NKG2A educates uterine NK cells to optimise pregnancy outcomes in humans and mice
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE173478 | GEO | 2021/04/29
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:NKG2A educates uterine NK cells to optimise pregnancy outcomes in humans and mice
| PRJNA725791 | ENA
Project description:The conserved CD94/NKG2A inhibitory receptor is expressed by nearly all human and ∼50% of mouse uterine natural killer (uNK) cells. Binding human HLA-E and mouse Qa-1, NKG2A drives NK cell education, a process of unknown physiological importance influenced by HLA-B alleles. Here, we show that NKG2A genetic ablation in dams mated with wild-type males caused suboptimal maternal vascular responses in pregnancy, accompanied by perturbed placental gene expression, reduced fetal weight, greater rates of smaller fetuses with asymmetric growth, and abnormal brain development. These are features of the human syndrome pre-eclampsia. In a genome-wide association study of 7,219 pre-eclampsia cases, we found a 7% greater relative risk associated with the maternal HLA-B allele that does not favor NKG2A education. These results show that the maternal HLA-B→HLA-E→NKG2A pathway contributes to healthy pregnancy and may have repercussions on offspring health, thus establishing the physiological relevance for NK cell education. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
| S-EPMC8211638 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Checkpoint blockage has revolutionized cancer treatment. NKG2A is an inhibitory receptor expressed by cytotoxic lymphocytes, including NK cells. In contrast to other checkpoint inhibitory antibodies, anti-NKG2A antibodies have shown only limited success. Here, we designed a Cas9-based strategy to delete KLRC1 from human NK cells. Electroporation of KLRC1-targeting Cas9-RNP efficiently eliminated NKG2A expression from primary human NK cells. NKG2A-deficient NK cells showed normal proliferation, only minor transcriptional changes related to enhanced NK cell activation and maintained their phenotype and licensing status. Genetic deletion of NKG2A fully bypassed HLA-E inhibition and further enhanced NK cell activity against various tumor cell lines, thereby outperforming anti-NKG2A antibodies. In combination with antibody-coating of tumor cells to induce antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, genetic deletion of NKG2A independently promoted cytotoxicity. Thus, Cas9-mediated targeting of NKG2A is an effective way to target this important inhibitory checkpoint. This technique is easily amenable to adoptive cell therapy in the clinical setting, where NKG2A deletion will promote anti-tumor responses and may help NK cells to better infiltrate and persist in an inhibitory tumor microenvironment.
2021-09-01 | GSE178566 | GEO
Project description:A key mechanism of tumor resistance to immune cells is mediated by expression of peptide-loaded HLA-E in tumor cells, which suppresses natural killer (NK) cell activity via ligation of the NK inhibitory receptor CD94/NKG2A. To bypass HLA-E inhibition, we developed a way to generate highly functional NK cells lacking NKG2A. Constructs containing a single-chain variable fragment derived from an anti-NKG2A antibody were linked to endoplasmic reticulum-retention domains. After retroviral transduction in human peripheral blood NK cells, these NKG2A Protein Expression Blockers (PEBLs) abrogated NKG2A expression. The resulting NKG2Anull NK cells had higher cytotoxicity against HLA-E-expressing tumor cells.
2019-05-17 | GSE127081 | GEO
Project description:We studied the heterogeneity among human KIR/NKG2A+CD8+ T cells. First, we found that KIRs and NKG2A are expressed on human CD8+ T cells in a mutually exclusive manner. Therefore, we compared KIR+CD8+ and NKG2A+CD8+ T cells in regards to TCR overlap and transcriptomic profiles and demonstrated that KIR+CD8+ and NKG2A+CD8+ T cells are distinct innate-like populations.
2023-02-23 | GSE185567 | GEO
Project description:An allorecognition system depending on interactions between uterine Natural Killer (uNK) cells and placental extravillous trophoblast (EVT) during early pregnancy influences reproductive outcomes in humans. Our previous immunogenetic studies show that particular combinations of maternal Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptors (KIR) in uNK cells with fetal HLA-C variants on EVT are associated with disorders of pregnancy, especially pre-eclampsia. To identify responses stimulated in uNK cells specifically when activating KIR (KIR2DS1) binds to C2+HLA-C, a combination protective against pre-eclampsia, we modelled KIR-HLA interactions by co-culturing uNK cells with the 721.221 HLA-null cell line transfected to express either C1+ or C2+HLA-C molecules, followed by transcriptome profiling by RNA sequencing. We detect the secretion of key cytokines by uNK cells under the protective combination between KIR2DS1 and C2+HLA-C.
