ACE phenotyping in Gaucher disease.

BACKGROUND: Gaucher disease is characterized by the activation of splenic and hepatic macrophages, accompanied by dramatically increased levels of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). To evaluate the source of the elevated blood ACE, we performed complete ACE phenotyping using blood, spleen and liver samples from patients with Gaucher disease and controls. METHODS: ACE phenotyping included 1) immunohistochemical staining for ACE; 2) measuring ACE activity with two substrates (HHL and ZPHL); 3) calculating the ratio of the rates of substrate hydrolysis (ZPHL/HHL ratio); 4) assessing the conformational fingerprint of ACE by evaluating the pattern of binding of monoclonal antibodies to 16 different ACE epitopes. RESULTS: We show that in patients with Gaucher disease, the dramatically increased levels of ACE originate from activated splenic and/or hepatic macrophages (Gaucher cells), and that both its conformational fingerprint and kinetic characteristics (ZPHL/HHL ratio) differ from controls and from patients with sarcoid granulomas. Furthermore, normal spleen was found to produce high levels of endogenous ACE inhibitors and a novel, tightly-bound 10-30 kDa ACE effector which is deficient in Gaucher spleen. CONCLUSIONS: The conformation of ACE is tissue-specific. In Gaucher disease, ACE produced by activated splenic macrophages differs from that in hepatic macrophages, as well as from macrophages and dendritic cells in sarcoid granulomas. The observed differences are likely due to altered ACE glycosylation or sialylation in these diseased organs. The conformational differences in ACE may serve as a specific biomarker for Gaucher disease.

The Onset of Intussusceptive Angiogenesis in COVID-19 Patients Might Come from the Mobilization of Stem Cell Sub-Populations Expressing the Hemangioblast Marker CD143.

COVID-19 and infectious diseases have been included in strategic development goals (SDG) of United Nations (UN). The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has unveiled complex pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning COVID-19, notably inducing a systemic acquired vascular hemopathy characterized by endothelial dysfunction and intussusceptive angiogenesis, a rapid vascular remodeling process identified as a hallmark in severe COVID-19 cases affecting pulmonary and cardiac tissues. Stem cell migration have been proposed as significant regulators of this neoangiogenic process. In a monocentric cross-sectional study, through spectral flow cytometry analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we identified a distinct stem cell subpopulation mobilized in critical COVID-19. Indeed, by an unsupervised analysis generating a UMAP representation we highlighted eleven different clusters in critical and non-critical COVID-19 patients. Only one cluster was significantly associated to critical COVID-19 compared to non-critical patients. This cluster expressed the markers: CD45dim, CD34+, CD117+, CD147+, and CD143+, and were negative for CD133. Higher level of expression of hemangioblast markers CD143 were found in critical COVID-19 patients. This population, indicative of hemangioblast-like cells, suggests a key role in COVID-19-related neoangiogenesis, potentially driving the severe vascular complications observed. Our findings underscore the need for further investigation into the contributions of adult stem cells in COVID-19 pathology, offering new insights into therapeutic targets and interventions.

Epitope mapping of novel monoclonal antibodies to human angiotensin I-converting enzyme.

Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE, CD143) plays a crucial role in blood pressure regulation, vascular remodeling, and immunity. A wide spectrum of mAbs to different epitopes on the N and C domains of human ACE have been generated and used to study different aspects of ACE biology, including establishing a novel approach-conformational fingerprinting. Here we characterized a novel set of 14 mAbs, developed against human seminal fluid ACE. The epitopes for these novel mAbs were defined using recombinant ACE constructs with truncated N and C domains, species cross-reactivity, ACE mutagenesis, and competition with the previously mapped anti-ACE mAbs. Nine mAbs recognized regions on the N domain, and 5 mAbs-on the C domain of ACE. The epitopes for most of these novel mAbs partially overlap with epitopes mapped onto ACE by the previously generated mAbs, whereas mAb 8H1 recognized yet unmapped region on the C domain where three ACE mutations associated with Alzheimer's disease are localized and is a marker for ACE mutation T877M. mAb 2H4 could be considered as a specific marker for ACE in dendritic cells. This novel set of mAbs can identify even subtle changes in human ACE conformation caused by tissue-specific glycosylation of ACE or mutations, and can detect human somatic and testicular ACE in biological fluids and tissues. Furthermore, the high reactivity of these novel mAbs provides an opportunity to study changes in the pattern of ACE expression or glycosylation in different tissues, cells, and diseases, such as sarcoidosis and Alzheimer's disease.

