scholarly journals In situ immunization of a TLR9 agonist virus-like particle enhances anti-PD1 therapy

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e000940
Author(s):  
Yinwen Cheng ◽  
Caitlin D Lemke-Miltner ◽  
Wattawan Wongpattaraworakul ◽  
Zhaoming Wang ◽  
Carlos H F Chan ◽  
...  

BackgroundCMP-001 is a novel Toll-like receptor-9 agonist that consists of an unmethylated CpG-A motif-rich G10 oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) encapsulated in virus-like particles. In situ vaccination of CMP-001 is believed to activate local tumor-associated plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) leading to type I interferon secretion and tumor antigen presentation to T cells and systemic antitumor T cell responses. This study is designed to investigate if CMP-001 would enhance head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumor response to anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (anti-PD-1) therapy in a human papilloma virus-positive (HPV+) tumor mouse model.MethodsImmune cell activation in response to CMP-001±anti-Qβ was performed using co-cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and HPV+/HPV- HNSCC cells and then analyzed by flow cytometry. In situ vaccination with CMP-001 alone and in combination with anti-PD-1 was investigated in C57BL/6 mice-bearing mEERL HNSCC tumors and analyzed for anti-Qβ development, antitumor response, survival and immune cell recruitment. The role of antitumor immune response due to CMP-001+anti-PD-1 treatment was investigated by the depletion of natural killer (NK), CD4+ T, and CD8+ T cells.ResultsResults showed that the activity of CMP-001 on immune cell (pDCs, monocytes, CD4+/CD8+ T cells and NK cells) activation depends on the presence of anti-Qβ. A 2-week ‘priming’ period after subcutaneous administration of CMP-001 was required for robust anti-Qβ development in mice. In situ vaccination of CMP-001 was superior to unencapsulated G10 CpG-A ODN at suppressing both injected and uninjected (distant) tumors. In situ vaccination of CMP-001 in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy induced durable tumor regression at injected and distant tumors and significantly prolonged mouse survival compared with anti-PD-1 therapy alone. The antitumor effect of CMP-001+anti-PD-1 was accompanied by increased interferon gamma (IFNγ)+ CD4+/CD8+ T cells compared with control-treated mice. The therapeutic and abscopal effect of CMP-001+ anti-PD-1 therapy was completely abrogated by CD8+ T cell depletion.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that in situ vaccination with CMP-001 can induce both local and abscopal antitumor immune responses. Additionally, the antitumor efficacy of CMP-001 combined with α-PD-1 therapy warrants further study as a novel immunotherapeutic strategy for the treatment of HNSCC.

Blood ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 1994-1995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masako Moriuchi ◽  
Hiroyuki Moriuchi

Abstract Although it is widely believed that viral clearance is mediated principally by the destruction of infected cells by cytotoxic T cells, noncytolytic antiviral activity of CD8+ T cells may play a role in preventing the progression to disease in infections with immunodeficiency viruses and hepatitis B virus. We demonstrate here that (1) replication of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is more readily detected from CD8+ T-cell–depleted (CD8−) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of healthy HTLV-I carriers than from unfractionated PBMCs, (2) cocultures of CD8− PBMCs with autologous or allogeneic CD8+ T cells suppressed HTLV-I replication, and (3) CD8+ T-cell anti-HTLV-I activity is not abrogated intrans-well cultures in which CD8+ cells are separated from CD8− PBMCs by a permeable membrane filter. These results suggest that class I-unrestricted noncytolytic anti–HTLV-I activity is mediated, at least in part by a soluble factor(s), and may play a role in the pathogenesis of HTLV-I infection.


Author(s):  
Adjimon G Lokossou ◽  
Caroline Toudic ◽  
Phuong Trang Nguyen ◽  
Xavier Elisseeff ◽  
Amandine Vargas ◽  
...  

Abstract Modulation of the activation status of immune cell populations during pregnancy depends on placental villous cytotrophoblast (VCT) cells and the syncytiotrophoblast (STB). Failure in the establishment of this immunoregulatory function leads to pregnancy complications. Our laboratory has been studying Syncytin-2 (Syn-2), an endogenous retroviral protein expressed in placenta and on the surface of placental exosomes. This protein plays an important role not only in STB formation through its fusogenic properties, but also through its immunosuppressive domain (ISD). Considering that Syn-2 expression is importantly reduced in preeclamptic placentas, we were interested in addressing its possible immunoregulatory effects on T cells. Activated Jurkat T cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were treated with monomeric or dimerized version of a control or a Syn-2 ISD peptide. Change in phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2 MAP kinases was selectively noted in Jurkat cells treated with the dimerized ISD peptide. Upon incubation with the dimerized Syn-2 ISD peptide, significant reduction in Th1 cytokine production was further demonstrated by ELISA and Human Th1/Th2 Panel Multi-Analyte Flow Assay. To determine if exosome-associated Syn-2 could also be immunosuppressive placental exosomes were incubated with activated Jurkat and PBMCs. Quantification of Th1 cytokines in the supernatants revealed severe reduction in T cell activation. Interestingly, exosomes from Syn-2-silenced VCT incubated with PBMCs were less suppressive when compared with exosome derived from VCT transfected with control small interfering RNA (siRNA). Our results suggest that Syn-2 is an important immune regulator both locally and systemically, via its association with placental exosomes.