2024-01-10 | E-MTAB-13379 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Cancer immunotherapy is gaining increasing attention. However, immune checkpoints are exploited by cancer cells to evade anti-tumor immunotherapy. Here, we knocked out NKG2A, an immune checkpoint expressed on natural killer (NK) cells, in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and differentiated these hPSCs into NK (PSC-NK) cells. We show that NKG2A knockout (KO) enhances the anti-tumor and anti-viral capabilities of PSC-NK cells. NKG2A KO endows PSC-NK cells with higher cytotoxicity against HLA-E-expressing glioblastoma (GBM) cells, leukemia cells, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected cells in vitro. The NKG2A KO PSC-NK cells also exerted potent anti-tumor activity in vivo, leading to substantially suppressed tumor progression and prolonged survival of tumor-bearing mice in a xenograft GBM mouse model. These findings underscore the potential of PSC-NK cells with immune checkpoint KO as a promising cell-based immunotherapy. The unlimited supply and ease of genetic engineering of hPSCs makes genetically engineered PSC-NK an attractive option for easily accessible "off-the-shelf" cancer immunotherapy.
2024-10-18 | GSE241039 | GEO
Project description:Pre-eclampsia is one of the most serious pregnancy-associated disorders, and is defined by hypertension (systolic blood pressure higher than 140mmHg or diastolic blood pressure higher than 90mmHg) with proteinuria (more than 0.3g/day). It is not a simple complication of pregnancy, but is rather a syndrome of multiple organ failure involving the liver, kidney, and lung, as well as coagulatory and neural systems. There is now an emerging consensus that pre-eclampsia is a complex polygenetic trait in which maternal and fetal genes, as well as environmental factors, are involved, although the precise mechanism of the disorder has remained elusive. In this study, we have performed gene expression profiling to further elucidate the mechanisms underlying the development of the pre-eclamptic condition. We thus compared the expression profiles in placentas from women who underwent a normal pregnancy and from women suffering from severe pre-eclampsia. In addition, we compared the expression data between the early and late onset forms of pre-eclampsia and obtained a number of potential new prognostic biomarkers for this disease. Experiment Overall Design: Placental biopsies were obtained during Caesarean section from both normotensive patients and from those with pre-eclampsia (n = 14) (early onset type; earlier than 31 weeks gestation, n = 6 and late onset type; 31 weeks gestation or later, n = 8). Pre-eclampsia was defined as a blood pressure of higher than 160/110 mmHg, with proteinuria of more than 2g in a 24 hour collection. The expression profiles of approximately 47,669 genes were analyzed using a Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarray Kit (Agilent Technologies). A total of 10 placentas from women with pre-eclampsia and four from normal subjects were used in the hybridizations. Reverse transcription labeling and hybridization was performed using the protocol recommended by the manufacturer. The microarray experiments were then carried out using competitive hybridization experiments with Cy3 and Cy5-labeled targets; one with test placental RNAs from patients or normal control subjects, and another using pooled normal placental RNA as a template control for normalization. The glass slides were scanned using an Agilent G2565BA microarray scanner. Scanned images were then analyzed using Feature Extraction software. The average signal intensities were corrected for median background intensity and transferred with GenBank descriptors to a Microsoft Excel data spreadsheet (Microsoft, Redmond, WA). Data analysis was performed using Genespring software version 6.1 (Silicon Genetics, Redwood City, CA). After intensity dependent normalization (Lowess), the expression levels relative to the control were calculated as a ratio, and the expression profiles were then compared between each pre-eclamptic or normal sample.
2008-05-07 | E-GEOD-4707 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:High uterine artery Doppler (UtAD) resistance indices (RI), indicative of poor uterine blood flow, have been shown to be predictive of placental complications of pregnancy such as pre-eclampsia (PE), fetal growth restriction (FGR) and stillbirth. A comparative analysis of gene expression in High vs normal risk pregnancies in placental tissue from first trimester was undertaken. Patients were stratified by their risk of developing placental complications as determined by Doppler resistance indices. High-resistance cases were defined as those with bilateral uterine diastolic notches and a mean RI >95th percentile whilst Normal-resistance cases had a mean RI of <95th percentile. A direct comparison of gene expression in Placental villous tissue obtained folowing terminations at of 9 to 14 weeks gestation.
2015-07-22 | E-MTAB-3265 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:New targets that enhance anti-tumor immunity must be identified to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Here we show that loss of endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase (ERAP) family proteins improves anti-tumor immunity and synergizes with immune checkpoint blockade. Mechanistically, we show that loss of ERAP inactivates the HLA-E/NKG2A checkpoint, which normally restrains tumor killing by both CD8+ T cells and NK cells. The inhibitory activity of HLA-E is dependent on its presentation of a restricted set of invariant epitopes which form the binding surface for the NKG2A/CD94 receptor complex. Using genetic screening, in vivo models, cell-based assays, and immunopeptidomics, we show that loss of ERAP activity prevents the processing of these invariant peptides and alters the presented peptidome of both HLA-E and classical MHC-I. HLA-E neo-peptides presented after ERAP deletion are unable to bind the NKG2A/CD94 receptor, rendering tumor cells highly susceptible to killing by NKG2A+ cytotoxic T and NK cells. Thus, loss of ERAP phenocopies the loss or inhibition of the HLA-E/NKG2A pathway and represents an attractive therapeutic approach to inhibit this critical checkpoint. More broadly, this work identifies ERAP1/2 as druggable intracellular enzymes that could be targeted using small molecules to inactivate a cell-surface inhibitory pathway and represents a novel approach to therapeutic modulation of immune responses.
2024-11-21 | PXD052031 | Pride