Immunology
Abstract
BACKGROUND. Some adult patients presenting with unexplained pyrexia, serositis, skin rashes, arthralgia, myalgia, and other symptoms commonly found in autoinflammatory disorders may not fit a specific diagnosis, either because their clinical phenotype is nondiagnostic or genetic tests are negative. We used the term undifferentiated systemic autoinflammatory disorder (uSAID) to describe such cases. Given that well-defined autoinflammatory diseases show responses to IL-1 blockade, we evaluated whether anakinra was useful for both diagnosing and treating uSAID patients.
METHODS. We performed a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients presenting with uSAID between 2012–2015 who were treated with the recombinant IL-1 receptor antagonist anakinra. uSAID was diagnosed after excluding malignancy, infection, and pathogenic mutations in known hereditary fever syndromes (HFS) genes and where clinical criteria for adult onset Still’s disease (AOSD) were not met.
RESULTS. A total of 11 patients presented with uSAID (5 males and 6 females), with a mean time to diagnosis of 3.5 years (1–8 years). Patients were unresponsive or only partially controlled on disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)/steroid treatment. Anakinra controlled symptoms within 4–6 weeks of starting treatment in 9 of 11 cases. Two patients discontinued therapy — one due to incomplete response and another due to severe injection-site reactions.
CONCLUSION. This retrospective case series demonstrates that the spectrum of poorly defined autoinflammatory disorders that show responsiveness to anakinra is considerable. Anakinra seems a viable treatment option for these patients, who are unresponsive to standard steroid/DMARD treatments. Moreover, given the mechanisms of action, response to anakinra implicates underlying IL-1 dysregulation in the disease pathogenesis of responding uSAIDs patients.
Authors
Stephanie R. Harrison, Dennis McGonagle, Sharmin Nizam, Stephen Jarrett, Jeroen van der Hilst, Michael F. McDermott, Sinisa Savic
Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a debilitating disease characterized by persistent accumulation of leukocytes within the articular cavity and synovial tissue. Metabololipidomic profiling of arthritic joints from omega-3 supplemented mice identified elevated levels of specialized proresolving lipid mediators (SPM) including resolvin D1 (RvD1). Profiling of human RA synovial fluid revealed physiological levels of RvD1, which — once applied to human neutrophils — attenuated chemotaxis. These results prompted analyses of the antiarthritic properties of RvD1 in a model of murine inflammatory arthritis. The stable epimer 17
Authors
Lucy V. Norling, Sarah E. Headland, Jesmond Dalli, Hildur H. Arnardottir, Oliver Haworth, Hefin R. Jones, Daniel Irimia, Charles N. Serhan, Mauro Perretti
Abstract
Immunotherapies targeting the immune checkpoint receptor programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) have shown remarkable efficacy in treating cancer. CD4+CD25hiFoxP3+ Tregs are critical regulators of immune responses in autoimmunity and malignancies, but the functional status of human Tregs expressing PD-1 remains unclear. We examined functional and molecular features of PD-1hi Tregs in healthy subjects and patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), combining functional assays, RNA sequencing, and cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF). In both patients with GBM and healthy subjects, circulating PD-1hi Tregs displayed reduced suppression of CD4+ effector T cells, production of IFN-γ, and molecular signatures of exhaustion. Transcriptional profiling of tumor-resident Tregs revealed that several genes coexpressed with PD-1 and associated with IFN-γ production and exhaustion as well as enrichment in exhaustion signatures compared with circulating PD-1hi Tregs. CyTOF analysis of circulating and tumor-infiltrating Tregs from patients with GBM treated with PD-1-blocking antibodies revealed that treatment shifts the profile of circulating Tregs toward a more exhausted phenotype reminiscent of that of tumor-infiltrating Tregs, further increasing IFN-γ production. Thus, high PD-1 expression on human Tregs identifies dysfunctional, exhausted Tregs secreting IFN-γ that exist in healthy individuals and are enriched in tumor infiltrates, possibly losing function as they attempt to modulate the antitumoral immune responses.
