Abstract 100: HIV Protein Tat Induces Macrophage Dysfunction and Atherosclerosis Development in LDLR-deficient Mice

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaojie Meng ◽  
Weiwei Lu ◽  
Taesik Gwag ◽  
Changcheng Zhou

Introduction: As the average lifespan of HIV-infected patients receiving anti-retroviral therapy lengthens, morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease pose considerable challenges. HIV infection is consistently associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis development, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. HIV-1 Tat protein, a transcriptional activator of HIV virus, has been shown to activate NF-κB signaling and promote inflammation in vitro. However, the atherogenic effects of HIV-1 Tat have not been investigated in vivo. Macrophage is one of the major cell types involved in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. We and others have previously demonstrated that NF-κB signaling functions in macrophages to regulate atherogenesis. This study aims to investigate the impact of HIV-1 Tat exposure on macrophage functions and atherogenesis. Hypothesis: HIV-1 Tat activates IκB kinase β (IKKβ), a central coordinator in inflammation through activation of NF-κB, to induce macrophage dysfunction and atherosclerosis development. Methods: To investigate the effects of HIV-1 Tat on macrophage IKKβ signaling and atherosclerosis development in vivo, myeloid-specific IKKβ-deficient LDLR-deficient (IKKβ ΔMye LDLR -/- ) mice and their control littermates (IKKβ F/F LDLR -/- ) were exposed to recombinant HIV-1 Tat for 12 weeks. The effects of HIV-1 Tat on macrophage functions including inflammatory responses, adhesion and migration properties were also studied. Results and Conclusions: HIV-1 Tat significantly increased atherosclerotic lesion size in aortic root and brachiocephalic artery of IKKβ F/F LDLR -/- but not IKKβ ΔMye LDLR -/- mice. Deficiency of myeloid IKKβ attenuated macrophage inflammatory responses and decreased atherosclerotic lesional inflammation in IKKβ ΔMye LDLR -/- mice. In addition, HIV-1 Tat stimulated adhesion and migration properties of control macrophages but had no effects on IKKβ-deficient macrophages. In conclusion, our findings reveal the atherogenic effects of HIV-1 Tat in vivo and demonstrate a pivot role of myeloid IKKβ in HIV-1 Tat-driven atherogenesis.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel B. Bone ◽  
Eugene J. Becker ◽  
Maroof Husain ◽  
Shaoning Jiang ◽  
Anna A. Zmijewska ◽  
...  

AbstractMetabolic and bioenergetic plasticity of immune cells is essential for optimal responses to bacterial infections. AMPK and Parkin ubiquitin ligase are known to regulate mitochondrial quality control mitophagy that prevents unwanted inflammatory responses. However, it is not known if this evolutionarily conserved mechanism has been coopted by the host immune defense to eradicate bacterial pathogens and influence post-sepsis immunosuppression. Parkin, AMPK levels, and the effects of AMPK activators were investigated in human leukocytes from sepsis survivors as well as wild type and Park2−/− murine macrophages. In vivo, the impact of AMPK and Parkin was determined in mice subjected to polymicrobial intra-abdominal sepsis and secondary lung bacterial infections. Mice were treated with metformin during established immunosuppression. We showed that bacteria and mitochondria share mechanisms of autophagic killing/clearance triggered by sentinel events that involve depolarization of mitochondria and recruitment of Parkin in macrophages. Parkin-deficient mice/macrophages fail to form phagolysosomes and kill bacteria. This impairment of host defense is seen in the context of sepsis-induced immunosuppression with decreased levels of Parkin. AMPK activators, including metformin, stimulate Parkin-independent autophagy and bacterial killing in leukocytes from post-shock patients and in lungs of sepsis-immunosuppressed mice. Our results support a dual role of Parkin and AMPK in the clearance of dysfunctional mitochondria and killing of pathogenic bacteria, and explain the immunosuppressive phenotype associated Parkin and AMPK deficiency. AMPK activation appeared to be a crucial therapeutic target for the macrophage immunosuppressive phenotype and to reduce severity of secondary bacterial lung infections and respiratory failure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anderson B. Guimaraes-Costa ◽  
John P. Shannon ◽  
Ingrid Waclawiak ◽  
Jullyanna Oliveira ◽  
Claudio Meneses ◽  
...  

