Project description:Analysis of in vivo antigen-specific (LCMV-specific, SMARTA TCR transgenic) follicular helper CD4 T cells (CXCR5high),versus non-follicular helper CD4 T cells (CXCR5low), eight days after viral infection. A paper including data analysis of these experiments has been accepted for publication (Robert J. Johnston et al. Bcl6 and Blimp-1 are reciprocal and antagonistic regulators of follicular helper CD4 T cell differentiation). Experiment Overall Design: Analysis of in vivo antigen-specific (LCMV-specific, SMARTA TCR transgenic) follicular helper CD4 T cells (CXCR5high), versus non-follicular helper CD4 T cells (CXCR5low), eight days after viral infection.
Project description:Altered CD8 T cell differentiation and functional exhaustion prevent control of chronic virus infection and cancer. Yet, how fate commitment and exhaustion are determined and dynamically modulated throughout persistent infection are unclear. We compared the activation and differentiation of LCMV GP33-specific CD8 TCR transgenic cells (P14) primed at the onset versus in the midst of established persistent LCMV-Clone 13 viral infection. LCMV GP33-specific CD8 TCR transgenic (P14) cells were injected into naïve mice immediately infected with LCMV-Cl13 (Early priming) or into mice that had been infected 21 days earlier with LCMV-Cl13 (Late Priming). Sixty hours post-priming P14 cells were sorted from mice and subjected to RNA seq. We show early primed cells very rapidly exhibit a transcriptional profile of robust activation, effector differentiation and dysfunction, while late primed cells have increased expression of genes involved in memory differentiation and maintenance.
Project description:Following infection with LCMV, CD4+ SMARTA TCR transgenic cells (specific for the gp61-80 epitope of the LCMV glycoprotein) rapidly expand, become effector cells, and go on to form a long-lived memory population. Following infection with a recombinant Listeria monocytogenes expressing the LCMV epitope gp61-80, SMARTA cells also expand but display defective effector differentiation and fail to form memory. In an attempt to understand the signals required for CD4 T cell memory differentiation, we compared gene expression by SMARTA cells at the peak of the primary response following either Lm-gp61 or LCMV infection. Experiment Overall Design: SMARTA cells were purified at day 7 post-infection with either LCMV or Lm-gp61. SMARTA cells were sorted on the basis of Thy1.1 expression using a FACSAria. Cells were sorted through the machine twice to enhance purity. Two biological replicates of each group are provided. Each replicate represents the results of SMARTA pooled from three animals.
Project description:Here, we applied scRNA and TCR-seq approaches to determine the heterogeneity and clonal landscape of GP66+CD4+ T cells during LCMV clone 13 infection
Project description:Following infection with LCMV, CD4+ SMARTA TCR transgenic cells (specific for the gp61-80 epitope of the LCMV glycoprotein) rapidly expand, become effector cells, and go on to form a long-lived memory population. Following infection with a recombinant Listeria monocytogenes expressing the LCMV epitope gp61-80, SMARTA cells also expand but display defective effector differentiation and fail to form memory. In an attempt to understand the signals required for CD4 T cell memory differentiation, we compared gene expression by SMARTA cells at the peak of the primary response following either Lm-gp61 or LCMV infection. Keywords: response to LCMV or Lm-gp61 infection
Project description:Exposure to inflammatory cytokines driven by bystander cytokines can have profound effects on the function of memory CD8 T cells. Here we transferred a 1-5X10^4 of P14 TCR-tg T cells (specific for gp33-41 of LCMV) on day -1 followed by infection with 2X10^5 PFU of LCMV Armstrong ip to generate memory P14 populations. Mice were rested for >50 days before further challenge. Mice containing memory P14 populations were either mock-infected with saline, infected with 2X10^6 Pichinde Virus ip (no cross-reactivity wtih LCMV gp33-41) or infected with 2X10^6 Pichinde Virus ip together with daily injections of 200 micrograms of anti-CD122 antibody (clone TM-b1). On day 4 following indicated treatments P14s were flow sorted and RNA was extracted from 1X10^6 cells using an RNeasy kit (Qiagen). Each group had 3 biological replicates. Transcriptomes were compared by DAVID analysis (p<0.01, Fold-Change > 1.5) 3 biological replicates per group. Groups included P14 from mock-infected mice, P14 from Pichinde virus infected mice and P14 from Pichinde virus and anti-cd122 treated mice.
Project description:Thymic regulatory T cells (tTreg) are critical in maintenance of normal T cell immunity and tolerance. The role of TCR in tTreg cell selection remains incompletely understood. Here we assessed TCRa and TCRb sequences of tTreg and conventional thymic CD4+ T (Tconv) cells by high throughput sequencing. We identified ab TCR sequences that were unique to either tTreg or Tconv cells and found that these were distinct as recognized by machine learning (ML) algorithm and by preferentially used amino acid trimers in ab CDR3 of tTreg cells. In addition, a proportion of ab TCR sequences expressed by tTreg were also found in Tconv cells, and ML classified the great majority of these shared ab TCR sequences as characteristic of Tconv and not tTreg cells. These findings identify two populations of tTreg, one in which Treg fate is associated with unique properties of the TCR, and another with TCR properties characteristic of Tconv cells for which tTreg fate is determined by factors beyond TCR sequence.
Project description:To study the effect of IL-33 sensing on CD8 T cell differentiation during acute infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), activated CD44+ CTLs were flowcytometrically sorted from infected C57BL/6 wildtype and Il1rl1 gene-targeted mice (Il1rl1-ExAB-/-) and subjected to combined single-cell gene expression and single cell TCR-Seq analysis.
Project description:CD4 T follicular helper (Tfh) cells provide the required signals to B cells for germinal center reactions that are necessary for longlived antibody responses. However, it remains unclear whether there are CD4+ memory T cells committed to the Tfh lineage after antigen clearance. Using adoptive transfer of antigen-specific memory CD4+ subpopulations (based on CXCR5 and Ly6c expression)in the LCMV infection model, we found that there are distinct memory CD4+ T cell populations with commitment to the Tfh and Th1 lineages. Our conclusions are based on gene expression profiles, epigenetic studies and phenotypic and functional analysis. The gene expression profiles of virus-specific CD4 T cell subets at effector and memory stages is presented here. The SMARTA TCR transgenic / adptive transfer system was used to identify and sort subsets of antigen-specific CD4 T cells (based on their expression of Ly6c and CXCR5) elicited after acute infection with LCMV (Arm).