Authors
Daniel E. Lowther, Brittany A. Goods, Liliana E. Lucca, Benjamin A. Lerner, Khadir Raddassi, David van Dijk, Amanda L. Hernandez, Xiangguo Duan, Murat Gunel, Vlad Coric, Smita Krishnaswamy, J. Christopher Love, David A. Hafler
Abstract
Posttransplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy) effectively prevents graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), but its immunologic impact is poorly understood. We assessed lymphocyte reconstitution via flow cytometry (
Authors
Christopher G. Kanakry, David G. Coffey, Andrea M.H. Towlerton, Ante Vulic, Barry E. Storer, Jeffrey Chou, Cecilia C.S. Yeung, Christopher D. Gocke, Harlan S. Robins, Paul V. O’Donnell, Leo Luznik, Edus H. Warren
Abstract
Xenografting primary tumor cells allows modeling of the heterogeneous natures of malignant diseases and the influences of the tissue microenvironment. Here, we demonstrate that xenografting primary chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) B lymphocytes with activated autologous T cells into alymphoid mice results in considerable CLL B cell division and sizable T cell expansion. Nevertheless, most/all CD5+CD19+ cells are eventually lost, due in part to differentiation into antibody-secreting plasmablasts/plasma cells. CLL B cell differentiation is associated with isotype class switching and development of new
Authors
Piers E.M. Patten, Gerardo Ferrer, Shih-Shih Chen, Rita Simone, Sonia Marsilio, Xiao-Jie Yan, Zachary Gitto, Chaohui Yuan, Jonathan E. Kolitz, Jacqueline Barrientos, Steven L. Allen, Kanti R. Rai, Thomas MacCarthy, Charles C. Chu, Nicholas Chiorazzi
Abstract
We recently identified a genome-wide genetic association of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) at 2p23 spanning the calpain 14 (
Authors
Benjamin P. Davis, Emily M. Stucke, M. Eyad Khorki, Vladislav A. Litosh, Jeffrey K. Rymer, Mark Rochman, Jared Travers, Leah C. Kottyan, Marc E. Rothenberg
Abstract
Ab-producing plasma cells (PCs) serve as key participants in countering pathogenic challenges as well as being contributors to autoimmune and malignant disorders. Thus far, only a limited number of PC–specific markers have been identified. The characterization of the unique variable lymphocyte receptor (VLR) Abs that are made by evolutionarily distant jawless vertebrates prompted us to investigate whether VLR Abs could detect novel PC antigens that have not been recognized by conventional Abs. Here, we describe a monoclonal lamprey Ab, VLRB MM3, that was raised against primary multiple myeloma cells. VLRB MM3 recognizes a unique epitope of the CD38 ectoenzyme that is present on plasmablasts and PCs from healthy individuals and on most, but not all, multiple myelomas. Binding by the VLRB MM3 Ab coincides with CD38 dimerization and NAD glycohydrolase activity. Our data demonstrate that the lamprey VLRB MM3 Ab is a unique reagent for the identification of plasmablasts and PCs, with potential applications in the diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of PC or autoimmune disorders.
Authors
Cuiling Yu, Yanling Liu, Justin Tze Ho Chan, Jiefei Tong, Zhihua Li, Mengyao Shi, Dariush Davani, Marion Parsons, Srijit Khan, Wei Zhan, Shuya Kyu, Eyal Grunebaum, Paolo Campisi, Evan J. Propst, David L. Jaye, Suzanne Trudel, Michael F. Moran, Mario Ostrowski, Brantley R. Herrin, F. Eun-Hyung Lee, Ignacio Sanz, Max D. Cooper, Götz R.A. Ehrhardt
Abstract
Progressive HIV-1 infection leads to both profound immune suppression and pathologic inflammation in the majority of infected individuals. While adaptive immune dysfunction, as evidenced by CD4+ T cell depletion and exhaustion, has been extensively studied, less is known about the functional capacity of innate immune cell populations in the context of HIV-1 infection. Given the broad susceptibility to opportunistic infections and the dysregulated inflammation observed in progressive disease, we hypothesized that there would be significant changes in the innate cellular responses. Using a cohort of patients with multiple samplings before and after antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, we demonstrated increased responses to innate immune stimuli following viral suppression, as measured by the production of inflammatory cytokines. Plasma viral load itself had the strongest association with this change in innate functional capacity. We further identified epigenetic modifications in the
