Multi-Antigen Imaging Reveals Inflammatory DC, ADAM17 and Neprilysin as Effectors in Keloid Formation

Keloid is an aberrant scarring process of the skin, characterized by excessive extracellular matrix synthesis and deposition. The pathogenesis of this prevalent cutaneous disorder is not fully understood; however, a persistent inflammatory process is observed. To obtain more insight into this process, we analyzed lesional, perilesional and healthy tissue using multi-antigen-analysis (MAA) in conjunction with a data mining approach. Here, we demonstrate that monocyte-derived inflammatory dendritic cells (CD1a+, CD11c+, CD14+) and activated CD4+ T lymphocytes (CD45 RO+) dominated the immune infiltration in keloids while associating with fibroblasts. In perilesional tissue, precursor immune cells were dominant in the perivascular area, suggesting that they were attracted by an immune process, potentially in the lesional area. Supporting this hypothesis, only in keloid lesions, high levels of ADAM10/17 and Neprilysin (CD10) were observed in both fibroblasts and leukocytes. The spatial proximity of these two cell types, which could be confirmed by image analysis only in lesional tissue, could be a potential factor leading to the activation of fibroblasts. Our findings provide new insight into the pathogenesis of keloid formation and reveal metalloproteinases as a target for therapeutical intervention.

Inflammatory Dendritic Cells Contribute to Regulate the Immune Response in Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD), one of the most common hemoglobinopathies worldwide, is characterized by a chronic inflammatory component, with systemic release of inflammatory cytokines, due to hemolysis and vaso-occlusive processes. Patients with SCD demonstrate dysfunctional T and B lymphocyte responses, and they are more susceptible to infection. Although dendritic cells (DCs) are the main component responsible for activating and polarizing lymphocytic function, and are able to produce pro-inflammatory cytokines found in the serum of patients with SCD, minimal studies have thus far been devoted to these cells. In the present study, we identified the subpopulations of circulating DCs in patients with SCD, and found that the bloodstream of the patients showed higher numbers and percentages of DCs than that of healthy individuals. Among all the main DCs subsets, inflammatory DCs (CD14+ DCs) were responsible for this rise and correlated with higher reticulocyte count. The patients had more activated monocyte-derived DCs (mo-DCs), which produced MCP-1, IL-6, and IL-8 in culture. We found that a CD14+ mo-DC subset present in culture from some of the patients was the more activated subset and was mainly responsible for cytokine production, and this subset was also responsible for IL-17 production in co-culture with T lymphocytes. Finally, we suggest an involvement of heme oxygenase in the upregulation of CD14 in mo-DCs from the patients, indicating a potential mechanism for inducing inflammatory DC differentiation from circulating monocytes in the patients, which correlated with inflammatory cytokine production, T lymphocyte response skewing, and reticulocyte count.

Resolving the spatial and cellular architecture of lung adenocarcinoma by multi-region single-cell sequencing

ABSTRACTLittle is known of the geospatial architecture of individual cell populations in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) evolution. Here, we perform single-cell RNA sequencing of 186,916 cells from five early-stage LUADs and fourteen multi-region normal lung tissues of defined spatial proximities from the tumors. We show that cellular lineages, states, and transcriptomic features geospatially evolve across normal regions to the LUADs. LUADs exhibit pronounced intratumor cell heterogeneity within single sites and transcriptional lineage-plasticity programs driven by KRAS mutations. T regulatory cell phenotypes are increased in normal tissues with closer proximity to LUAD, in contrast to diminished signatures and fractions of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, antigen-presenting macrophages and inflammatory dendritic cells. Further, the LUAD ecosystem harbors gain of ligand-receptor based interactions involving increased expression of CD24 antigen on epithelial cells and SIGLEC10 on myeloid subsets. These data provide a spatial atlas of LUAD evolution, and a resource for identification of targets for treatment.Statement of significanceThe geospatial ecosystem of the peripheral lung and early-stage LUAD is not known. Our multi-region single-cell sequencing analyses unravel cell populations, states, and phenotypes in the spatial and ecological evolution LUAD from the lung that comprise high-potential targets for early interception.

