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Identification of two major types of age-associated CD8 clonal expansions with highly divergent properties.

ABSTRACT: CD8 memory T cells are tightly regulated in young, healthy individuals but are often perturbed in aged animals by the appearance of large CD8 T cell clones. These clones are associated with impaired immunity in the aged. The molecular basis of this phenomenon remains unclear. Here, it is shown that the issue is confused by the fact that the clones are heterogeneous. Some clones bear high, and others, low levels of integrin alpha(4) (itgalpha4). These subtypes differ by multiple criteria. They appear in mice of different ages, concentrate in different tissues, and have different stabilities in vivo and responses to stimulation in vitro. itgalpha4(high), but not itgalpha4(low), CD8 clonal expansions have several characteristics consistent with a chronically stimulated phenotype. These properties include lowered levels of CD8, decreased expression of some cytokine receptors, and elevated expression of various inhibitory receptors, including the programmed death-1 (PD1) receptor and the killer cell lectin-like receptor G1 (KLRG1). The characteristics of itgalpha4(high) clonal expansions suggest that they may arise from age-dependent alterations in antigen expression and tolerance. These data redefine CD8 clonal expansions into at least two distinct entities and indicate that there are multiple mechanisms that drive age-related alterations of CD8 T cell homeostasis.

SUBMITTER: Clambey ET

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2525558 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Many aged individuals develop monoclonal expansions of CD8 T cells. These expansions are derived from a CD8 memory T cell that outcompetes neighboring CD8 T cells. The molecular alterations within clonal expansions that confer this competitive advantage relative to other CD8 T cells remains unknown. These microarray experiments were designed to identify genes differentially expressed in age-associated expansions of CD8 memory T cells relative to polyclonal CD8 memory T cells found in the same aged mice. Subsequent analysis of these data identified two major types of clonal expansions, distinguished by expression level of integrin a4 mRNA and protein. Based on this classification, Expansion_rep1 belongs to the integrin a4 high subtype of clonal expansions. In contrast, reps 2, 4, and 5 belong to the integrin a4 low subtype of clonal expansions. Given the divergent biological properties of these two subtypes of clonal expansions, we have focused genes differentially expressed between Expansion_rep 2, 4, and 5 and their paired PolyclonalAged samples. Experiment Overall Design: A total of 8 samples were analyzed for gene expression using the Affymetrix mouse genome 430 2.0 microarray platform. The experimental samples of interest were age-associated clonal expansions of CD8 memory T cells. We purified four clonal expansions from four independent, aged mice (indicated as "Expansion" rep1 2, 3, 4). For each clonal expansion of CD8 memory T cells that was purified, there was a paired control in which polyclonal CD8 memory T cells were harvested from the same aged mouse (denoted as "PolyclonalAged" rep1, 2, 3, 4). These paired samples allow one to consider gene expression changes from mice which have undergone the same age-associated changes in biology. The predominant comparison this study focused on was changes in gene expression between age-associated clonal expansions of CD8 memory T cells and their paired, polyclonal CD8 memory T cells. A total of 4 of these pairs were collected.

Project description:BackgroundThe role of adaptive immune responses in long COVID remains poorly understood, with contrasting hypotheses suggesting either an insufficient antiviral response or an excessive immune response associated with inflammatory damage. To address this issue, we set to characterize humoral and CD4+ T cell responses in long COVID patients prior to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.MethodsLong COVID patients who were seropositive (LC+, n=28) or seronegative (LC-, n=23) by spike ELISA assay were recruited based on (i) an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection documented by PCR or the conjunction of three major signs of COVID-19 and (ii) the persistence or resurgence of at least 3 symptoms for over 3 months. They were compared to COVID patients with resolved symptoms (RE, n=29) and uninfected control individuals (HD, n=29).ResultsThe spectrum of persistent symptoms proved similar in both long COVID groups, with a trend for a higher number of symptoms in the seronegative group (median=6 vs 4.5; P=0.01). The use a highly sensitive S-flow assay enabled the detection of low levels of SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific IgG in 22.7% of ELISA-seronegative long COVID (LC-) patients. In contrast, spike-specific IgG levels were uniformly high in the LC+ and RE groups. Multiplexed antibody analyses to 30 different viral antigens showed that LC- patients had defective antibody responses to all SARS-CoV-2 proteins tested but had in most cases preserved responses to other viruses. A sensitive primary T cell line assay revealed low but detectable SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4 responses in 39.1% of LC- patients, while response frequencies were high in the LC+ and RE groups. Correlation analyses showed overall strong associations between humoral and cellular responses, with exceptions in the LC- group.ConclusionsThese findings provide evidence for two major types of antiviral immune responses in long COVID. Seropositive patients showed coordinated cellular and humoral responses at least as high as those of recovered patients. In contrast, ELISA-seronegative long COVID patients showed overall low antiviral responses, with detectable specific CD4+ T cells and/or antibodies in close to half of patients (52.2%). These divergent findings in patients sharing a comparable spectrum of persistent symptoms raise the possibility of multiple etiologies in long COVID.

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Identification of two major types of age-associated CD8 clonal expansions with highly divergent properties.

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