Project description:Tissue-resident memory T cells (Trm) are central to maintaining autoimmune and inflammatory disease. Modulation of their continued replenishment in tissues has significant implications for clinical treatment. In a murine model of lung inflammation, scRNA-seq revealed the complexity of antigen-responding CD4+ Trm, encompassing many pathogenic subpopulations including Th2, Th17, Th1 and CTL, but suggested several targets for therapeutic intervention, with significant co-expression of the costimulatory molecules OX40, ICOS, CD30, and CD30L throughout these T cells. Inhibiting ICOSL alone, or co-blocking OX40L and CD30L, with neutralizing antibodies, only partially suppressed the response of Trm to recall antigen, whereas inhibiting all three molecules strongly reduced the accumulation of Trm-derived effector memory T cells, and ablated all aspects of lung inflammation. Most importantly, transient therapeutic inhibition of these molecules together prevented the continued accumulation and long-term persistence of induced Trm, leading to a state of tolerance such that subsequent exposure to antigen failed to re-establish a pathogenic inflammatory response. These data show that costimulatory molecules are critical for reactivation and persistence of pathogenic CD4+ Trm, and reveal several therapeutic combinations that are applicable for treatment of lung inflammatory disease and potentially multiple autoimmune diseases.
Project description:Tissue-resident memory T cells (Trm) are central to maintaining autoimmune and inflammatory disease. Modulation of their continued replenishment in tissues has significant implications for clinical treatment. In a murine model of lung inflammation, scRNA-seq revealed the complexity of antigen-responding CD4+ Trm, encompassing many pathogenic subpopulations including Th2, Th17, Th1 and CTL, but suggested several targets for therapeutic intervention, with significant co-expression of the costimulatory molecules OX40, ICOS, CD30, and CD30L throughout these T cells. Inhibiting ICOSL alone, or co-blocking OX40L and CD30L, with neutralizing antibodies, only partially suppressed the response of Trm to recall antigen, whereas inhibiting all three molecules strongly reduced the accumulation of Trm-derived effector memory T cells, and ablated all aspects of lung inflammation. Most importantly, transient therapeutic inhibition of these molecules together prevented the continued accumulation and long-term persistence of induced Trm, leading to a state of tolerance such that subsequent exposure to antigen failed to re-establish a pathogenic inflammatory response. These data show that costimulatory molecules are critical for reactivation and persistence of pathogenic CD4+ Trm, and reveal several therapeutic combinations that are applicable for treatment of lung inflammatory disease and potentially multiple autoimmune diseases.
Project description:Fibrosis is a leading cause of deaths in industrialized countries and has no effective therapy. We demonstrated that blockade of OX40L prevented inflammation-driven fibrosis affecting the skin and the lungs and promotes regression of established dermal fibrosis in different murine models. To characterize the pathways involved in the protection of skin fibrosis and affected by OX40L blocking, we used microarrays and identified distinct genes differentially expressed between ox40l+/+ and ox40l-/- in the bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis mouse model. Total RNA were extracted from lesional skin samples of 3 ox40l+/+ and 4 ox40l-/- male mice aged 9 weeks treated with bleomycin for 3 weeks, and were hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:Inducible co-stimulator (ICOS) interaction with its ligand (ICOSL) is involved in several T cell effector functions. While blockade of ICOS:ICOSL interaction in chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD) seems benefi cial, results for acute GVHD remain controversial. To further elucidate its role in acute GVHD, C57BL / 6 mice were lethally irradiated and reconstituted with allogeneic spleen cells in the absence or presence of ICOSL-blocking mAb. Mice reconstituted with allogeneic spleen cells experienced severe GVHD and died untreated within 6 M-bM-^@M-^S 9 days after transplantation. Mice treated with an anti-ICOSL mAb starting from day 3 after transplantation gained weight again and survived for at least additional 12 days, although the treatment was already stopped at day 11 after transplantation. In contrast, the anti-ICOSL treatment starting from day 0 did not prevent GVHD. The diff erence between therapeutic (day 3) and prophylactic (day 0) anti-ICOSL treatment was independent of CD25 + CD4 + regulatory T cells since their depletion did not abrogate the therapeutic eff ect of ICOSL blockade. Microarray analysis revealed IFN- M-NM-3 and chemokine up-regulation in spleen cells of prophylactically treated mice, emphasizing kinetic dependence of acute GVHD modulation via blockade of ICOS:ICOSL interaction. B6 recipients were irradiated with 10.0 Gray, administered from a 137 Cs source. Splenocytes from C3H mice were prepared as single cell suspensions in PBS, depleted of red blood cells and counted. 2 M-bM-^@M-^S 3 M-CM-^W 10^7 C3H splenocytes in a volume of 200 M-NM-<l were transplanted into B6 recipients via tail vein injection (4 mice per group per experiment) 4 M-bM-^@M-^S 6 h after irradiation. Mice in the treatment group with anti-ICOSL mAb and their respective controls, received 500 M-NM-<g mAb i. p starting at day 0 or day 3, followed by subsequent injections of 200 M-NM-<g of mAb every other day. At day 4 after transplantation RNA of spleen cells was prepared and subjected to microarray analysis. Combined RNA from allogeneic transplanted mice was hybridized onto 2 independent arrays.
