Project description:Neonates are highly susceptible to repeat infection and respond poorly to vaccination; these attributes derive from intrinsic differences between neonatal and adult naïve CD8+ T cells. In contrast to adult cells, naïve neonatal cells exhibit a greatly limited ability to differentiate into memory cells, a fundamental property of their adult counterparts. Here, we describe the role of the miR-29 microRNA in naïve T cells, focusing on age-related differences in miR-29 expression and the consequences of these differences in adult and neonatal cells, from mice and humans. In adults, high expression of miR-29 licenses naïve cells towards eventual memory cell fates; whereas neonatal naïve cells, which lack high expression of miR-29, are predisposed towards effector cell fates in response to an infection. Multiple lines of evidence support this model, including analysis of a mouse model deficient in miR-29, which we examine with adoptive transfer experiments to define the functional consequences of reduction of miR-29, together with genomic assays to define the regulatory impact of miR-29. Adult miR 29 deficient naïve CD8+ T cells cell are primed for activation and therefore secrete elevated levels of cytolytic molecules, and express transcription factors at levels associated with effector cell differentiation; moreover, these cells exhibit an altered CD8+ T cell memory repertoire, akin to that of neonatal CD8+ T cells. Importantly, we use a method that exploits extracellular vesicles as a delivery vehicle with which to modulate levels of miR-29 in neonatal and adult naïve T cells, examining both human and mouse cells. For example, increasing miR 29 expression in mouse naïve neonatal CD8+ T cells significantly improved the memory response during infection, concomitant with alterations to the chromatin landscape characteristic of cells primed for memory differentiation. Delivery of miR-29 antagomirs to human adult naïve CD8+ T cells was sufficient to induce the adult cells to adopt phenotypes and gene expression signatures normally found in cells present in newborns. This study establishes miR-29 as a key conserved regulator in naïve CD8+ T cells, and by adjusting levels of miR-29, has the potential to underlie therapeutic strategies for controlling the balance of effector versus memory fates in human T cells.

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Neonatal naïve CD8+ T cells have effector-like gene expression that prevents memory cell formation [RNA-seq]

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