scholarly journals Characterization of T-Cell Receptor Repertoire in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Receiving Biologic Therapies

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Che-Mai Chang ◽  
Yu-Wen Hsu ◽  
Henry Sung-Ching Wong ◽  
James Cheng-Chung Wei ◽  
Xiao Liu ◽  
...  

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systematic autoimmune disease, predominantly causing chronic polyarticular inflammation and joint injury of patients. For the treatment of RA, biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) have been used to reduce inflammation and to interfere with disease progression through targeting and mediating the immune system. Although the therapeutic effects of bDMARDs in RA patients have been widely reported, whether these drugs also play important roles in T-cell repertoire status is still unclear. We therefore designed the study to identify the role of T-cell repertoire profiles in RA patients with different types of bDMARD treatments. A high-throughput sequencing approach was applied to profile the T-cell receptor beta chain (TCRB) repertoire of circulating T lymphocytes in eight patients given adalimumab (anti-TNF-α) with/without the following use of either rituximab (anti-CD20) or tocilizumab (anti-IL6R). We subsequently analyzed discrepancies in the clonal diversity and CDR3 length distribution as well as usages of the V and J genes of TCRB repertoire and interrogated the association between repertoire diversity and disease activities followed by the treatment of bDMARDs in these RA patients. All groups of patients showed well-controlled DAS28 scores (<2.6) after different treatment regimens of drugs and displayed no significant statistical differences in repertoire diversity, distribution of CDR3 lengths, and usage of V and J genes of TCRB. Nonetheless, a trend between overall TCRB repertoire diversity and disease activity scores in all bDMARD-treated RA patients was observed. Additionally, age was found to be associated with repertoire diversity in RA patients treated with bDMARDs. Through the profiling of the TCR repertoire in RA patients receiving different biologic medications, our study indicated an inverse tendency between TCR repertoire diversity and disease activity after biologic treatment in RA patients.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (58) ◽  
pp. eabe0896
Author(s):  
Jia Jia Lim ◽  
Claerwen M. Jones ◽  
Tiing Jen Loh ◽  
Yi Tian Ting ◽  
Pirooz Zareie ◽  
...  

Individuals expressing HLA-DR4 bearing the shared susceptibility epitope (SE) have an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Posttranslational modification of self-proteins via citrullination leads to the formation of neoantigens that can be presented by HLA-DR4 SE allomorphs. However, in T cell–mediated autoimmunity, the interplay between the HLA molecule, posttranslationally modified epitope(s), and the responding T cell repertoire remains unclear. In HLA-DR4 transgenic mice, we show that immunization with a Fibβ-74cit69-81 peptide led to a population of HLA-DR4Fibβ-74cit69-81 tetramer+ T cells that exhibited biased T cell receptor (TCR) β chain usage, which was attributable to selective clonal expansion from the preimmune repertoire. Crystal structures of pre- and postimmune TCRs showed that the SE of HLA-DR4 represented a main TCR contact zone. Immunization with a double citrullinated epitope (Fibβ-72,74cit69-81) altered the responding HLA-DR4 tetramer+ T cell repertoire, which was due to the P2-citrulline residue interacting with the TCR itself. We show that the SE of HLA-DR4 has dual functionality, namely, presentation and a direct TCR recognition determinant. Analogous biased TCR β chain usage toward the Fibβ-74cit69-81 peptide was observed in healthy HLA-DR4+ individuals and patients with HLA-DR4+ RA, thereby suggesting a link to human RA.


F1000Research ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie L. Harden ◽  
David Hamm ◽  
Nicholas Gulati ◽  
Michelle A. Lowes ◽  
James G. Krueger