Author(s):  
M E Jacobs ◽  
J N Pouw ◽  
M A Olde Nordkamp ◽  
T R D J Radstake ◽  
E F A Leijten ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Signals at the contact site of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and T cells help orchestrate the adaptive immune response. CD155 on APCs can interact with the stimulatory receptor DNAM1 or inhibitory receptor TIGIT on T cells. The CD155/DNAM1/TIGIT axis is under extensive investigation as immunotherapy target in inflammatory diseases including cancer, chronic infection and autoimmune diseases. We investigated a possible role for CD155/DNAM1/TIGIT signaling in psoriatic disease. Methods By flow cytometry we analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with psoriasis (n=20) or psoriatic arthritis (n=21), and healthy individuals (n=7). We measured CD155, TIGIT and DNAM1 expression on leukocyte subsets and compared activation-induced cytokine production between CD155-positive and -negative APCs. We assessed the effects of TIGIT and DNAM1 blockade on T cell activation, and related the expression of CD155/DNAM1/TIGIT axis molecules to measures of disease activity. Results High CD155 expression associates with TNF production in myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (DC). In CD1c+ myeloid DC, activation-induced CD155 expression associates with increased HLA-DR expression. CD8 T cells - but not CD4 T cells - express high levels of TIGIT. DNAM1 blockade decreases T cell pro-inflammatory cytokine production, while TIGIT blockade increased T cell proliferation. Finally, T cell TIGIT expression shows an inverse correlation with inflammation biomarkers in psoriatic disease. Conclusion CD155 is increased on pro-inflammatory APCs, while the receptors DNAM1 and TIGIT expressed on T cells balance the inflammatory response by T cells. In psoriatic disease, low TIGIT expression on T cells is associated with systemic inflammation.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 109 (9) ◽  
pp. 3873-3880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley White ◽  
Subramaniam Krishnan ◽  
Natasa Strbo ◽  
Huanliang Liu ◽  
Michael A. Kolber ◽  
...  

Abstract An urgent need exists to devise strategies to augment antiviral immune responses in patients with HIV who are virologically well controlled and immunologically stable on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The objective of this study was to compare the immunomodulatory effects of the cytokines interleukin (IL)–21 with IL-15 on CD8 T cells in patients with HIV RNA of less than 50 copies/mL and CD4 counts greater than 200 cells/mm.3 Patient CD8 T cells displayed skewed maturation and decreased perforin expression compared with healthy controls. Culture of freshly isolated patient peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) for 5 hours to 5 days with IL-21 resulted in up-regulation of perforin in CD8 T cells, including memory and effector subsets and virus-specific T cells. IL-21 did not induce T-cell activation or proliferation, nor did it augment T-cell receptor (TCR)–induced degranulation. Treatment of patient PBMCs with IL-15 resulted in induction of perforin in association with lymphocyte proliferation and augmentation of TCR-induced degranulation. Patient CD8 T cells were more responsive to cytokine effects than the cells of healthy volunteers. We conclude that CD8 T cells of patients with HIV can be modulated by IL-21 to increase perforin expression without undergoing overt cellular activation. IL-21 could potentially be useful for its perforin-enhancing properties in anti-HIV immunotherapy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryse Thivierge ◽  
Sylvie Turcotte ◽  
Marek Rola-Pleszczynski ◽  
Jana Stankova

In order to determine the potential for allergen to modulate T cell expression of the CysLT1receptor and responsiveness to leukotrienes, peripheral blood mononuclear cells from house dust mite-allergic or nonallergic individuals were incubated withD. pteronyssinusallergen (Der p). Baseline CysLT1expression was similar in both groups of donors, but Der p significantly enhanced CysLT1expression in CD4+and CD8+T cells of only allergic individuals and induced enhanced responsiveness of CD4+T cells to LTD4in terms of calcium mobilisation. This effect was prevented by the CysLT1antagonist MK571. Der p also induced IL-4 and IL-10 production, and neutralizing antibody to IL-4 prevented both the enhanced CysLT1expression and the enhanced responsiveness of T cells to LTD4induced by Der p. In allergic individuals, Der p also induced T cell proliferation and a Th2-biased phenotype. Our data suggest that, in allergen-sensitized individuals, exposure to allergen can enhance T cell expression of CysLT1receptors through a mechanism involving IL-4 production. This, in turn, would induce CD4+T cell responsiveness to cysteinyl-leukotrienes and Th2 cell activation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Xu ◽  
Furong Qi ◽  
Hanjie Li ◽  
Qianting Yang ◽  
Haiyan Wang ◽  
...  

