Expansion of Group 2 Innate Lymphoid Cells in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease and Their Clinical Significance.

Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) play an important role in the control of tissue inflammation and homeostasis. However, the role of ILC2s in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has never been illustrated. In this study, we investigated ILC2s in ESRD patients and their clinical significance. Results showed that the frequencies and absolute numbers of ILC2s, not group 1 innate lymphoid cells or innate lymphoid cell precursors, were significantly elevated in the peripheral blood of ESRD patients when compared with those from healthy donor controls. Moreover, ILC2s from ESRD patients displayed enhanced type 2 cytokine production and cell proliferation. Plasma from ESRD patients significantly increased ILC2 levels and enhanced their effector function after in vitro treatment. The expression of phosphorylation of STAT5 in ILC2s, as well as the amounts of IL-2 in plasma, were increased in ESRD patients when compared with those from healthy donors. Clinically, ESRD patients with higher ILC2 frequencies displayed lower incidence of infectious complications during a mean of 21 month follow-up study. The proportions of ILC2s were negatively correlated with the prognostic biomarkers of chronic kidney disease, including serum parathyroid hormone, creatinine, and phosphorus, whereas they were positively correlated with serum calcium. These observations indicate that ILC2s may play a protective role in ESRD.

Cyclooxygenase-1 Regulates the Development of Follicular Th Cells via Prostaglandin E2.

Cyclooxygenase (COX)-1, one of the critical enzymes required for the conversion of arachidonic acid to PGs, has been demonstrated to play an important role not only in the cardiovascular system but also in the immune system. COX-1 has been found to regulate early B cell differentiation, germinal center formation, and Ab production of B cells. However, the underlying mechanisms of COX-1-mediated B cell activation remains not fully understood. In this study, we reported that COX-1 is a potential regulator for the development of follicular Th (TFH) cells. COX-1-deficient (COX-1-/- ) mice displayed a significant reduction of TFH cells upon influenza infection or immunization with keyhole limpet hemocyanin, which led to a severe impairment of germinal center responses. We further demonstrated that COX-1-derived PGE2, via binding with its receptors EP2/EP4, represents the underlying mechanism. The administration of EP2/EP4 agonists or PGE2 almost completely rescued the defective TFH cell generation in COX-1-/- mice. Taken together, our observations indicate that COX-1 plays an important role in the development of TFH cells.

ICAM-1 controls development and function of ILC2.

Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) are emerging as key players in the pathogenesis of allergic airway inflammation. The mechanisms regulating ILC2, however, are not fully understood. Here, we found that ICAM-1 is required for the development and function of ILC2. ICAM-1-deficient (ICAM-1-/- ) mice displayed significantly lower levels of ILC2s in the bone marrow and peripheral tissues than wild-type controls. CLP transfer and in vitro culture assays revealed that the regulation of ILC2 by ICAM-1 is cell intrinsic. Furthermore, ILC2s from ICAM-1-/- mice were functionally impaired, as indicated by the diminished production of type-2 cytokines in response to IL-33 challenge. The reduction in lung ILC2s caused a clear remission of airway inflammation in ICAM-1-/- mice after administration of papain or Alternaria alternata. We further demonstrate that ILC2 defects caused by ICAM-1 deficiency are due to ERK signaling-dependent down-regulation of GATA3 protein. Collectively, these observations identify ICAM-1 as a novel regulator of ILC2.

Neutrophil count is associated with myeloid derived suppressor cell level and presents prognostic value of for hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cell (MDSC) has been raised to be a novel target for multiple cancers. However, target agents on MDSC have not display promising efficacy. One of the critical reasons shall be less optimal patient selection. In the present study, we aimed to identify clinical parameters relevant to MDSC level in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients for future MDSC targeted therapy. In the present study, a series of 55 HCC patients (testing group) and 20 healthy donors were analyzed investigating frequencies of MDSC in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). As a result, we found that MDSC level was increased in HCC patients compared to healthy donors (10.33% vs 1.54%, p < 0.0001). The monocytes (r2 = 0.2875, p < 0.0001), neutrophils (r2 = 0.3630, p < 0.0001) and platelet counts (r2 = 0.0828, p = 0.0331) in circulation was positively associated with MDSC level. Then, the prognostic value of the above predictors was determined in a retrospective database of 255 HCC patients (validation group). The baseline characteristics of testing and validation group were similar. Multivariate analysis by Cox regression revealed that neutrophil count was an independent predictor for overall survival (OS) (p = 0.000, HR 1.065, 95% CI 1.028-1.103), with the rest parameters failed to reach a significant result. In summary, the present study firstly identified blood neutrophil counts was a predictor of MDSC level in PBMC for HCC patients. And, patients with higher neutrophil count level might be the optimal patient subgroup for MDSC targeted therapy.

