Project description:Complex blood transcriptomes can lead to the clinical heterogeneity of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In the current study, we integrated transcriptomics, public data mining and clinical parameters to reveal whether SLE severity is affected by specific genes or pathways.
Project description:Current non-specific immunosuppressive treatments for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) show modest efficacy. In SLE the monocytic/macrophage (Mo/Mφ) system plays a key role in the initiation and perpetuation of the systemic autoimmune response. However, the distinct functions of the Mo/Mφ cellular subsets remain elusive. Herein, we demonstrate a distinct proteomic and transcriptomic profile of non-classical monocytes (NCM) of active patients with SLE with enhanced inflammatory features such as deregulated DNA repair, cell cycle and enhanced IFN signaling in parallel with cell differentiation and developmental cues. Ex-vivo assays revealed an upregulation of p53 due to enhanced DNA damage along with G0 cell cycle arrest of SLE NCM indicative of an inflammatory phenotype. This aberrant profile of NCM of active patients with SLE is linked with an activated macrophage-like and enriched M1 pro-inflammatory response. We envisage that enhanced autophagy in SLE NCM may drive their differentiation towards an M1-like macrophage profile contributing to disease severity. Together, these findings provide evidence of skewed differentiation of NCM towards an M1-like macrophage phenotype as a pathogenic feature of NCM in SLE.
Project description:Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affects 1 in 537 of African American (AA) women, which is >2-fold more than European American (EA) women. AA patients also develop the disease at a younger age, have more severe symptoms, and a greater chance of early mortality. We used a multi-omics approach to uncover ancestry-specific immune alterations in SLE patients and healthy controls that may contribute to disease disparities. Cell composition, signaling, and epigenetics were evaluated by mass cytometry; droplet-based single cell transcriptomics and paired proteogenomics (scRNA-Seq/scCITE-Seq). Soluble mediator levels were measured in plasma and stimulated whole blood. TLR3/4/7/8/9 gene expression pathways in B cells and monocytes were enhanced in AA SLE patients compared to EA patients. TLR7/8/9 and IFN phospho-signaling responses were also heightened in healthy AA versus EA controls. Exposure of AA and EA healthy control cells to TLR7/8/9 agonists or IFN resulted in altered immune cell compositions that recapitulated the ancestry-associated differences in SLE patients. These data support that ancestry-based differences in TLR7/8, TLR9, and IFN responses that can be detected in healthy individuals could influence lupus disease course and severity.
Project description:Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease that displays a significant gender difference in terms of incidence and severity. However, the underlying mechanisms accounting for sexual dimorphism remain unclear. To reveal the heterogeneity in the pathogenesis of SLE between male and female patients. PBMC were collected from 15 patients with SLE (7 males, 8 females) and 15 age-matched healthy controls (7 males, 8 females) for proteomic analysis. Enrichment analysis of proteomic data revealed that type I interferon signaling and neutrophil activation networks mapped to both male and female SLE, while male SLE has a higher level of neutrophil activation compared with female SLE. Our findings define gender heterogeneity in the pathogenesis of SLE and may facilitate the development of gender-specific treatments.
Project description:Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by multiple autoantibodies, some of which are present in high titers in a sustained, B cell-independent fashion consistent with their generation from long-lived plasma cells (LLPC). Active SLE displays high numbers of circulating antibody-secreting cells (ASC). Understanding the mechanisms of generation and survival of SLE ASC would contribute important insight into disease pathogenesis and novel targeted therapies. We studied the properties of SLE ASC through a systematic analysis of their phenotypic, molecular, structural, and functional features. Our results indicate that in active SLE, relative to healthy post-immunization responses, blood ASC contain a much larger fraction of newly generated mature CD19-CD138+ASC similar to bone marrow (BM) LLPC. SLE ASC were characterized by morphological and structural features of premature maturation. Additionally, SLE ASC express high levels of CXCR4 and CD138, and molecular programs consistent with increased longevity based on pro-survival and attenuated pro-apoptotic pathways.Notably, SLE ASC demonstrate autocrine production of APRIL and IL-10 and experience prolonged in vitro survival. Combined, our findings indicate that SLE ASC are endowed with enhanced peripheral maturation, survival and BM homing potential suggesting that these features likely underlie BM expansion of autoreactive PC.
Project description:Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by multiple autoantibodies, some of which are present in high titers in a sustained, B cell-independent fashion consistent with their generation from long-lived plasma cells (LLPC). Active SLE displays high numbers of circulating antibody-secreting cells (ASC). Understanding the mechanisms of generation and survival of SLE ASC would contribute important insight into disease pathogenesis and novel targeted therapies. We studied the properties of SLE ASC through a systematic analysis of their phenotypic, molecular, structural, and functional features. Our results indicate that in active SLE, relative to healthy post-immunization responses, blood ASC contain a much larger fraction of newly generated mature CD19-CD138+ASC similar to bone marrow (BM) LLPC. SLE ASC were characterized by morphological and structural features of premature maturation. Additionally, SLE ASC express high levels of CXCR4 and CD138, and molecular programs consistent with increased longevity based on pro-survival and attenuated pro-apoptotic pathways.Notably, SLE ASC demonstrate autocrine production of APRIL and IL-10 and experience prolonged in vitro survival. Combined, our findings indicate that SLE ASC are endowed with enhanced peripheral maturation, survival and BM homing potential suggesting that these features likely underlie BM expansion of autoreactive PC.
Project description:The IRF5-SLE risk haplotype is associated with SLE disease severity. We hypothesized that neutrophils from healthy risk donors would carry a pathogenic gene signature compared to non-risk donors. To compare basal neutrophil gene signature between risk and non-risk healthy individuals, fresh whole blood was collected from healthy donors, and granulocytes were extracted from the remaining pellet following Ficoll purification. RNA-seq libraries were prepared from globin-reduced RNA extracted from the granulocytes using the Qiagen RNA preparation kit.
Project description:Our data provide a comprehensive list of transcriptomics alterations and warrant holistic approach including both coding and non-coding RNAs in functional studies aimed to understand the pathophysiology of LOAD We performed directional RNA sequencing on high quality RNA samples extracted from hippocampi of 4 late onset Alzheimer's diseas (LOAD) and 4 age-matched controls.
Project description:9G4+ IgG antibodies expand in SLE in a disease specific fashion and react with different lupus antigens including B cell antigens and apoptotic cells. Their shared use of VH4-34 represents a unique system to understand the molecular basis of lupus autoreactivity. Understanding the participation of apoptotic cells, a rich source of self-antigens including chromatin, in the diversification and selection of autoreactive memory B cells is particularly important in SLE where these cells accumulate in the germinal centers and may activate pathogenic autoreactive B cells. Our findings indicate that the three mabs with strong apoptotic binding recognized chromatin and individual histones as documented by glomerular proteome microarrays. While the actual antigens mediating APCB remain to be formally elucidating, our initial studies indicate that binding to histone/chromatin may mediate such autoreactivity in at least a fraction of these antibodies Single VH4-34 B cells sorted from IgD-CD27+ memory B cells of SLE patient are sorted and single -RT-PCR is performed to generate monoclonal antibody. 3 monoclonals which were strong apoptotic binders tested for protein array against Chromatin, Histone1, Histone 2A, Histone 2B, Histone 3, Histone 4 and total histones