Understanding the mechanism that leads to immune dysfunction induced by SARS-CoV2 virus is crucial to develop treatment for severe COVID-19. Here, using single cell RNA-seq, we characterized the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from uninfected controls and COVID-19 patients, and cells in paired broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF). We found a close association of decreased dendritic cells (DC) and increased monocytes resembling myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) which correlated with lymphopenia and inflammation in the blood of severe COVID-19 patients. Those MDSC-like monocytes were immune-paralyzed. In contrast, monocyte-macrophages in BALFs of COVID-19 patients produced massive amounts of cytokines and chemokines, but secreted little interferons. The frequencies of peripheral T cells and NK cells were significantly decreased in severe COVID-19 patients, especially for innate-like T and various CD8+ T cell subsets, compared to health controls. In contrast, the proportions of various activated CD4+ T cell subsets, including Th1, Th2 and Th17-like cells were increased and more clonally expanded in severe COVID-19 patients. Patients' peripheral T cells showed no sign of exhaustion or augmented cell death, whereas T cells in BALFs produced higher levels of IFNG, TNF, CCL4 and CCL5 etc. Paired TCR tracking indicated abundant recruitment of peripheral T cells to the patients' lung. Together, this study comprehensively depicts how the immune cell landscape is perturbed in severe COVID-19.


2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lazaros I. Sakkas ◽  
George Koussidis ◽  
Efthimios Avgerinos ◽  
John Gaughan ◽  
Chris D. Platsoucas

ABSTRACT Osteoarthritis (OA) is a heterogeneous disease which rheumatologists consider to be noninflammatory. However, recent studies suggest that, at least in certain patients, OA is an inflammatory disease and that patients often exhibit inflammatory infiltrates in the synovial membranes (SMs) of macrophages and activated T cells expressing proinflammatory cytokines. We report here that the expression of CD3ζ is significantly decreased in T cells infiltrating the SMs of patients with OA. The CD3ζ chain is involved in the T-cell signal transduction cascade, which is initiated by the engagement of the T-cell antigen receptor and which culminates in T-cell activation. Double immunofluorescence of single-cell suspensions derived from the SMs from nine patients with OA revealed significantly increased proportions of CD3ε-positive (CD3ε+) cells compared with the proportions of CD3ζ-positive (CD3ζ+) T cells (means ± standard errors of the means, 80.48% ± 3.92% and 69.02% ± 6.51%, respectively; P = 0.0096), whereas there were no differences in the proportions of these cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors (94.73% ± 1.39% and 93.79% ± 1.08%, respectively; not significant). The CD3ζ+ cell/CD3ε+ cell ratio was also significantly decreased for T cells from the SMs of patients with OA compared with that for T cells from the PBMCs of healthy donors (0.84 ± 0.17 and 0.99 ± 0.01, respectively; P = 0.0302). The proportions of CD3ε+ CD3ζ+ cells were lower in the SMs of patients with OA than in the PBMCs of healthy donors (65.04% ± 6.7% and 90.81% ± 1.99%, respectively; P = 0.0047). Substantial proportions (about 15%) of CD3ε+ CD3ζ-negative (CD3ζ−) and CD3ε-negative (CD3ε−) CD3ζ− cells were found in the SMs of patients with OA. Amplification of the CD3ζ and CD3δ transcripts from the SMs of patients with OA by reverse transcriptase PCR consistently exhibited stronger bands for CD3δ cDNA than for CD3ζ cDNA The CD3ζ/CD3δ transcript ratio in the SMs of patients with OA was significantly lower than that in PBMCs from healthy controls (P < 0.0001). These results were confirmed by competitive MIMIC PCR. Immunoreactivities for the CD3ζ protein were detected in the SMs of 10 of 19 patients with OA, and they were of various intensities, whereas SMs from all patients were CD3ε+ (P = 0.0023). The decreased expression of the CD3ζ transcript and protein in T cells from the SMs of patients with OA relative to that of the CD3ε transcript is suggestive of chronic T-cell stimulation and supports the concept of T-cell involvement in OA.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 129-130
Author(s):  
V Batura ◽  
C Guo ◽  
N Warner ◽  
G Leung ◽  
A Ricciuto ◽  
...  