Authors
Eileen P. Scully, Ainsley Lockhart, Wilfredo Garcia-Beltran, Christine D. Palmer, Chelsey Musante, Eric Rosenberg, Todd M. Allen, J. Judy Chang, Ronald J. Bosch, Marcus Altfeld
Abstract
Despite the rare appearance of potent HIV-neutralizing mAbs in infected individuals requiring prolonged affinity maturation, little is known regarding this process in the majority of viremic individuals. HIV-infected individuals with chronic HIV viremia have elevated numbers of nonconventional tissue-like memory (TLM) B cells that predominate in blood over conventional resting memory (RM) B cells. Accordingly, we investigated affinity maturation in these 2 memory B cell populations. Analysis of IgG-expressing TLM B cells revealed a higher number of cell divisions compared with RM B cells; however, TLM B cells paradoxically displayed significantly lower frequencies of somatic hypermutation (SHM). To assess Ab reactivity in TLM and RM B cells, single-cell cloning was performed on HIV envelope CD4–binding site–sorted (CD4bs-sorted) B cells from 3 individuals with chronic HIV viremia. Several clonal families were present among the 127 cloned recombinant mAbs, with evidence of crosstalk between TLM and RM B cell populations that was largely restricted to non-VH4 families. Despite evidence of common origins, SHM frequencies were significantly decreased in TLM-derived mAbs compared with SHM frequencies in RM-derived mAbs. However, both cell populations had lower frequencies of SHMs than did broadly neutralizing CD4bs–specific mAbs. There was a significant correlation between SHM frequencies and the HIV-neutralizing capacities of the mAbs. Furthermore, HIV neutralization was significantly higher in the RM-derived mAbs compared with that seen in the TLM-derived mAbs, and both SHM frequencies and neutralizing capacity were lowest in TLM-derived mAbs with high polyreactivity. Thus, deficiencies in memory B cells that arise during chronic HIV viremia provide insight into the inadequacy of the Ab response in viremic individuals.
Authors
Eric Meffre, Aaron Louie, Jason Bannock, Leo J.Y. Kim, Jason Ho, Cody C. Frear, Lela Kardava, Wei Wang, Clarisa M. Buckner, Yimeng Wang, Olivia R. Fankuchen, Kathleen R. Gittens, Tae-Wook Chun, Yuxing Li, Anthony S. Fauci, Susan Moir
Abstract
Glioblastomas are highly infiltrated by diverse immune cells, including microglia, macrophages, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Understanding the mechanisms by which glioblastoma-associated myeloid cells (GAMs) undergo metamorphosis into tumor-supportive cells, characterizing the heterogeneity of immune cell phenotypes within glioblastoma subtypes, and discovering new targets can help the design of new efficient immunotherapies. In this study, we performed a comprehensive battery of immune phenotyping, whole-genome microarray analysis, and microRNA expression profiling of GAMs with matched blood monocytes, healthy donor monocytes, normal brain microglia, nonpolarized M0 macrophages, and polarized M1, M2a, M2c macrophages. Glioblastoma patients had an elevated number of monocytes relative to healthy donors. Among CD11b+ cells, microglia and MDSCs constituted a higher percentage of GAMs than did macrophages. GAM profiling using flow cytometry studies revealed a continuum between the M1- and M2-like phenotype. Contrary to current dogma, GAMs exhibited distinct immunological functions, with the former aligned close to nonpolarized M0 macrophages.
Authors
Konrad Gabrusiewicz, Benjamin Rodriguez, Jun Wei, Yuuri Hashimoto, Luke M. Healy, Sourindra N. Maiti, Ginu Thomas, Shouhao Zhou, Qianghu Wang, Ahmed Elakkad, Brandon D. Liebelt, Nasser K. Yaghi, Ravesanker Ezhilarasan, Neal Huang, Jeffrey S. Weinberg, Sujit S. Prabhu, Ganesh Rao, Raymond Sawaya, Lauren A. Langford, Janet M. Bruner, Gregory N. Fuller, Amit Bar-Or, Wei Li, Rivka R. Colen, Michael A. Curran, Krishna P. Bhat, Jack P. Antel, Laurence J. Cooper, Erik P. Sulman, Amy B. Heimberger
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