HIV-1 can infect northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina) and form viral reservoirs in vivo.

Viral reservoirs of HIV-1 are a major obstacle for curing AIDS. The novel animal models that can be directly infected with HIV-1 will contribute to develop effective strategies for eradicating infections. Here, we inoculated 4 northern pig-tailed macaques (NPM) with the HIV-1 strain HIV-1NL4.3 and monitored the infection for approximately 3years (150weeks). The HIV-1-infected NPMs showed transient viremia for about 10weeks after infection. However, cell-associated proviral DNA and viral RNA persisted in the peripheral blood and lymphoid organs for about 3years. Moreover, replication-competent HIV-1 could be successfully recovered from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) during long-term infection. The numbers of resting CD4+ T cells in HIV-1 infected NPMs harboring proviruses fell within a range of 2- to 3-log10 per million cells, and these proviruses could be reactivated both ex vivo and in vivo in response to co-stimulation with the latency-reversing agents JQ1 and prostratin. Our results suggested that NPMs can be infected with HIV-1 and a long-term viral reservoir was formed in NPMs, which might serve asa potential model for HIV-1 reservoir research.

Hypoxemia is an independent predictor of bronchiolitis obliterans following respiratory adenoviral infection in children.

Bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) is an uncommon and severe sequela of chronic obstructive lung disease in children that results from an insult to the lower respiratory tract. Few prognostic factors achieved worldwide acknowledgment. In the present study, we retrospectively collected the children with respiratory adenoviral infection and identified the predictive factors of BO. In the period between Jan 2011 and December 2014, the consecutive in-hospital acute respiratory infection children with positive result for adenovirus were enrolled into the present study. High resolution computerized tomography and clinical symptoms were utilized as the diagnostic technique for BO. Multivariate analysis using a Logistic proportional hazards model was used to test for independent predictors of BO. A total of 544 children were included with 14 (2.57 %) patients developed BO. Compared with children without BO, BO children presented higher LDH (523.5 vs. 348 IU/ml, p = 0.033), lower blood lymphocyte count (2.23 × 109/L vs. 3.24 × 109/L, p = 0.025) and higher incidence of hypoxemia (78.6 vs. 20.8 %, p = 0.000). They presented relatively persistent fever (15.5 vs. 7 days, p = 0.000) and needed longer treatment in hospital (19.5 vs. 7 days, p = 0.000). Concerning treatment, they were given more intravenous γ-globulin (85.7 vs. 36.8 %, p = 0.000), glucocorticoids (78.6 vs. 24.3 %, p = 0.000) and mechanical ventilation (35.7 vs. 5.5 %, p = 0.001). Multiple analyses determined that hypoxemia was the only independent predictor for BO. The present study identified hypoxemia as the independent predictive factor of BO in adenoviral infected children, which was a novel and sensitive predictor for BO.

Longitudinal analysis reveals characteristically high proportions of bacterial vaginosis-associated bacteria and temporal variability of vaginal microbiota in northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina).

The complex and dynamic vaginal microbial ecosystem is critical to both health and disease of the host. Studies focusing on how vaginal microbiota influences HIV-1 infection may face limitations in selecting proper animal models. Given that northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina) are susceptible to HIV-1 infection, they may be an optimal animal model for elucidating the mechanisms by which vaginal microbiota contributes to resistance and susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. However, little is known about the composition and temporal variability of vaginal microbiota of the northern pig-tailed macaque. Here, we present a comprehensive catalog of the composition and temporal dynamics of vaginal microbiota of two healthy northern pig-tailed macaques over 19 weeks using 454-pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes. We found remarkably high proportions of a diverse array of anaerobic bacteria associated with bacterial vaginosis. Atopobium and Sneathia were dominant genera, and interestingly, we demonstrated the presence of Lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota. Moreover, longitudinal analysis demonstrated that the temporal dynamics of the vaginal microbiota were considerably individualized. Finally, network analysis revealed that vaginal pH may influence the temporal dynamics of the vaginal microbiota, suggesting that inter-subject variability of vaginal bacterial communities could be mirrored in inter-subject variation in correlation profiles of species with each other and with vaginal pH over time. Our results suggest that the northern pig-tailed macaque could be an ideal animal model for prospective investigation of the mechanisms by which vaginal microbiota influence susceptibility and resistance to HIV-1 infection in the context of highly polymicrobial and Lactobacillus-dominated states.