Abstract Background IBD is a form of chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that arises due to genetic, environmental, immunological and microbial factors. The precise pathological mechanisms remain elusive. It is thought that the onset of pediatric IBD can largely be attributed to genetics. Muise lab, at SickKids, regularly screens children at the SickKids IBD clinic and through an international consortium to find possible genetic links to the disease. We report a patient at SickKids with biallelic mutations in DOK4 who has severe Crohn’s Disease along with other inflammatory conditions. Downstream of kinase (DOK) proteins are a family of adaptor molecules that serve as scaffolding proteins important in regulating cell signaling, especially in T cells. DOK4 has been shown to have negative regulatory effects on T cell activation but is also expressed across various other tissues where its function is yet to be determined. We predict that these mutations are causing immune cell dysregulation, which may be contributing to the patients IBD. Aims Through this study, we aim to enhance our understanding of the pathobiological mechanism of novel mutations in DOK4. Methods We have established T cell lines, expressing wild type and mutated DOK4, which will be used to perform functional tests, such as localization analysis through immunofluorescence and cytokine profiling, to check for T cell function. We have patient derived organoids, which will be used to assess changes in gut morphology using imaging techniques. We will also generate mutant zebrafish model that will be used to determine the susceptibility to colitis related to this mutation, disease progression and gut peristalsis using live imaging technology. Results Preliminary data shows variation in expression of the protein within patient derived peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) compared to a healthy donor. Conclusions With this study, we hope to identify new therapeutic targets for patients with DOK4 mutations. Funding Agencies CIHRThe Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust


2022 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Piadel ◽  
Amin Haybatollahi ◽  
Angus George Dalgleish ◽  
Peter Lawrence Smith

The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has led to the successful development of effective vaccines however the prospect of variants of SARS-CoV-2 and future coronavirus outbreaks necessitates the investigation of other vaccine strategies capable of broadening vaccine mediated T-cell responses and potentially providing cross-immunity. In this study the SARS-CoV-2 proteome was assessed for clusters of immunogenic epitopes restricted to diverse human leucocyte antigen. These regions were then assessed for their conservation amongst other coronaviruses representative of different alpha and beta coronavirus genera. Sixteen highly conserved peptides containing numerous HLA class I and II restricted epitopes were synthesized from these regions and assessed in vitro for their antigenicity against T-cells from individuals with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Monocyte derived dendritic cells were generated from these peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), loaded with SARS-CoV-2 peptides, and used to induce autologous CD4+ and CD8+ T cell activation. The SARS-CoV-2 peptides demonstrated antigenicity against the T-cells from individuals with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection indicating that this approach holds promise as a method to activate anti-SAR-CoV-2 T-cell responses from conserved regions of the virus which are not included in vaccines utilising the Spike protein.


Blood ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 275-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Nicot ◽  
Renaud Mahieux ◽  
Shigeki Takemoto ◽  
Genoveffa Franchini

Human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is the etiological agent of adult T-cell lymphocytic leukemia (ATLL), whereas HTLV-II has not been associated with hematopoietic malignancies. The control of apoptotic pathways has emerged as a critical step in the development of many cancer types. As a result, the underlying mechanism of long-term survival of HTLV-I and HTLV-II was studied in infected T cells in vitro and in ex vivo ATLL samples. Results indicate that HTLV-I– and HTLV-II–infected T cells in vitro express high levels of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl compared with other human leukemic T cell lines or uninfected peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The levels of proapoptotic proteins Bax, BAD, and Bak were not significantly altered. HTLV-I and HTLV-II viral transactivators, Tax1 and Tax2, are known to increase expression of cellular genes. These proteins were tested for increased transcription from the human Bcl2 and Bcl-XL promoters. Whereas no effect was observed on the Bcl2 promoter, both Tax1 and Tax2 increased transcription of the Bcl-XL promoter in T cells, although Tax1 appeared to be more efficient than Tax2. The biological significance of these observations was validated by the finding of an increased expression of Bcl-XL in ex vivo ATLL cells, especially from patients unresponsive to various chemotherapy regimens. Altogether, these data suggest that overexpression of Bcl-XL in vivomay be in part responsible for the resistance of ATLL cells to chemotherapy. In addition, inefficient activation of the Bcl-XL promoter by Tax2 may result in a shorter survival time of HTLV-II–infected cells in vivo and a diminished risk of leukemia development.


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