Project description:Blood-stage malaria infection induces differentiation of several effector CD4 + T subsets including Tfh and Th1 cells. The cues and microarchitectural niches required in secondary lymphoid organs for their formation were previously uncharacterised. Here we used scRNA-seq to profile splenocyte transcriptomes at steady state or upon malaria infection as a reference dataset for deconvolution of spatial transcriptomic data.
Project description:Blood-stage malaria infection induces differentiation of several effector CD4 + T subsets including Tfh and Th1 cells. The cues and microarchitectural niches required in secondary lymphoid organs for their formation were previously uncharacterised. Here we used scRNA-seq to profile CD4+ T cell transcriptomes upon malaria infection as a reference dataset for deconvolution of spatial transcriptomic data.
Project description:Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites is responsible for the illness of millions of individuals each year. Plasmodium sporozoites inoculated by mosquitoes migrate to the liver and infect hepatocytes prior to release of merozoites that initiate symptomatic blood-stage malaria. Parasites are thought to be restricted to hepatocytes throughout this obligate liver-stage of replication and differentiation. In contrast to this notion, we found that a subset of hepatic dendritic CD11c+ cells co-expressing F4/80, CD103, CD207 and CSF1R, acquired a substantial parasite burden during the liver-stage of malaria, but only after initial hepatocyte infection. These CD11c+ cells found in the infected liver and liver-draining lymph nodes exhibited transcriptionally and phenotypically enhanced antigen-presentation functions; and primed protective CD8 T cell responses against Plasmodium liver-stage restricted antigens. Our findings uncover a novel aspect of Plasmodium biology as well as the fundamental mechanism by which CD8 T cell responses are primed against liver-stage malaria.
Project description:Naturally-acquired immunity to blood-stage malaria is associated with several effector CD4 + T subsets including germinal centre (GC) Tfh, Th1 and Tr1 cells. Children in malaria-endemic regions can experience repeated Plasmodium infections over short periods of time; yet the effect of reinfection on multiple co-existing effector and memory subsets remains unclear. Here, we tracked antigen-experienced polyclonal CD4+ T cells during Plasmodium re-infection in mice using scRNA-seq/TCR-seq.
Project description:Naturally-acquired immunity to blood-stage malaria is associated with several effector CD4 + T subsets including germinal centre (GC) Tfh, Th1 and Tr1 cells. Children in malaria-endemic regions can experience repeated Plasmodium infections over short periods of time; yet the effect of reinfection on multiple co-existing effector and memory subsets remains unclear. Here, we tracked antigen-experienced TCR-transgenic CD4+ T cells during Plasmodium re-infection in mice using scRNA-seq.
Project description:Increasing evidence suggests the liver as to be an effector against blood-stage malaria. Vaccination induces changes in the liver and survival of otherwise lethal blood-stage malaria of Plasmodium chabaudi which is associated with changes in the liver. Here, the time-course of expression of erythroid genes is investigated during infections with P. chabaudi in the liver of vaccination-protected and unprotected non-vaccinated mice.
Project description:Blood-stage malaria initiates both innate and adaptive immune responses, inclusive a strong activation of the mononuclear phagocyte network. Here we show that Plasmodium infection results in a transient loss of embryonically established tissue-resident macrophages in spleen, liver and lungs, much before the peak of parasitemia. During acute blood-stage malaria, fate mapping analysis revealed that inflammatory monocytes contribute to the repopulation of the emptied niches of splenic red pulp macrophages and hepatic Kupffer cells, while lung alveolar macrophages refill their niche mainly through self-renewal. Interestingly, the local microenvironment of spleen and liver can “imprint” the molecular characteristics of fetal-derived macrophages in new immigrants from bone marrow including almost identical gene expression profiles and turnover kinetics.