Scientific Resources

Recent compelling evidence indicates that Th17 confer host immunity against a variety of microbes,including extracellular and intracellular pathogens. Therefore,understanding mechanisms for the induction and activation of Ag-specific Th17 is important for the rational design of vaccines against pathogens. To study this,we employed an in vitro system in which influenza hemagglutinin (HA) 1 was delivered to dendritic cells (DCs) via Dectin-1 using anti-human Dectin-1 (hDectin-1)-HA1 recombinant fusion proteins. We found that healthy individuals maintained broad ranges of HA1-specific memory Th17 that were efficiently activated by DCs targeted with anti-hDectin-1-HA1. Nonetheless,these DCs were not able to induce a significant level of HA1-specific Th17 responses even in the presence of the Th17-promoting cytokines IL-1? and IL-6. We further found that the induction of surface IL-1R1 expression by signals via TCRs and common ?-chain receptors was essential for naive CD4(+) T cell differentiation into HA1-specific Th17. This process was dependent on MyD88,but not IL-1R-associated kinase 1/4. Thus,interruptions in STAT3 or MyD88 signaling led to substantially diminished HA1-specific Th17 induction. Taken together,the de novo generation of pathogen-specific human Th17 requires complex,but complementary,actions of multiple signals. Data from this study will help us design a new and effective vaccine strategy that can promote Th17-mediated immunity against microbial pathogens. View Publication

Lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3) is an inhibitory receptor expressed by CD4+ T cells and tempers their homeostatic expansion. Because CD4+ T cell proliferation is tightly coupled to bioenergetics,we investigate the role of LAG-3 in modulating naive CD4+ T cell metabolism. LAG-3 deficiency enhances the metabolic profile of naive CD4+ T cells by elevating levels of mitochondrial biogenesis. In vivo,LAG-3 blockade partially restores expansion and the metabolic phenotype of wild-type CD4+ T cells to levels of Lag3-/- CD4+ T cells,solidifying that LAG-3 controls these processes. Lag3-/- CD4+ T cells also demonstrate greater signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) activation,enabling resistance to interleukin-7 (IL-7) deprivation. These results implicate this pathway as a target of LAG-3-mediated inhibition. Additionally,enhancement of STAT5 activation,as a result of LAG-3 deficiency,contributes to greater activation potential in these cells. These results identify an additional mode of regulation elicited by LAG-3 in controlling CD4+ T cell responses. View Publication

T helper 17 (Th17) cells are pathogenic in many inflammatory diseases,but also support the integrity of the intestinal barrier in a non-inflammatory manner. It is unclear what distinguishes inflammatory Th17 cells elicited by pathogens and tissue-resident homeostatic Th17 cells elicited by commensals. Here,we compared the characteristics of Th17 cells differentiating in response to commensal bacteria (SFB) to those differentiating in response to a pathogen (Citrobacter rodentium). Homeostatic Th17 cells exhibited little plasticity towards expression of inflammatory cytokines,were characterized by a metabolism typical of quiescent or memory T cells,and did not participate in inflammatory processes. In contrast,infection-induced Th17 cells showed extensive plasticity towards pro-inflammatory cytokines,disseminated widely into the periphery,and engaged aerobic glycolysis in addition to oxidative phosphorylation typical for inflammatory effector cells. These findings will help ensure that future therapies directed against inflammatory Th17 cells do not inadvertently damage the resident gut population. View Publication

Immune activation may underlie the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS),but the evidence is conflicting. We examined whether peripheral CD4+ T-cells from IBS patients demonstrated immune activation and changes in cytokine production. To gain mechanistic insight,we examined whether immune activation correlated with psychological stress and changing symptoms over time. IBS patients (n = 29) and healthy volunteers (HV; n = 29) completed symptom and psychological questionnaires. IBS patients had a significant increase in CD4+ T-cells expressing the gut homing marker integrin beta7 (p = 0.023) and lymphoid marker CD62L (p = 0.026) compared to HV. Furthermore,phytohaemagglutinin stimulated CD4+ T-cells from IBS-D patients demonstrated increased TNFalpha secretion when compared to HV (p = 0.044). Increased psychological scores in IBS did not correlate with TNFalpha production,while stress hormones inhibited cytokine secretion from CD4+ T-cells of HV in vitro. IBS symptoms,but not markers of immune activation,decreased over time. CD4+ T-cells from IBS-D patients exhibit immune activation,but this did not appear to correlate with psychological stress measurements or changing symptoms over time. This could suggest that immune activation is a surrogate of an initial trigger and/or ongoing parallel peripheral mechanisms. View Publication