Human NK cells prime inflammatory DC precursors to induce Tc17 differentiation

Adaptive immune responses are acknowledged to evolve from innate immunity. However, limited information exists regarding whether encounters between innate cells direct the generation of specialized T-cell subsets. We aim to understand how natural killer (NK) cells modulate cell-mediated immunity in humans. We found that human CD14+CD16− monocytes that differentiate into inflammatory dendritic cells (DCs) are shaped at the early stages of differentiation by cell-to-cell interactions with NK cells. Although a fraction of monocytes is eliminated by NK-cell–mediated cytotoxicity, the polarization of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) at the NKp30-stabilized synapses triggers a stable IFN-γ signature in surviving monocytes that persists after their differentiation into DCs. Notably, NK-cell–instructed DCs drive the priming of type 17 CD8+ T cells (Tc17) with the capacity to produce IFN-γ and interleukin-17A. Compared with healthy donors, this cellular network is impaired in patients with classical NK-cell deficiency driven by mutations in the GATA2 gene. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized connection by which Tc17-mediated immunity might be regulated by NK-cell–mediated tuning of antigen-presenting cells.

Dynamic metabolic reprogramming in dendritic cells: an early response to influenza infection that is essential for effector function

Infection with the influenza virus triggers an innate immune response aimed at initiating the adaptive response to halt viral replication and spread. However, the metabolic response fueling the molecular mechanisms underlying changes in innate immune cell homeostasis remain undefined. Thus, we compared the metabolic response of dendritic cells to that of those infected with active and inactive influenza A virus or treated with toll like receptor agonists. While influenza infects dendritic cells, it does not productively replicate in these cells, and therefore metabolic changes upon infection may represent an adaptive response on the part of the host cells. Using quantitative mass spectrometry along with pulse chase substrate utilization assays and metabolic flux measurements, we found global metabolic changes 17 hours post infection, including significant changes in carbon commitment via glycolysis and glutaminolysis, as well as ATP production via TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. Influenza infection of dendritic cells led to a metabolic phenotype, distinct from that induced by TLR agonists, with significant resilience in terms of metabolic plasticity. We identified Myc as one transcription factor modulating this response. Restriction of either Myc activity or mitochondrial substrates resulted in significant changes in the innate immune functions of dendritic cells, including reduced motility and T cell activation. Transcriptome analysis of inflammatory dendritic cells isolated following influenza infection showed similar metabolic reprogramming occurs in vivo. Thus, early in the infection process dendritic cells respond with global metabolic restructuring that is present in lung DC 9 days following infection and impacts their effector function, suggesting that metabolic switching in dendritic cells plays a vital role in initiating the immune response to influenza infection.Author SummaryIn response to influenza infection we found that dendritic cells, cells that are critical in mounting an effective immune response, undergo a profound metabolic shift. They alter the concentration and location of hundreds of proteins, including c-MYC, mediating a shift to a highly glycolytic phenotype that is also flexible in terms of fueling respiration. Dendritic cells initiate the immune response to influenza and activate the adaptive response allowing viral clearance and manifesting immune memory for protection against subsequent infections. We found that limiting access to specific metabolic pathways or substrates diminished key immune functions. Previously we described an immediate, fixed, hypermetabolic state in infected respiratory epithelial cells. We now show the metabolic responses of epithelial and dendritic cells are distinct. Here, we also demonstrate that dendritic cells tailor their metabolic response to the pathogen or TLR stimulus. This metabolic reprogramming occurs rapidly in vitro and it is sustained in inflammatory dendritic cells in vivo for at least 9 days following influenza infection. Thus, drugs targeting metabolism are likely to have cell- and pathogen-specific activities in the context of infection. These studies open the possibility of modulating the immune response to viral infection via customizing metabolic therapy to enhance or diminish the function of specific cells.