Tissue ACE phenotyping in prostate cancer.

Epithelial cells of prostate express significant level of ACE and, as a result, seminal fluid has 50-fold more ACE than plasma. The substitution of highly specialized prostate epithelial cells by tumor cells results in dramatic decrease in ACE production in prostate tissues. We performed detailed characterization of ACE status in prostate tissues from patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PC) using new approach- ACE phenotyping, that includes evaluation of: 1) ACE activity with two substrates (HHL and ZPHL); 2) the ratio of the rates of their hydrolysis (ZPHL/HHL ratio); 3) the ratio of immunoreactive ACE protein to ACE activity; 4) the pattern of mAbs binding to different epitopes on ACE - ACE conformational fingerprint - to reveal conformational changes in prostate ACE due to prostate pathology. ACE activity dramatically decreased and the ratio of immunoreactive ACE protein to ACE activity increased in PC tissues. The catalytic parameter, ZPHL/HHL ratio, increased in prostate tissues from all patients with PC, but was did not change for most |BPH patients. Nevertheless, prostate tissues of several patients diagnosed with BPH based on histology, also demonstrated decreased ACE activity and increased immunoreactive ACE protein/ACE activity and ZPHL/HHL ratios, that could be considered as more early indicators of prostate cancer development than routine histology. Thus, ACE phenotyping of prostate biopsies has a potential to be an effective approach for early diagnostics of prostate cancer or at least for differential diagnostics of BPH and PC.

High-throughput immunophenotypic characterization of bone marrow- and cord blood-derived mesenchymal stromal cells reveals common and differentially expressed markers: identification of angiotensin-converting enzyme (CD143) as a marker differentially expressed between adult and perinatal tissue sources.

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are a heterogeneous population of multipotent progenitors used in the clinic because of their immunomodulatory properties and their ability to differentiate into multiple mesodermal lineages. Although bone marrow (BM) remains the most common MSC source, cord blood (CB) can be collected noninvasively and without major ethical concerns. Comparative studies comprehensively characterizing the MSC phenotype across several tissue sources are still lacking. This study provides a 246-antigen immunophenotypic analysis of BM- and CB-derived MSC aimed at identifying common and strongly expressed MSC markers as well as the existence of discriminating markers between the two sources. METHODS: BM-MSC (n = 4) were expanded and analyzed as bulk (n = 6) or single clones isolated from the bulk culture (n = 3). CB-MSC (n = 6) were isolated and expanded as single clones in 5/6 samples. The BM-MSC and CB-MSC phenotype was investigated by flow cytometry using a panel of 246 monoclonal antibodies. To define the markers common to both sources, those showing the smallest variation between samples (coefficient of variation of log2 fold increase ≤ 0.5, n = 59) were selected for unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis (HCL). Differentially expressed markers were identified by directly comparing the expression of all 246 antigens between BM-MSC and CB-MSC. RESULTS: Based on HCL, 18 markers clustered as strongly expressed in BM-MSC and CB-MSC, including alpha-smooth muscle antigen (SMA), beta-2-microglobulin, CD105, CD13, CD140b, CD147, CD151, CD276, CD29, CD44, CD47, CD59, CD73, CD81, CD90, CD98, HLA-ABC, and vimentin. All except CD140b and alpha-SMA were suitable for the specific identification of ex-vivo expanded MSC. Notably, only angiotensin-converting enzyme (CD143) was exclusively expressed on BM-MSC. CD143 expression was tested on 10 additional BM-MSC and CB-MSC and on 10 umbilical cord- and adipose tissue-derived MSC samples, confirming that its expression is restricted to adult sources. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that has comprehensively compared the phenotype of BM-MSC and CB-MSC. We have identified markers that could complement the minimal panel proposed for the in-vitro MSC definition, being shared and strongly expressed by BM- and CB-derived MSC. We have also identified CD143 as a marker exclusively expressed on MSC derived from adult tissue sources. Further studies will elucidate the biological role of CD143 and its potential association with tissue-specific MSC features.

