Infectious disease
Abstract
Background: Chronic HCV-infection is characterized by a severe impairment of HCV-specific CD4 T cell help that is driven by chronic antigen stimulation. We aimed to study the fate of HCV-specific CD4 T cells after viral elimination. Methods:HCV-specific CD4 T cell responses were longitudinally analyzed using MHC class II tetramer-technology, multicolor flow cytometry and RNA sequencing in a cohort of chronically HCV-infected patients undergoing therapy with direct-acting antivirals. In addition, HCV-specific neutralizing antibodies and CXCL13 levels were analyzed. Results: We observed that the frequency of HCV-specific CD4 T cells increased within two weeks after initiation of DAA therapy. Multicolor flow cytometry revealed a downregulation of exhaustion and activation markers and an upregulation of memory-associated markers. While cells with a Th1 phenotype were the predominant subset at baseline, cells with phenotypic and transcriptional characteristics of follicular T helper cells increasingly shaped the circulating HCV-specific CD4 T cell repertoire, suggesting antigen-independent survival of this subset. These changes were accompanied by a decline of HCV-specific neutralizing antibodies and the germinal center activity. Conclusion: We identified a population of HCV-specific CD4 T cells with a follicular T helper cell signature that is maintained after therapy-induced elimination of persistent infection and may constitute an important target population for vaccination efforts to prevent re-infection and immunotherapeutic approaches for persistent viral infections.
Authors
Maike Smits, Katharina Zoldan, Naveed Ishaque, Zuguang Gu, Katharina Jechow, Dominik Wieland, Christian Conrad, Roland Eils, Catherine Fauvelle, Thomas F. Baumert, Florian Emmerich, Bertram Bengsch, Christoph Neumann-Haefelin, Maike Hofmann, Robert Thimme, Tobias Boettler
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major infectious disease worldwide. TB treatment displays a bi-phasic bacterial clearance, in which the majority of bacteria clear within the first month of treatment, but residual bacteria remains non-responsive to treatment and eventually may become resistant. Here, we have shown that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is taken up by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), where it established dormancy and became highly non-responsive to isoniazid, a major constituent of Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS). Dormant M.tb induced quiescence in MSCs and promoted their long-term survival. Unlike macrophages, where M.tb resides in early-phagosomal compartments, in MSCs the majority of bacilli were found in the cytosol, where they promoted rapid lipid-synthesis, hiding within lipid-droplets. Inhibition of lipid-synthesis prevented dormancy and sensitized the organisms to isoniazid. Thus, we have established that M.tb gains dormancy in MSCs, which thus serve as a long-term natural-reservoir of dormant M.tb. Interestingly, in the murine-model of TB, induction of autophagy eliminated M.tb from MSCs and consequently, the addition of rapamycin to an isoniazid treatment regimen successfully attained sterile clearance and prevented disease reactivation.
Authors
Samreen Fatima, Shashank Shivaji Kamble, Ved Prakash Dwivedi, Debapriya Bhattacharya, Santosh Kumar, Anand Ranganathan, Luc Van Kaer, Sujata Mohanty, Gobardhan Das
Abstract
Novel approaches for adjunctive therapy are urgently needed for infections complicated by antibiotic-resistant pathogens and for patients with compromised immunity. Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is a destructive skin and soft tissue infection. Despite treatment with systemic antibiotics and radical debridement of necrotic tissue, lethality remains high. The key iron regulatory hormone hepcidin was originally identified as a cationic antimicrobial peptide (AMP), but its putative expression and role in the skin, a major site of AMP production, has never been investigated. We report here that hepcidin production is induced in the skin of patients with Group A Streptococcal (GAS) NF. In a GAS-induced NF model, mice lacking hepcidin in keratinocytes failed to restrict systemic spread of infection from an initial tissue focus. Unexpectedly, this effect was due its ability to promote production of the CXCL1 chemokine by keratinocytes resulting in neutrophil recruitment. Unlike CXCL1, hepcidin is resistant to degradation by major GAS proteases and could therefore serve as a reservoir to maintain steady state levels of CXCL1 in infected tissue. Finally, injection of synthetic hepcidin at the site of infection can limit or completely prevent systemic spread of GAS infection suggesting that hepcidin agonists could have a therapeutic role in NF.