AbstractApart from bacterial formyl peptides or viral chemokine mimicry, a non-vertebrate or insect protein that directly attracts mammalian innate cells such as neutrophils has not been molecularly characterized. Here, we show that members of sand fly yellow salivary proteins induce in vitro chemotaxis of mouse, canine and human neutrophils in transwell migration or EZ-TAXIScan assays. We demonstrate murine neutrophil recruitment in vivo using flow cytometry and two-photon intravital microscopy in Lysozyme-M-eGFP transgenic mice. We establish that the structure of this ~ 45 kDa neutrophil chemotactic protein does not resemble that of known chemokines. This chemoattractant acts through a G-protein-coupled receptor and is dependent on calcium influx. Of significance, this chemoattractant protein enhances lesion pathology (P < 0.0001) and increases parasite burden (P < 0.001) in mice upon co-injection with Leishmania parasites, underlining the impact of the sand fly salivary yellow proteins on disease outcome. These findings show that some arthropod vector-derived factors, such as this chemotactic salivary protein, activate rather than inhibit the host innate immune response, and that pathogens take advantage of these inflammatory responses to establish in the host.


2019 ◽  
Vol 133 (11) ◽  
pp. 1215-1228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Sun ◽  
Juan Guan ◽  
Yunfeng Hou ◽  
Fei Xue ◽  
Wei Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Although junctional adhesion molecule-like protein (JAML) has recently been implicated in leukocyte recruitment during inflammation and wound repair, its role in atherosclerosis remains to be elucidated. Methods and results: First, we showed that JAML was strongly expressed in atherosclerotic plaques of cardiovascular patients. Similar results were obtained with atherosclerotic plaques of ApoE−/− mice. Co-immunofluorescence staining showed that JAML was mainly expressed in macrophages. Enhanced expression of JAML in cultured macrophages was observed following exposure of the cells to oxLDL. The functional role of JAML in atherosclerosis and macrophages function was assessed by interference of JAML with shRNA in vivo and siRNA in vitro. Silencing of JAML in mice significantly attenuated atherosclerotic lesion formation, reduced necrotic core area, increased plaque fibrous cap thickness, decreased macrophages content and inflammation. In addition, histological staining showed that JAML deficiency promoted plaques to stable phenotype. In vitro, JAML siRNA treatment lowered the expression of inflammatory cytokines in macrophages treated with oxLDL. The mechanism by which JAML mediated the inflammatory responses may be related to the ERK/NF-κB activation. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that therapeutic drugs which antagonize the function of JAML may be a potentially effective approach to attenuate atherogenesis and enhance plaque stability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Calvet-Mirabent ◽  
Daniel T. Claiborne ◽  
Maud Deruaz ◽  
Serah Tanno ◽  
Carla Serra ◽  
...  

Effective function of CD8+ T cells and enhanced innate activation of dendritic cells (DC) in response to HIV-1 is linked to protective antiviral immunity in controllers. Manipulation of DC targeting the master regulator TANK-binding Kinase 1 (TBK1) might be useful to acquire controller-like properties. Here, we evaluated the impact of TBK1-primed DC inducing protective CD8+ T cell responses in lymphoid tissue and peripheral blood and their association with reduced HIV-1 disease progression in vivo in the humanized bone marrow, liver and thymus (hBLT) mouse model. A higher proportion of hBLT-mice vaccinated with TBK1-primed DC exhibited less severe CD4+ T cell depletion following HIV-1 infection compared to control groups. This was associated with infiltration of CD8+ T cells in the white pulp from the spleen, reduced spread of infected p24+ cells to secondary lymphoid organs and with preserved abilities of CD8+ T cells from the spleen and blood of vaccinated animals to induce specific polyfunctional responses upon antigen stimulation. Therefore, TBK1-primed DC might be an useful tool for subsequent vaccine studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (46) ◽  
pp. e2104721118
Author(s):  
Dominic Paquin-Proulx ◽  
Kerri G. Lal ◽  
Yuwadee Phuang-Ngern ◽  
Matthew Creegan ◽  
Andrey Tokarev ◽  
...  

Acute HIV-1 infection (AHI) results in the widespread depletion of CD4+ T cells in peripheral blood and gut mucosal tissue. However, the impact on the predominantly CD4+ immunoregulatory invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells during AHI remains unknown. Here, iNKT cells from peripheral blood and colonic mucosa were investigated during treated and untreated AHI. iNKT cells in blood were activated and rapidly depleted in untreated AHI. At the time of peak HIV-1 viral load, these cells showed the elevated expression of cell death–associated transcripts compared to preinfection. Residual peripheral iNKT cells suffered a diminished responsiveness to in vitro stimulation early into chronic infection. Additionally, HIV-1 DNA, as well as spliced and unspliced viral RNA, were detected in iNKT cells isolated from blood, indicating the active infection of these cells in vivo. The loss of iNKT cells occurred from Fiebig stage III in the colonic mucosa, and these cells were not restored to normal levels after initiation of ART during AHI. CD4+ iNKT cells were depleted faster and more profoundly than conventional CD4+ T cells, and the preferential infection of CD4+ iNKT cells over conventional CD4+ T cells was confirmed by in vitro infection experiments. In vitro data also provided evidence of latent infection in iNKT cells. Strikingly, preinfection levels of peripheral blood CD4+ iNKT cells correlated directly with the peak HIV-1 load. These findings support a model in which iNKT cells are early targets for HIV-1 infection, driving their rapid loss from circulation and colonic mucosa.