It is well known that infiltration of pathogenic T-cells plays an important role in psoriasis pathogenesis. However, the antigen specificity of these activated T-cells is relatively unknown. Previous studies using T-cell receptor polymerase chain reaction technology (TCR-PCR) have suggested there are expanded T-cell receptor (TCR) clones in psoriatic skin, suggesting a response to an unknown psoriatic antigen. Here we describe the results of high-throughput deep sequencing of the entire αβ- and γδ- TCR repertoire in normal healthy skin and psoriatic lesional and non-lesional skin. From this study, we were able to determine that there is a significant increase in the abundance of unique β- and γ- TCR sequences in psoriatic lesional skin compared to non-lesional and normal skin, and that the entire T-cell repertoire in psoriasis is polyclonal, with similar diversity to normal and non-lesional skin. Comparison of the αβ- and γδ- TCR repertoire in paired non-lesional and lesional samples showed many common clones within a patient, and these close were often equally abundant in non-lesional and lesional skin, again suggesting a diverse T-cell repertoire. Although there were similar (and low) amounts of shared β-chain sequences between different patient samples, there was significantly increased sequence sharing of the γ-chain in psoriatic skin from different individuals compared to those without psoriasis. This suggests that although the T-cell response in psoriasis is highly polyclonal, particular γδ- T-cell subsets may be associated with this disease. Overall, our findings present the feasibility of this technology to determine the entire αβ- and γδ- T-cell repertoire in skin, and that psoriasis contains polyclonal and diverse αβ- and γδ- T-cell populations.


Blood ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 352-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Wu ◽  
Antoinette Chillemi ◽  
Edwin P. Alyea ◽  
Enrica Orsini ◽  
Donna Neuberg ◽  
...  

CDR3 spectratyping was used to analyze the complexity of the T-cell repertoire and to define the mechanisms and kinetics of the reconstitution of T-cell immunity after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). This method, which is based on polymerase chain reaction amplification of all CDR3 regions using the T-cell receptor (TCR) Vβ genes, was used to examine serial samples of peripheral blood lymphocytes from 11 adult patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) who underwent T-cell–depleted allogeneic BMT. In contrast to 10 normal donors who display highly diverse and polyclonal spectratypes, patient samples before and early after BMT revealed markedly skewed repertoires, consisting of absent, monoclonal, or oligoclonal profiles for the majority of Vβ subfamilies. To quantify changes in TCR repertoire over time, we established an 8-point scoring system for each Vβ subfamily. The mean complexity score for patient samples before transplant (130.8) was significantly lower than that for normal donors (183; P = 0.0007). TCR repertoire complexity was abnormal in all patients at 3 months after BMT (mean score = 87). Normalization of repertoire began in 4 patients at 6 months after BMT, but the majority of patients continued to display abnormal repertoires for up to 3 years after BMT. To determine whether the reconstituted T-cell repertoire was derived from the donor or recipient, unique microsatellite loci were examined to establish chimeric status. At 3 months after BMT, 7 patients demonstrated mixed chimerism; 4 had complete donor hematopoiesis (CDH). CDH strongly correlated with likelihood of restoration of T-cell repertoire complexity (P = 0.003). In contrast, patients who demonstrated persistence of recipient hematopoiesis failed to reconstitute a diverse TCR repertoire. These findings suggest that the reconstitution of a normal T-cell repertoire from T-cell progenitors in adults is influenced by interactions between recipient and donor hematopoietic cells. (Blood. 2000;95: 352-359)


Blood ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 352-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Wu ◽  
Antoinette Chillemi ◽  
Edwin P. Alyea ◽  
Enrica Orsini ◽  
Donna Neuberg ◽  
...  

Abstract CDR3 spectratyping was used to analyze the complexity of the T-cell repertoire and to define the mechanisms and kinetics of the reconstitution of T-cell immunity after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). This method, which is based on polymerase chain reaction amplification of all CDR3 regions using the T-cell receptor (TCR) Vβ genes, was used to examine serial samples of peripheral blood lymphocytes from 11 adult patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) who underwent T-cell–depleted allogeneic BMT. In contrast to 10 normal donors who display highly diverse and polyclonal spectratypes, patient samples before and early after BMT revealed markedly skewed repertoires, consisting of absent, monoclonal, or oligoclonal profiles for the majority of Vβ subfamilies. To quantify changes in TCR repertoire over time, we established an 8-point scoring system for each Vβ subfamily. The mean complexity score for patient samples before transplant (130.8) was significantly lower than that for normal donors (183; P = 0.0007). TCR repertoire complexity was abnormal in all patients at 3 months after BMT (mean score = 87). Normalization of repertoire began in 4 patients at 6 months after BMT, but the majority of patients continued to display abnormal repertoires for up to 3 years after BMT. To determine whether the reconstituted T-cell repertoire was derived from the donor or recipient, unique microsatellite loci were examined to establish chimeric status. At 3 months after BMT, 7 patients demonstrated mixed chimerism; 4 had complete donor hematopoiesis (CDH). CDH strongly correlated with likelihood of restoration of T-cell repertoire complexity (P = 0.003). In contrast, patients who demonstrated persistence of recipient hematopoiesis failed to reconstitute a diverse TCR repertoire. These findings suggest that the reconstitution of a normal T-cell repertoire from T-cell progenitors in adults is influenced by interactions between recipient and donor hematopoietic cells. (Blood. 2000;95: 352-359)