Replication potentials of HIV-1/HSIV in PBMCs from northern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina).

The northern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina) has been identified as an independent species of Old World monkey, and we previously found that PBMCs from M. leonina were susceptible to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), which may be due to the absence of a TRIM5 protein restricting HIV-1 replication. Here we investigated the infection potentials of six laboratory adapted HIV-1 strains and three primary HIV-1 isolates in PBMCs from M. leonina. The results indicate that these strains are characterized by various but low replication levels, and among which, HIV-1NL4-3 shows the highest replication ability. Based on the abundant evidence of species-specific interactions between restriction factors APOBEC3 and HIV/SIV-derived Vif protein, we subsequently examined the replication potentials of vif-substituted HIV-1 (HSIV) in M. leonina PBMCs. Notably, HSIV-vifmac and stHIV-1SV chimeras, two HIV-1NL4-3-derived viruses encoding the viral infectivity factor (Vif) protein from SIVmac239, replicated robustly in cells from M. leonina, which suggests that HSIV could effectively antagonize the antiviral activity of APOBEC3 proteins expressed in cells of M. leonina. Therefore, our data demonstrate that M. leonina has the potential to be developed into a promising animal model for human AIDS.

[Use and research of pigtailed macaques in nonhuman primate HIV/AIDS models].

Nonhuman primate animal models play an important role in studying HIV-1 pathogenesis, developing antiviral drugs and vaccines. Due to the lack of animals that can be directly infected with HIV-1, SIV/SHIV-infected macaques have been widely used in AIDS research. Although these models are somewhat similar to human AIDS, there are many limitations due to genetic differences between SIV/SHIV and HIV-1. Developing a suitable nonhuman primate animal model is still an important topic in HIV/AIDS research. The pigtailed macaque is the only primate in Old World monkeys that can be infected with HIV-1 and offer many benefits as HIV-1 intravenous and sexual transmission models. Here we reviewed the characteristics of pigtailed macaque models infected by SIV, HIV, SHIV, and HSIV via intravenous and mucosal routes. In addition, we briefly introduced the molecular mechanisms of viral replication in pigtailed macaque cells, and discussed the limitations and prospects of pigtailed macaque models in AIDS research.

[Measurement and analysis of hematology and blood chemistry parameters in northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina)].

The pig-tailed macaque is an important non-human primate experimental animal model that has been widely used in the research of AIDS and other diseases. Pig-tailed macaques include Mentawai macaques (Macaca pagensis), Sunda pig-tailed macaques (M. nemestrina) and northern pig-tailed macaques (M. leonina). Northern pig-tailed macaques inhabit China and surrounding Southeast Asia countries. To our knowledge, no reports have been published regarding the hematology and blood chemistry parameters of northern pig-tailed macaques, which are important for the objective evaluation of experimental results. We measured and analyzed 18 hematology parameters and 13 blood chemistry parameters in juvenile (aged 2-4 years) and adult (aged 5-10 years) northern pig-tailed macaques. We found that red blood cells, hemoglobin and alkaline phosphatase values were lower in female macaques than male macaques in both juvenile and adult groups. White blood cells, lymphocyte, monocytes, platelet distribution width, cholesterol, aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase values were higher in juvenile macaques than adult macaques, while creatinine and triglycerides values were lower in juvenile macaques. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin and creatinine values were positively correlated with weight in juvenile groups. In adult groups, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, percentage of granulocyte, hemoglobin and creatinine were also positively correlated with weight, and lymphocyte, percentage of lymphocyte, red cell distribution width, aspartate aminotransferase and cholesterol values were negatively correlated with weight. The results suggest that age, gender and weight of northern pig-tailed macaques affected their hematology and blood chemistry parameters. This hematological and blood chemistry study has great significance in biomedical research and animal models using northern pig-tailed macaque as an experimental animal.