Circulation ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 132 (suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel A Grisanti ◽  
Anna Gumpert ◽  
Joshua Gorsky ◽  
Ashley A Repas ◽  
Erhe Gao ◽  
...  

Inflammatory responses are important for cardiac remodeling and tissue repair after myocardial infarction (MI). The sympathetic nervous system is known to regulate immune responses, in large part through the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR), however the influence of β2AR in regulating the inflammatory response following MI is unknown. Thus, to examine the contribution of β2AR on immune cells following MI, wild-type (WT) mice were irradiated and then received β2ARKO or WT control bone marrow (BM) transplants to create immune cell-specific knockout (KO) animals. Lack of β2AR expression in BM resulted in 100% mortality from cardiac rupture within two weeks of receiving MI, in contrast to their WT counterparts that had ∼20% death. Granulocyte populations were sequestered in the spleen of β2ARKO chimeric mice resulting in reductions in post-MI infiltration of monocyte/macrophage, neutrophil and mast cell populations into the heart. Additionally, alterations in chemokine receptor levels, particularly CCR2, on BM resulted in decreased cellular migration, and use of a CCR2 antagonist in vivo recapitulated the β2ARKO chimeric mouse phenotype following MI. Administration of β2AR agonists in vitro and in vivo increased CCR2 expression and BM migration while β2AR antagonists decreased CCR2 expression and increased splenic leukocyte retention in vivo . Use of pepducins as allosteric modulators of β2AR signaling demonstrated the importance of β-arrestin-mediated signaling in increasing CCR2 expression and responses. The impact of β2AR deletion on BM cell CCR2 expression and migration, splenic retention of leukocytes and reciprocal cardiac leukocyte infiltration following MI could be reversed via lentivirus-mediated β2AR rescue in the β2ARKO BM prior to transplantation. These results demonstrate the critical role of β2AR in the regulation of CCR2 expression on hematopoietic cells and its importance in mounting an immune response to promote healing following acute cardiac injury.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine A Reardon ◽  
Amulya Lingaraju ◽  
Kelly Q Schoenfelt ◽  
Guolin Zhou ◽  
Ning-Chun Liu ◽  
...  

Type 2 diabetics have a higher risk for atherosclerosis, but the mechanisms underlying the increased risk are poorly understood. Macrophages, which are activated in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and have a role in all stages of atherogenesis, are an attractive link. Our hypothesis is that T2D promotes macrophage dysfunction to promote atherosclerosis. To investigate the relationship between T2D and macrophage dysfunction, we used a proteomics approach to identify dysregulated proteins secreted from peritoneal macrophages in a diet induced mouse model of obesity and insulin resistance in the absence of hypercholesterolemia. Twenty-seven T2D responsive proteins were identified that predict defects in many of the critical functions of macrophages in atherosclerosis (e.g. decreased apoE- cholesterol efflux; decreased MFGE8 – efferocytosis, increased MMP12- matrix degradation). The macrophages from lean and obese mice were not lipid loaded, but the obese macrophages accumulated significantly more cholesterol when exposed to high levels of atherogenic lipoproteins in vitro suggesting that dysregulation of the T2D responsive proteins in diabetic mice render macrophages more susceptible to cholesterol loading. Importantly, many of these same protein changes, which were present in atherosclerotic Ldlr-/- mice with T2D, were normalized when these mice were fed non-diabetogenic hypercholesterolemic diets. Thus, foam cell formation in the presence and absence of T2D produces distinct effects on macrophage protein levels, and hence function. Further, we identify IFNγ as a mediator of the T2D responsive protein dysfunction. IFNγ, but not other cytokines, insulin or glucose, promote the T2D responsive protein dysregulation and increased susceptibility to cholesterol accumulation in vitro and the dysregulation is not observed in macrophage foam cells obtained from obese, diabetic IFNγ receptor 1 knockout animals. We also demonstrate that IFNγ can target these proteins in arterial wall macrophages in vivo . These studies suggest that IFNγ is an important mediator of macrophage dysfunction in T2D that may contribute to the enhanced cardiovascular risk in these patients.