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (Supplement_6) ◽  
pp. vi121-vi121
Author(s):  
Michael Zhang ◽  
Stephanie Hilz ◽  
Michael Martin ◽  
Chibo Hong ◽  
Yao Yu ◽  
...  

Abstract The design and evaluation of immunotherapies in IDH-mutant lower grade gliomas (LGG) is hindered by a poor understanding of the LGG T-cell repertoire. We present data on the temporal evolution, intratumoral spatial distribution, and prognostic value of the T-cell repertoire in IDH-mutant LGGs. We performed immunogenomic profiling using T-cell receptor beta-chain sequencing of 163 glioma and peripheral blood samples from 33 immunotherapy-naive glioma patients (22 astrocytomas, 11 oligodendrogliomas). T-cell repertoire evolution was analyzed in a subset of 26 patients (69 samples) with matched primary (WHO grade II) and recurrent (WHO grade II-IV) glioma samples. T-cell repertoire diversity was defined as the number of unique T-cell clonotypes by V-gene, J-gene, and CDR3 nucleotide sequences. Malignant transformed (Grade III or IV) recurrent gliomas demonstrated increased T-cell repertoire diversity compared to their patient-matched primary tumors (p=0.0023), but grade II recurrences did not show the same increased diversity (p=0.26). This increase in T-cell repertoire diversity was greater in patients who underwent transformation in the context of TMZ-associated hypermutation compared to spontaneously transformed counterparts (p=0.035). In grade II primary astrocytomas (n=17), T-cell repertoire diversity above the median (186 unique T-cell clonotypes per sample) was associated with worse transformation-free (HR=4.2, p=0.045) and overall survival (HR=6.4, p=0.025). Next, we evaluated intratumoral immune heterogeneity in 7 patients by sampling from up to 10 distinct and maximally-separated intratumoral sites per LGG (64 samples). Eighty-two to 96% of unique clonotypes within a given tumor were present only within a single sampled site. Despite this heterogeneity, six LGG patients harbored T-cell clonotypes present tumor-wide across all sampled sites within a given tumor. Ten of 24 (42%) tumor-wide T-cell clonotypes were enriched in the glioma compared to matched peripheral blood, suggesting glioma-specificity. Taken together, T-cell receptor profiling in LGGs may have utility both as a prognostic biomarker and to identify glioma-specific T-cells.


1998 ◽  
Vol 188 (11) ◽  
pp. 1993-2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meei  Yun Lin ◽  
Raymond M. Welsh

Numerous studies have examined T cell receptor (TCR) usage of selected virus-specific T cell clones, yet little information is available regarding the stability and diversity of TCR repertoire usage during viral infections. Here, we analyzed the Vβ8.1 TCR repertoire directly ex vivo by complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) length spectratyping throughout the acute lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection, into memory, and under conditions of T cell clonal exhaustion. The Vβ8 population represented 30–35% of the LCMV-induced CD8+ T cells and included T cells recognizing several LCMV-encoded peptides, allowing for a comprehensive study of a multiclonal T cell response against a complex antigen. Genetically identical mice generated remarkably different T cell responses, as reflected by different spectratypes and different TCR sequences in same sized spectratype bands; however, a conserved CDR3 motif was found within some same sized bands. This indicated that meaningful studies on the evolution of the T cell repertoire required longitudinal studies within individual mice. Such longitudinal studies with peripheral blood lymphocyte samples showed that (a) the virus-induced T cell repertoire changes little during the apoptosis period after clearance of the viral antigens; (b) the LCMV infection dramatically skews the host T cell repertoire in the memory state; and (c) continuous selection of the T cell repertoire occurs under conditions of persistent infections.


Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 5186-5186
Author(s):  
Ronald M. Paranal ◽  
Hagop M. Kantarjian ◽  
Alexandre Reuben ◽  
Celine Kerros ◽  
Priya Koppikar ◽  
...  

Introduction: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is curative for many patients with advanced hematologic cancers, including adverse-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This is principally through the induction of a graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) immune effect, mediated by donor T-cells. The incredible diversity and specificity of T-cells is due to rearrangement between V, D, and J regions and the random insertion/deletion of nucleotides, taking place in the hypervariable complementarity determining region 3 (CD3) of the T-cell receptor (TCR). Massively parallel sequencing of CDR3 allows for a detailed understanding of the T-cell repertoire, an area relatively unexplored in AML. Therefore, we sought out to characterize the T-cell repertoire in AML before and after HSCT, specifically for those with a durable remission. Methods: We identified 45 bone marrow biopsy samples, paired pre- and post-HSCT, from 14 patients with AML in remission for > 2 years as of last follow-up. We next performed immunosequencing of the TCRβ repertoire (Adaptive Biotechnologies). DNA was amplified in a bias-controlled multiplex PCR, resulting in amplification of rearranged VDJ segments, followed by high-throughput sequencing. Resultant sequences were collapsed and filtered in order to identify and quantitate the absolute abundance of each unique TCRβ CDR3 region. We next employed various metrics to characterize changes in the TCR repertoire: (1) clonality (range: 0-1; values closer to 1 indicate a more oligoclonal repertoire), it accounts for both the number of unique clonotypes and the extent to which a few clonotypes dominate the repertoire; (2) richness with a higher number indicating a more diverse repertoire with more unique rearrangements); (3) overlap (range: 0-1; with 1 being an identical T-cell repertoire). All calculations were done using the ImmunoSeq Analyzer software. Results: The median age of patients included in this cohort was 58 years (range: 31-69). Six patient (43%) had a matched related donor, and 8 (57%) had a matched unrelated donor. Baseline characteristics are summarized in Figure 1A. Six samples were excluded from further analysis due to quality. TCR richness did not differ comparing pre- and post-HSCT, with a median number pre-HSCT of 3566 unique sequences (range: 1282-22509) vs 3720 (range: 1540-12879) post-HSCT (P = 0.7). In order to assess whether there was expansion of certain T-cell clones following HSCT, we employed several metrics and all were indicative of an increase in clonality (Figure 2B). Productive clonality, a measure of reactivity, was significantly higher in post-transplant samples (0.09 vs 0.02, P = 0.003). This is a measure that would predict expansion of sequences likely to produce functional TCRs. The Maximum Productive Frequency Index was higher post-HSCT indicating that the increase in clonality was driven by the top clone (most prevalent per sample). Similarly for the Simpson's Dominance index, another marker of clonality which was higher post-HSCT (0.01 vs 0.0009, P = 0.04). In order to determine whether this clonal expansion was driven by TCR clones shared among patients, we compared the degree of overlap in unique sequences among pre and post-HSCT samples. We found there was very little overlap between samples in the pre and the post-transplant setting and no change in the Morisita and Jaccard Overlap Indices. Conclusions: In conclusion, we show in this analysis an increase in clonality of T-cells following HSCT in patients with AML. This is likely related to the GVL effect after recognition of leukemia antigens by donor T cells and subsequent expansion of these T-cells. These expanded T-cell clonotypes were unlikely to be shared by patients in this cohort, likely reflecting the variety of antigens leading to the GVL effect. This could have direct implications on TCR-mediated immune-therapies given the likely need for a personalized, patient-specific design for these therapies. Figure 1 Disclosures Kantarjian: BMS: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; AbbVie: Honoraria, Research Funding; Jazz Pharma: Research Funding; Astex: Research Funding; Immunogen: Research Funding; Actinium: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios: Honoraria, Research Funding; Daiichi-Sankyo: Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria; Amgen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Cyclacel: Research Funding; Ariad: Research Funding; Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding. Short:Takeda Oncology: Consultancy, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Amgen: Honoraria. Cortes:Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Research Funding; Sun Pharma: Research Funding; BiolineRx: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Astellas Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Merus: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Immunogen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Biopath Holdings: Consultancy, Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Forma Therapeutics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Jabbour:Cyclacel LTD: Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; Adaptive: Consultancy, Research Funding. Molldrem:M. D. Anderson & Astellas Pharma: Other: Royalties.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianhua Xu ◽  
Yaling Shi ◽  
Yongsi Wang ◽  
Yuntao Liu ◽  
Dongzi Lin ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundThe prevention of COVID-19 pandemic is highly complicated by the prevalence of asymptomatic and recurrent infection. Many previous immunological studies have focused on symptomatic and convalescent patients, while the immune responses in asymptomatic patients and re-detectable positive cases remain unclear.MethodsHere we comprehensively analyzed the peripheral T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of 54 COVID-19 patients in different phases, including asymptomatic, symptomatic, convalescent and re-detectable positive cases.ResultsWe found progressed immune responses from asymptomatic to symptomatic phase. Furthermore, the TCR profiles of re-detectable positive cases were highly similar to those of asymptomatic patients, which could predict the risk of recurrent infection.ConclusionTherefore, TCR repertoire surveillance has the potential to strengthen the clinical management and the immunotherapy development for COVID-19.FundingThe Science and Technology Innovation Project of Foshan Municipality (2020001000431) and the National Key Research and Development Project (2020YFA0708001).