Project description:Fibrosis is a leading cause of deaths in industrialized countries and has no effective therapy. We demonstrated that blockade of OX40L prevented inflammation-driven fibrosis affecting the skin and the lungs and promotes regression of established dermal fibrosis in different murine models. To characterize the pathways involved in the protection of skin fibrosis and affected by OX40L blocking, we used microarrays and identified distinct genes differentially expressed between ox40l+/+ and ox40l-/- in the bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis mouse model.
Project description:Inducible co-stimulator (ICOS) interaction with its ligand (ICOSL) is involved in several T cell effector functions. While blockade of ICOS:ICOSL interaction in chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD) seems benefi cial, results for acute GVHD remain controversial. To further elucidate its role in acute GVHD, C57BL / 6 mice were lethally irradiated and reconstituted with allogeneic spleen cells in the absence or presence of ICOSL-blocking mAb. Mice reconstituted with allogeneic spleen cells experienced severe GVHD and died untreated within 6 – 9 days after transplantation. Mice treated with an anti-ICOSL mAb starting from day 3 after transplantation gained weight again and survived for at least additional 12 days, although the treatment was already stopped at day 11 after transplantation. In contrast, the anti-ICOSL treatment starting from day 0 did not prevent GVHD. The diff erence between therapeutic (day 3) and prophylactic (day 0) anti-ICOSL treatment was independent of CD25 + CD4 + regulatory T cells since their depletion did not abrogate the therapeutic eff ect of ICOSL blockade. Microarray analysis revealed IFN- γ and chemokine up-regulation in spleen cells of prophylactically treated mice, emphasizing kinetic dependence of acute GVHD modulation via blockade of ICOS:ICOSL interaction.
Project description:To explore the potential function of CD19+ICOSL- B-cell-subset, the whole transcriptome of sorted CD19+ICOSL+ and CD19+ICOSL- B cells was profiled by using Microarray analysis.
Project description:Tissue resident memory T cells (TRM) maintain immunity in diverse sites as determined in mouse models, while their establishment and role in human tissues has been difficult to assess. Here, we investigated human lung TRM generation, maintenance and function in airway samples obtained longitudinally from HLA-disparate lung transplant recipients, where donor and recipient T cells could be localized and tracked over time. Donor T cells persist specifically in the lungs (and not blood) of transplant recipients and express high levels of TRM signature markers including CD69, CD103, and CD49a, while lung-infiltrating recipient T cells gradually acquire TRM phenotypes over months in vivo. Single cell transcriptome profiling of airway T cells reveals that donor T cells comprise two TRM-like subsets with varying levels of expression of TRM-associated genes while recipient T cells comprised non-TRM and similar TRM-like subpopulations, suggesting de novo TRM generation. Transplant recipients exhibiting higher frequencies of persisting donor TRM experienced fewer adverse clinical events such as primary graft dysfunction and acute cellular rejection compared to recipients with low donor TRM persistence, suggesting that monitoring TRM dynamics could be clinically informative. Together, our results provide novel spatial and temporal insights into how human TRM develop, function, persist, and impact tissue integrity within the complexities of lung transplantation.
Project description:A20 is a ubiquitin-modifying protein that negatively regulates canonical NF-κB signaling and mutations in A20/TNFAIP3 have been associated with a variety of autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS). We found that deletion of A20 in central nervous system (CNS) endothelial cells (BEC) enhances experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of MS. These mice showed increased numbers of CNS-infiltrating immune cells during neuroinflammation and in the steady state. While the integrity of the barrier was not impaired, we observed a strong activation of the endothelium in A20ΔBEC mice, with dramatically increased levels of the adhesion molecules ICAM-1 and VCAM-1. We furthermore discovered ICOSL as novel adhesion molecule expressed by A20-deficient BECs. Silencing of ICOSL in BECs ameliorated the severity of an active EAE disease in wildtype mice and significantly delayed the onset of symptom development. Furthermore, blocking of ICOSL on primary CNS-derived endothelial cells impaired the adhesion of different T cell populations to the monolayer. Taken together, we here report a novel function of A20-regulated ICOSL expressed on CNS endothelial cells during inflammation. We propose that BEC-ICOSL contributes to the firm adhesion of T cells to the barrier, promoting T cell transmigration into the CNS and eventually driving autoimmune neuroinflammation.