2019 ◽  
Vol 93 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Juno ◽  
Kathleen M. Wragg ◽  
Anne B. Kristensen ◽  
Wen Shi Lee ◽  
Kevin J. Selva ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Sexual HIV-1 transmission occurs primarily in the presence of semen. Although data from macaque studies suggest that CCR5+ CD4+ T cells are initial targets for HIV-1 infection, the impact of semen on T cell CCR5 expression and ligand production remains inconclusive. To determine if semen modulates the lymphocyte CCR5 receptor/ligand axis, primary human T cell CCR5 expression and natural killer (NK) cell anti-HIV-1 antibody-dependent beta chemokine production was assessed following seminal plasma (SP) exposure. Purified T cells produce sufficient quantities of RANTES to result in a significant decline in CCR5bright T cell frequency following 16 h of SP exposure (P = 0.03). Meanwhile, NK cells retain the capacity to produce limited amounts of MIP-1α/MIP-1β in response to anti-HIV-1 antibody-dependent stimulation (median, 9.5% MIP-1α+ and/or MIP-1β+), despite the immunosuppressive nature of SP. Although these in vitro experiments suggest that SP-induced CCR5 ligand production results in the loss of surface CCR5 expression on CD4+ T cells, the in vivo implications are unclear. We therefore vaginally exposed five pigtail macaques to SP and found that such exposure resulted in an increase in CCR5+ HIV-1 target cells in three of the animals. The in vivo data support a growing body of evidence suggesting that semen exposure recruits target cells to the vagina that are highly susceptible to HIV-1 infection, which has important implications for HIV-1 transmission and vaccine design. IMPORTANCE The majority of HIV-1 vaccine studies do not take into consideration the impact that semen exposure might have on the mucosal immune system. In this study, we demonstrate that seminal plasma (SP) exposure can alter CCR5 expression on T cells. Importantly, in vitro studies of T cells in culture cannot replicate the conditions under which immune cells might be recruited to the genital mucosa in vivo, leading to potentially erroneous conclusions about the impact of semen on mucosal HIV-1 susceptibility.


Blood ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 1567-1572 ◽  
Author(s):  
ST Fan ◽  
K Hsia ◽  
TS Edgington

Abstract Cells of monocytic lineage (Mo) persistently infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have been suspected to be a major reservoir for in vivo transmission of virus to susceptible target cells. Cellular events and mechanisms that upregulate viral gene expression in such cells are important issues. Because the traffic of such cells is central to biodistribution of HIV, we have explored the impact of interaction of endothelium with HIV-1-infected U1 promonocytic cells. Coculturing of U1 with human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC) for 24 to 72 hours in the absence of stimulation induced HIV-1 p24 biosynthesis significantly. Antibody-blocking experiments indicated that CD11/CD18 integrins play a role in upregulation of HIV expression elicited by interaction with HUVEC. Engagement of CD11b/CD18 by adherence of U1 to surfaces coated with either the cognate ligand fibrinogen or monoclonal antibody specific for CD11b/CD18 also enhanced p24 biosynthesis. Furthermore, endothelial cells were found to constitutively synthesize and secrete soluble factors that enhanced HIV- 1 synthesis. The enhancing factors, of estimated size 10 to 45 kD, were induced in HUVEC to high levels by monokines or by lipopolysaccharide, resulting in markedly enhanced HIV-1 expression by U1. These endothelial cell-derived HIV-1-enhancing factors consist of, among others, interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1 beta, and granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF). Our results suggest that activation of HIV biosynthesis in infected Mo via interaction with endothelium may impact significantly on the tissue distribution and pathogenesis of HIV infections.


2012 ◽  
Vol 303 (12) ◽  
pp. G1299-G1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha R. Ryz ◽  
Scott J. Patterson ◽  
Yiqun Zhang ◽  
Caixia Ma ◽  
Tina Huang ◽  
...  

Vitamin D deficiency affects more that 1 billion people worldwide and is associated with an increased risk of developing a number of inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). At present, the basis for the impact of vitamin D on IBD and mucosal immune responses is unclear; however, IBD is known to reflect exaggerated immune responses to luminal bacteria, and vitamin D has been shown to play a role in regulating bacteria-host interactions. Therefore, to test the effect of active vitamin D on host responses to enteric bacteria, we gave 1,25(OH)2D3to mice infected with the bacterial pathogen Citrobacter rodentium, an extracellular microbe that causes acute colitis characterized by a strong Th1/Th17 immune response. 1,25(OH)2D3treatment of infected mice led to increased pathogen burdens and exaggerated tissue pathology. In association with their increased susceptibility, 1,25(OH)2D3-treated mice showed substantially reduced numbers of Th17 T cells within their infected colons, whereas only modest differences were noted in Th1 and Treg numbers. In accordance with the impaired Th17 responses, 1,25(OH)2D3-treated mice showed defects in their production of the antimicrobial peptide REG3γ. Taken together, these studies show that 1,25(OH)2D3suppresses Th17 T-cell responses in vivo and impairs mucosal host defense against an enteric bacterial pathogen.


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