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 905-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiichi Sakurai ◽  
Kazuyoshi Ishigaki ◽  
Hirofumi Shoda ◽  
Yasuo Nagafuchi ◽  
Yumi Tsuchida ◽  
...  

Objective.Shared epitope (SE) alleles are the most significant genetic susceptibility locus in rheumatoid arthritis (RA); however, their target populations in CD4+ T cells are not well elucidated. We analyzed the association between SE alleles and the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire diversity of naive and memory CD4+ T cells using next-generation sequencing (NGS).Methods.The TCR beta chains in naive and memory CD4+ T cells from the peripheral blood of 22 patients with RA and 18 age- and sex-matched healthy donors (HD) were analyzed by NGS. The Renyi entropy was used to evaluate TCR repertoire diversity and its correlations with SE alleles and other variables were examined. Serum cytokine levels were measured by multiplex ELISA.Results.The TCR repertoire diversity in memory CD4+ T cells was reduced in SE allele-positive patients with RA compared with HD, and showed a significant negative correlation with the SE allele dosage in RA. The TCR repertoire diversity of naive and memory T cells was also negatively correlated with disease activity, and the SE allele dosage and disease activity were independently associated with reduced TCR repertoire diversity. TCR repertoire diversity showed a significant positive correlation with the serum interleukin 2 levels.Conclusion.SE alleles and disease activity were negatively correlated with the TCR repertoire diversity of CD4+ T cells in RA. Considering the pivotal role of CD4+ T cells in RA, restoring the altered TCR repertoire diversity will provide a potential RA therapeutic target.


2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (42) ◽  
pp. 14445-14457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wael Awad ◽  
Erin W. Meermeier ◽  
Maria L. Sandoval-Romero ◽  
Jérôme Le Nours ◽  
Aneta H. Worley ◽  
...  

MR1 presents vitamin B–related metabolites to mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, which are characterized, in part, by the TRAV1-2+ αβ T cell receptor (TCR). In addition, a more diverse TRAV1-2− MR1-restricted T cell repertoire exists that can possess altered specificity for MR1 antigens. However, the molecular basis of how such TRAV1-2− TCRs interact with MR1–antigen complexes remains unclear. Here, we describe how a TRAV12-2+ TCR (termed D462-E4) recognizes an MR1–antigen complex. We report the crystal structures of the unliganded D462-E4 TCR and its complex with MR1 presenting the riboflavin-based antigen 5-OP-RU. Here, the TRBV29-1 β-chain of the D462-E4 TCR binds over the F′-pocket of MR1, whereby the complementarity-determining region (CDR) 3β loop surrounded and projected into the F′-pocket. Nevertheless, the CDR3β loop anchored proximal to the MR1 A′-pocket and mediated direct contact with the 5-OP-RU antigen. The D462-E4 TCR footprint on MR1 contrasted that of the TRAV1-2+ and TRAV36+ TCRs' docking topologies on MR1. Accordingly, diverse MR1-restricted T cell repertoire reveals differential docking modalities on MR1, thus providing greater scope for differing antigen specificities.


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