Authors
Mariangela Malerba, Sabine Louis, Sylvain Cuvellier, Srikanth Mairpady Shambat, Camille Hua, Camille Gomart, Agnès Fouet, Nicolas Ortonne, Jean-Winoc Decousser, Annelies S. Zinkernagel, Jacques R.R. Mathieu, Carole Peyssonnaux
Abstract
Essentially all Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria that gain access to the circulation are plucked out of the bloodstream by the intravascular macrophages of the liver — the Kupffer cells. It is also thought that these bacteria are disseminated via the bloodstream to other organs. Our data show that S. aureus inside Kupffer cells grew and escaped across the mesothelium into the peritoneal cavity and immediately infected GATA-binding factor 6–positive (GATA6+) peritoneal cavity macrophages. These macrophages provided a haven for S. aureus, thereby delaying the neutrophilic response in the peritoneum by 48 hours and allowing dissemination to various peritoneal and retroperitoneal organs including the kidneys. In mice deficient in GATA6+ peritoneal macrophages, neutrophils infiltrated more robustly and reduced S. aureus dissemination. Antibiotics administered i.v. did not prevent dissemination into the peritoneum or to the kidneys, whereas peritoneal administration of vancomycin (particularly liposomal vancomycin with optimized intracellular penetrance capacity) reduced kidney infection and mortality, even when administered 24 hours after infection. These data indicate that GATA6+ macrophages within the peritoneal cavity are a conduit of dissemination for i.v. S. aureus, and changing the route of antibiotic delivery could provide a more effective treatment for patients with peritonitis-associated bacterial sepsis.
Authors
Selina K. Jorch, Bas G.J. Surewaard, Mokarram Hossain, Moritz Peiseler, Carsten Deppermann, Jennifer Deng, Ania Bogoslowski, Fardau van der Wal, Abdelwahab Omri, Michael J. Hickey, Paul Kubes
Abstract
HIV is a major driver of Tuberculosis (TB) reactivation. Depletion of CD4+ T cells is assumed to be the basis behind TB reactivation in individuals with latent tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Non-human primates (NHPs) coinfected with a mutant simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVΔGY), that does not cause depletion of tissue CD4+ T cells during infection, failed to reactivate TB. To investigate the contribution of CD4+ T cell depletion relative to other mechanisms of SIV-induced reactivation of LTBI, we used CD4R1 antibody to deplete CD4+ T cells in animals with LTBI without lentiviral infection. We showed that the mere depletion of CD4+ T cells during LTBI was insufficient in generating reactivation of LTBI. Instead, direct cytopathic effects of SIV resulting in chronic immune activation, along with the altered effector T cell phenotypes and dysregulated T cell homeostasis, were likely mediators of reactivation of LTBI. These results revealed important implications for controlling TB in the HIV co-infected individuals.
Authors
Allison N. Bucşan, Ayan Chatterjee, Dhiraj K. Singh, Taylor W. Foreman, Tae-Hyung Lee, Breanna Threeton, Melanie G. Kirkpatrick, Mushtaq Ahmed, Nadia Golden, Xavier Alvarez, James A. Hoxie, Smriti Mehra, Jyothi Rengarajan, Shabaana A. Khader, Deepak Kaushal
Abstract
The Toll-Like Receptor 8 (TLR8) has an important role in innate immune responses to RNA viral infections including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). We reported previously that TLR8 expression was increased directly by the tumor suppressor and transcription factor p53 via a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP: rs3761624) in the TLR8 promoter, thereby placing TLR8 in the p53/immune axis. Because this SNP is in linkage disequilibrium with other SNPs associated with several infectious diseases, we addressed the combined influence of p53 and the SNP on downstream inflammatory signaling in response to a TLR8 cognate ssRNA ligand. Using human primary lymphocytes, p53 induction by chemotherapeutic agents such as ionizing radiation caused SNP-dependent synergistic increases in IL-6 following incubation with an ssRNA ligand, as well as TLR8 RNA and protein expression along with p53 binding at the TLR-p53 SNP site. Because TLR8 is X-linked, the increases were generally reduced in heterozygous females. We found a corresponding association of the p53-responsive allele with RSV disease severity in infants hospitalized with RSV infection. We conclude that p53 can strongly influence TLR8 mediated immune responses and that knowledge of the p53 responsive SNP can inform diagnosis and prognosis of RSV disease and other diseases that might have a TLR8 component, including cancer.
Authors
Daniel Menendez, Joyce Snipe, Jacqui Marzec, Cynthia L. Innes, Fernando P. Polack, Mauricio Caballero, Shepherd H. Schurman, Steven R. Kleeberger, Michael A. Resnick
Abstract
Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) accounts for a substantial proportion of deaths attributable to antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the United States. Although C. difficile can be an asymptomatic colonizer, its pathogenic potential is most commonly manifested in patients with antibiotic-modified intestinal microbiomes. In a cohort of 186 hospitalized patients, we showed that host and microbe-associated shifts in fecal metabolomes had the potential to distinguish patients with CDI from those with non–C. difficile diarrhea and C. difficile colonization. Patients with CDI exhibited a chemical signature of Stickland amino acid fermentation that was distinct from those of uncolonized controls. This signature suggested that C. difficile preferentially catabolizes branched chain amino acids during CDI. Unexpectedly, we also identified a series of noncanonical, unsaturated bile acids that were depleted in patients with CDI. These bile acids may derive from an extended host-microbiome dehydroxylation network in uninfected patients. Bile acid composition and leucine fermentation defined a prototype metabolomic model with potential to distinguish clinical CDI from asymptomatic C. difficile colonization.