CD4 T cells play a critical role in promoting the development of autoimmunity in type 1 diabetes. The diabetogenic CD4 T cell clone BDC-2.5,originally isolated from a NOD mouse,has been widely used to study the contribution of autoreactive CD4 T cells and relevant Ags to autoimmune diabetes. Recent work from our laboratory has shown that the Ag for BDC-2.5 T cells is a hybrid insulin peptide (2.5HIP) consisting of an insulin C-peptide fragment fused to a peptide from chromogranin A (ChgA) and that endogenous 2.5HIP-reactive T cells are major contributors to autoimmune pathology in NOD mice. The objective of this study was to determine if poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLG) nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with the 2.5HIP Ag (2.5HIP-coupled PLG NPs) can tolerize BDC-2.5 T cells. Infusion of 2.5HIP-coupled PLG NPs was found to prevent diabetes in an adoptive transfer model by impairing the ability of BDC-2.5 T cells to produce proinflammatory cytokines through induction of anergy,leading to an increase in the ratio of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells to IFN-gamma+ effector T cells. To our knowledge,this work is the first to use a hybrid insulin peptide,or any neoepitope,to re-educate diabetogenic T cells and may have significant implications for the development of an Ag-specific therapy for type 1 diabetes patients. View Publication

Helminthic infections modulate host immunity and may protect their hosts from developing immunological diseases like inflammatory bowel disease. Induction of regulatory T cells (Tregs) may be an important part of this protective process. Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri infection also promotes the production of the regulatory cytokines TGF-beta and IL-10 in the gut. In the intestines,TGF-beta helps induce regulatory T cells. This study used Foxp3/IL-10 double reporter mice to investigate the effect of TGF-beta on the differentiation of colon and mesenteric lymph node-derived murine Foxp3- IL-10- CD4+ T cells into their regulatory phenotypes. Foxp3- IL-10- CD4+ T cells from H. polygyrus bakeri-infected mice,as opposed to T cells from uninfected animals,cultured in vitro with TGF-beta and anti-CD3/CD28 mAb differentiated into Foxp3+ and/or IL-10+ T cells. The IL-10-producing T cells nearly all displayed CD25. Smad7 is a natural inhibitor of TGF-beta signaling. In contrast to gut T cells from uninfected mice,Foxp3- IL10- CD4+ T cells from H. polygyrus bakeri-infected mice displayed reduced Smad7 expression and responded to TGF-beta with Smad2/3 phosphorylation. The TGF-beta-induced Tregs that express IL-10 blocked colitis when transferred into the Rag/CD25- CD4+ T cell transfer model of inflammatory bowel disease. TGF-beta had a greatly diminished capacity to induce Tregs in H. polygyrus bakeri-infected transgenic mice with constitutively high T cell-specific Smad7 expression. Thus,infection with H. polygyrus bakeri causes down-modulation in Smad7 expression in intestinal CD4+ T cells,which allows the TGF-beta produced in response to the infection to induce the Tregs that prevent colitis. View Publication

The types and magnitude of Ag-specific immune responses can be determined by the functional plasticity of dendritic cells (DCs). However,how DCs display functional plasticity and control host immune responses have not been fully understood. In this study,we report that ligation of DC-asialoglycoprotein receptor (DC-ASGPR),a C-type lectin receptor (CLR) expressed on human DCs,resulted in rapid activation of Syk,followed by PLCgamma2 and PKCdelta engagements. However,different from other Syk-coupled CLRs,including Dectin-1,signaling cascade through DC-ASGPR did not trigger NF-kappaB activation. Instead,it selectively activated MAPK ERK1/2 and JNK. Rapid and prolonged phosphorylation of ERK1/2 led to sequential activation of p90RSK and CREB,which consequently bound to IL10 promoter and initiated cytokine expression. In addition,DC-ASGPR ligation activated Akt,which differentially regulated the activities of GSK-3alpha/beta and beta-catenin and further contributed to IL-10 expression. Our observations demonstrate that DC-ASGPR induces IL-10 expression via an intrinsic signaling pathway,which provides a molecular explanation for DC-ASGPR-mediated programing of DCs to control host immune responses. View Publication

The hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) anticancer drug was dismissed due to limited efficacy in leukemic patients but it may re-enter into the clinics in HIV-1 eradication strategies because of its recently disclosed capacity to reactivate latent virus. Here,we investigated the impact of HMBA on the cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells against acute T lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells or HIV-1-infected T cells that exit from latency. We show that in T-ALL cells HMBA upmodulated MICB and ULBP2 ligands for the NKG2D activating receptor. In a primary CD4+ T cell-based latency model,HMBA did not reactivate HIV-1,yet enhanced ULBP2 expression on cells harboring virus reactivated by prostratin (PRO). However,HMBA reduced the expression of NKG2D and its DAP10 adaptor in NK cells,hence impairing NKG2D-mediated cytotoxicity and DAP10-dependent response to IL-15 stimulation. Alongside,HMBA dampened killing of T-ALL targets by IL-15-activated NK cells and impaired NK cell-mediated clearance of PRO-reactivated HIV-1+ cells. Overall,our results demonstrate a dominant detrimental effect of HMBA on the NKG2D pathway that crucially controls NK cell-mediated killing of tumors and virus-infected cells,providing one possible explanation for poor clinical outcome in HMBA-treated cancer patients and raising concerns for future therapeutic application of this drug. View Publication

