOMES expression results in dysfunctional NK cells and failure to control tumor growth. In contrast to mice, the current knowledge on the role of T-BET and EOMES in human NK cells is rudimentary. Here, we ectopically expressed either T-BET or EOMES in human hematopoietic progenitor cells. Combined transcriptome, chromatin accessibility and protein expression analyses revealed that T-BET or EOMES epigenetically represses hematopoietic stem cell quiescence and non-NK lineage differentiation genes, while activating an NK cell-specific transcriptome and thereby drastically accelerating NK cell differentiation. In this model, the effects of T-BET and EOMES are largely overlapping, yet EOMES shows a superior role in early NK cell maturation and induces faster NK receptor and enhanced CD16 expression. T-BET particularly controls transcription of terminal maturation markers and epigenetically controls strong induction of KIR expression. Finally, NK cells generated upon T-BET or EOMES overexpression display improved functionality, including increased IFN-γ production and killing, and especially EOMES overexpression NK cells have enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Our findings reveal novel insights on the regulatory role of T-BET and EOMES in human NK cell maturation and function, which is essential to further understand human NK cell biology and to optimize adoptive NK cell therapies.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryland D. Mortlock ◽  
Chuanfeng Wu ◽  
E. Lake Potter ◽  
Diana M. Abraham ◽  
David S. J. Allan ◽  
...  

The in vivo tissue distribution and trafficking patterns of natural killer (NK) cells remain understudied. Animal models can help bridge the gap, and rhesus macaque (RM) primates faithfully recapitulate key elements of human NK cell biology. Here, we profiled the tissue distribution and localization patterns of three NK cell subsets across various RM tissues. We utilized serial intravascular staining (SIVS) to investigate the tissue trafficking kinetics at steady state and during recovery from CD16 depletion. We found that at steady state, CD16+ NK cells were selectively retained in the vasculature while CD56+ NK cells had a shorter residence time in peripheral blood. We also found that different subsets of NK cells had distinct trafficking kinetics to and from the lymph node as well as other lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues. Lastly, we found that following administration of CD16-depleting antibody, CD16+ NK cells and their putative precursors retained a high proportion of continuously circulating cells, suggesting that regeneration of the CD16 NK compartment may take place in peripheral blood or the perivascular compartments of tissues.


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