Authors
John I. Robinson, William H. Weir, Jan R. Crowley, Tiffany Hink, Kimberly A. Reske, Jennie H. Kwon, Carey-Ann D. Burnham, Erik R. Dubberke, Peter J. Mucha, Jeffrey P. Henderson
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between helminth infection and allergic sensitization by assessing the influence of preexisting allergy on the outcome of helminth infections, rather than the more traditional approach in which the helminth infection precedes the onset of allergy. Here we used a murine model of house dust mite–induced (HDM-induced) allergic inflammation followed by Ascaris infection to demonstrate that allergic sensitization drives an eosinophil-rich pulmonary type 2 immune response (Th2 cells, M2 macrophages, type 2 innate lymphoid cells, IL-33, IL-4, IL-13, and mucus) that directly hinders larval development and reduces markedly the parasite burden in the lungs. This effect is dependent on the presence of eosinophils, as eosinophil-deficient mice were unable to limit parasite development or numbers. In vivo administration of neutralizing antibodies against CD4 prior to HDM sensitization significantly reduced eosinophils in the lungs, resulting in the reversal of the HDM-induced Ascaris larval killing. Our data suggest that HDM allergic sensitization drives a response that mimics a primary Ascaris infection, such that CD4+ Th2-mediated eosinophil-dependent helminth larval killing in the lung tissue occurs. This study provides insight into the mechanisms underlying tissue-specific responses that drive a protective response against the early stages of the helminths prior to their establishing long-lasting infections in the host.
Authors
Pedro H. Gazzinelli-Guimaraes, Rafael de Queiroz Prado, Alessandra Ricciardi, Sandra Bonne-Année, Joshua Sciurba, Erik P. Karmele, Ricardo T. Fujiwara, Thomas B. Nutman
Abstract
Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) is a common cause of respiratory infection, but also frequently colonizes the nasopharynx in the absence of disease. We used mass cytometry to study immune cells from nasal biopsy samples collected following experimental human pneumococcal challenge in order to identify immunological mechanisms of control of Spn colonization. Using 37 markers, we characterized 293 nasal immune cell clusters, of which 7 were associated with Spn colonization. B cell and CD8+CD161+ T cell clusters were significantly lower in colonized than in non-colonized subjects. By following a second cohort before and after pneumococcal challenge we observed that B cells were depleted from the nasal mucosa upon Spn colonization. This associated with an expansion of Spn polysaccharide-specific and total plasmablasts in blood. Moreover, increased responses of blood mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells against in vitro stimulation with pneumococcus prior to challenge associated with protection against establishment of Spn colonization and with increased mucosal MAIT cell populations. These results implicate MAIT cells in the protection against pneumococcal colonization and demonstrate that colonization affects mucosal and circulating B cell populations.
Authors
Simon P. Jochems, Karin de Ruiter, Carla Solórzano, Astrid Voskamp, Elena Mitsi, Elissavet Nikolaou, Beatriz F. Carniel, Sherin Pojar, Esther L. German, Jesús Reiné, Alessandra Soares-Schanoski, Helen Hill, Rachel Robinson, Angela D. Hyder-Wright, Caroline M. Weight, Pascal F. Durrenberger, Robert S. Heyderman, Stephen B. Gordon, Hermelijn H. Smits, Britta C. Urban, Jamie Rylance, Andrea M. Collins, Mark D. Wilkie, Lepa Lazarova, Samuel C. Leong, Maria Yazdanbakhsh, Daniela M. Ferreira
Abstract
Type 1 IFNs (IFN-I) generally protect mammalian hosts from virus infections, but in some cases, IFN-I is pathogenic. Because IFN-I is protective, it is commonly used to treat virus infections for which no specific approved drug or vaccine is available. The Middle East respiratory syndrome–coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is such an infection, yet little is known about the role of IFN-I in this setting. Here, we show that IFN-I signaling is protective during MERS-CoV infection. Blocking IFN-I signaling resulted in delayed virus clearance, enhanced neutrophil infiltration, and impaired MERS-CoV–specific T cell responses. Notably, IFN-I administration within 1 day after infection (before virus titers peak) protected mice from lethal infection, despite a decrease in IFN-stimulated gene (ISG) and inflammatory cytokine gene expression. In contrast, delayed IFN-β treatment failed to effectively inhibit virus replication, increased infiltration and activation of monocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils in the lungs, and enhanced proinflammatory cytokine expression, resulting in fatal pneumonia in an otherwise sublethal infection. Together, these results suggest that the relative timing of the IFN-I response and maximal virus replication is key in determining outcomes, at least in infected mice. By extension, IFN-αβ or combination therapy may need to be used cautiously to treat viral infections in clinical settings.
Authors
Rudragouda Channappanavar, Anthony R. Fehr, Jian Zheng, Christine Wohlford-Lenane, Juan E. Abrahante, Matthias Mack, Ramakrishna Sompallae, Paul B. McCray Jr., David K. Meyerholz, Stanley Perlman
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Copyright © 2019 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)