Increased risk of pneumonia associated with angiotensin-converting enzyme (CD143) rs4340 polymorphism.

The study aims to investigate the genetic association between rs4340 polymorphism at intron 16 of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (CD143) gene and pneumonia predisposition. Electronic database of PubMed, Embase, and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) was searched for the studies addressing the association between CD143 rs4340 genotypes and pneumonia risk. The odds ratio (OR) with its 95 % confidence interval (CI) was employed to estimate the association. In total, ten case-control studies, including 1239 pneumonia cases and 2400 healthy controls, met the inclusion criteria. Our results showed a significant association between rs4340 SNP and pneumonia risk using the recessive model (OR 1.43, 95 % CI 1.20-1.70). A significantly increased risk was also indicated under the recessive model in Asian populations (OR 1.63, 95 % CI 1.16-2.30), Caucasian populations (OR 1.34, 95 % CI 1.09-1.65), community-acquired pneumonia (OR 1.42, 95 % CI 1.16-1.75) rather than nosocomial pneumonia (OR 1.47, 95 % CI 0.97-2.23). However, further studies with gene-gene and gene-environmental interactions should be considered to confirm this association.

Increased susceptibility of sepsis associated with CD143 deletion/insertion polymorphism in Caucasians: a meta analysis.

BACKGROUND: Several lines of evidence have reported that serum angiotensin-converting enzyme (CD143) levels are genetically regulated by insertion/deletion (ins/del) polymorphism in intron 16 of the CD143 gene. In addition, published data on the association of ins/del polymorphism and sepsis risk yielded contradictory conclusions. Therefore, we determined to perform a meta-analysis to validate the association of much debate. Methods and major findings: Relevant literature was identified through weekly searches in databases and references of systematic reviews and the single studies incorporated in this meta-analysis. We combined ORs and its 95% CIs for several genetic models to evaluate the risk of sepsis associated with ins/del polymorphism. A total of seven studies were considered eligible for this analysis. We found significantly increased risk of sepsis in relation to the homozygote ins/ins (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.04-1.68, P: 0.4201, for ins/ins vs. del/del), heterozygote del/ins (OR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.11-1.61, P: 0.7937, for del/ins vs. del/del) and the two genotypes combined (OR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.11-1.59, P: 0.7018, for ins/ins + del/ins vs. del/del). Subgroup analysis by age group showed a significant association in pediatric sepsis, but not in adult sepsis. CONCLUSIONS: The statistical data suggest that the CD143 gene ins/del polymorphism may influence the risk of sepsis, especially pediatric sepsis.

Contribution of the Local RAS to Hematopoietic Function: A Novel Therapeutic Target.

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has long been a known endocrine system that is involved in regulation of blood pressure and fluid balance. Over the last two decades, evidence has accrued that shows that there are local RAS that can affect cellular activity, tissue injury, and tissue regeneration. There are locally active ligand peptides, mediators, receptors, and signaling pathways of the RAS in the bone marrow (BM). This system is fundamentally involved and controls the essential steps of primitive and definitive blood-cell production. Hematopoiesis, erythropoiesis, myelopoiesis, thrombopoiesis, formation of monocytic and lymphocytic lineages, as well as stromal elements are regulated by the local BM RAS. The expression of a local BM RAS has been shown in very early, primitive embryonic hematopoiesis. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE-1, CD143) is expressed on the surface of hemangioblasts and isolation of the CD143 positive cells allows for recovery of all hemangioblast activity, the first endothelial and hematopoietic cells, forming the marrow cavity in the embryo. CD143 expression also marks long-term blood-forming CD34+ BM cells. Expression of receptors of the RAS is modified in the BM with cellular maturation and by injury. Ligation of the receptors of the RAS has been shown to modify the status of the BM resulting in accelerated hematopoiesis after injury. The aim of the present review is to outline the known functions of the local BM RAS within the context of primitive and definitive hematopoiesis as well as modification of BM recovery by administration of exogenous ligands of the RAS. Targeting the actions of local RAS molecules could represent a valuable therapeutic option for the management of BM recovery after injury as well as neoplastic disorders.