A proposed strategy to cure HIV uses latency-reversing agents (LRAs) to reactivate latent proviruses for purging HIV reservoirs. A variety of LRAs have been identified,but none has yet proven effective in reducing the reservoir size in vivo. Nanocarriers could address some major challenges by improving drug solubility and safety,providing sustained drug release,and simultaneously delivering multiple drugs to target tissues and cells. Here,we formulated hybrid nanocarriers that incorporate physicochemically diverse LRAs and target lymphatic CD4+ T cells. We identified one LRA combination that displayed synergistic latency reversal and low cytotoxicity in a cell model of HIV and in CD4+ T cells from virologically suppressed patients. Furthermore,our targeted nanocarriers selectively activated CD4+ T cells in nonhuman primate peripheral blood mononuclear cells as well as in murine lymph nodes,and substantially reduced local toxicity. This nanocarrier platform may enable new solutions for delivering anti-HIV agents for an HIV cure. View Publication

Identifying targets present in the tumor microenvironment that contribute to immune evasion has become an important area of research. In this study,we identified EphB4-ephrin-B2 signaling as a regulator of both innate and adaptive components of the immune system. EphB4 belongs to receptor tyrosine kinase family that interacts with ephrin-B2 ligand at sites of cell-cell contact,resulting in bidirectional signaling. We found that EphB4-ephrin-B2 inhibition alone or in combination with radiation (RT) reduced intratumoral regulatory T cells (Tregs) and increased activation of both CD8+ and CD4+Foxp3- T cells compared with the control group in an orthotopic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) model. We also compared the effect of EphB4-ephrin-B2 inhibition combined with RT with combined anti-PDL1 and RT and observed similar tumor growth suppression,particularly at early time-points. A patient-derived xenograft model showed reduction of tumor-associated M2 macrophages and favored polarization towards an antitumoral M1 phenotype following EphB4-ephrin-B2 inhibition with RT. In vitro,EphB4 signaling inhibition decreased Ki67-expressing Tregs and Treg activation compared with the control group. Overall,our study is the first to implicate the role of EphB4-ephrin-B2 in tumor immune response. Moreover,our findings suggest that EphB4-ephrin-B2 inhibition combined with RT represents a potential alternative for patients with HNSCC and could be particularly beneficial for patients who are ineligible to receive or cannot tolerate anti-PDL1 therapy. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings present EphB4-ephrin-B2 inhibition as an alternative to anti-PDL1 therapeutics that can be used in combination with radiation to induce an effective antitumor immune response in patients with HNSCC. View Publication

There is emerging evidence that the commensal microbiota has a role in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS),a putative autoimmune disease of the CNS. Here,we compared the gut microbial composition of 34 monozygotic twin pairs discordant for MS. While there were no major differences in the overall microbial profiles,we found a significant increase in some taxa such as Akkermansia in untreated MS twins. Furthermore,most notably,when transplanted to a transgenic mouse model of spontaneous brain autoimmunity,MS twin-derived microbiota induced a significantly higher incidence of autoimmunity than the healthy twin-derived microbiota. The microbial profiles of the colonized mice showed a high intraindividual and remarkable temporal stability with several differences,including Sutterella,an organism shown to induce a protective immunoregulatory profile in vitro. Immune cells from mouse recipients of MS-twin samples produced less IL-10 than immune cells from mice colonized with healthy-twin samples. IL-10 may have a regulatory role in spontaneous CNS autoimmunity,as neutralization of the cytokine in mice colonized with healthy-twin fecal samples increased disease incidence. These findings provide evidence that MS-derived microbiota contain factors that precipitate an MS-like autoimmune disease in a transgenic mouse model. They hence encourage the detailed search for protective and pathogenic microbial components in human MS. View Publication

Current antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS slows disease progression by reducing viral loads and increasing CD4 counts. Yet ART is not curative due to the persistence of CD4+ T-cell proviral reservoirs that chronically resupply active virus. Elimination of these reservoirs through the administration of synergistic combinations of latency reversing agents (LRAs),such as histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and protein kinase C (PKC) modulators,provides a promising strategy to reduce if not eradicate the viral reservoir. Here,we demonstrate that largazole and its analogues are isoform-targeted histone deacetylase inhibitors and potent LRAs. Significantly,these isoform-targeted HDAC inhibitors synergize with PKC modulators,namely bryostatin-1 analogues (bryologs). Implementation of this unprecedented LRA combination induces HIV-1 reactivation to unparalleled levels and avoids global T-cell activation within resting CD4+ T-cells. View Publication