Two-site evaluation of the diagnostic performance of the Sysmex XN Body Fluid (BF) module for cell count and differential in Cerebrospinal Fluid.

INTRODUCTION: Cellular analysis in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) provides important diagnostic information in many pathological settings. The aim of this two-site study was to evaluate the Sysmex XN Body Fluid mode (XN-BF) for cell analysis of CSF compared to light microscopy (LM). METHODS: Two hundred and seven consecutive CSF samples were analyzed in parallel with XN-BF and LM. The study also included the estimation of the limit of blank (LoB), limit of detection (LoD), limit of quantitation (LoQ), carry-over and linearity of XN-BF module. RESULTS: LoQ of white blood cells (WBC) was 3×106  cells/L; linearity was good and carry-over negligible. XN-BF parameters were compared to LM for the following cell classes: total cells, WBC, polymorphonuclear (PMN), and mononuclear (MN) cells. The bias ranged from 1.3 to 15.2×106  cells/L. The receiver operating characteristics curve analysis for WBC showed an area under the curve of 0.98, and the global diagnostic agreement was 95% at a cutoff of 5×106  cells/L. CONCLUSIONS: XN-BF provides rapid and accurate counts in clinically relevant ranges of CSF values, thus providing a valuable alternative to conventional LM analysis. However, microscopic review remains advisable in samples with abnormal cell counts or high fluorescent (HF-BF) cell parameter exceeding 5×106  cells/L.

Cerebrospinal fluid T-regulatory cells recognize Borrelia burgdorferi NAPA in chronic Lyme borreliosis.

The NapA protein of B. burgdorferi is essential for the persistence of spirochetes in ticks. One of the most intriguing aspects of NapA is its potential to interfere with the host immune system. Here, we investigated the role of the acquired immune responses induced by NapA in the cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) of patients with chronic Lyme borreliosis. We evaluated the cytokine profile induced in microglia cells and CSF T cells following NapA stimulation. We report here that NapA induced a regulatory T (Treg) response in the CSF of patients with chronic Lyme borreliosis and it is able to expand this suppressive response by promoting the production of TGF-beta and IL-10 by microglia cells. Collectively, these data strongly support a central role of NapA in promoting both Treg response and immune suppression in the CSF of patients with chronic Lyme borreliosis and suggest that NapA and the Treg pathway may represent novel therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of the disease.

Pixantrone (BBR2778) reduces the severity of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis.

Pixantrone is less cardiotoxic and is similarly effective to mitoxantrone (MTX) as an antineoplastic drug. In our study, pixantrone reduced the severity of acute and decreased the relapse rate of chronic relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rats. A marked and long-lasting decrease in CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD45RA+ blood cells and reduced anti-MBP titers were observed with both pixantrone and MTX. In vitro mitogen- and antigen-induced T-cell proliferation tests of human and rodents cells evidenced that pixantrone was effective at concentrations which can be effectively obtained after i.v. administration in humans. Cardiotoxicity was present only in MTX-treated rats. The effectiveness and the favorable safety profile makes pixantrone a most promising immunosuppressant agent for clinical use in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Short-term evolution of autoreactive T cell repertoire in multiple sclerosis.

T cells reactive to self-antigens are present in the peripheral blood of patients with autoimmune diseases as well as in healthy subjects. Although T cell-response to the self-myelin antigen myelin basic protein (MBP) has been widely investigated in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, very little is known about the evolution over time of this response and its correlation with the disease activity. In recent years magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have provided new tools for following the inflammatory activity in the central nervous system (CNS) of MS patients. In the present study the T cell response to MBP was longitudinally investigated in terms of frequency, epitope specificity, and cytokine production profile in four patients with relapsing-remitting MS enrolled in a gadolinium-enhanced MRI serial study. In spite of different profiles of inflammatory activity within the CNS, all the patients examined showed major changes in their reactivity to MBP during the follow-up period in terms of both frequency and epitope specificity. Episodic expansions of MBP-specific T cell populations were observed in each patient, and overall they did not correlate with disease activity. In these patients the expansions: 1) occurred in the context of a steady level of disease activity, 2) correlated with a burst of CNS inflammation, 3) followed the appearance of a new active lesion, and 4) were observed even in the absence of detectable signs of CNS inflammation during the entire follow-up period. These results suggest that the evolution over time of the T cell response to a self-antigen such as MBP is more complex than previously expected. The short-term repertoire dynamics of autoreactive T cells in MS underscore the importance of longitudinal studies for evaluating autoreactivity to myelin antigens and probably to any self-antigen in other autoimmune diseases.

IL-7-enhanced T-cell response to myelin proteins in multiple sclerosis.

In this study, we investigated the in vitro proliferative response of peripheral blood T lymphocytes from MS patients and controls to MBP and MOG either in the absence or in the presence of the conditioning factor IL-7. In the absence of IL-7, T-cell reactivity to MOG and MBP was similar in MS patients and controls even if an increased MBP response was found in a subgroup of patients with active disease. In the presence of IL-7, increased T-cell reactivity to MBP was observed in MS patients suggesting that their MBP-specific T cells are in a different functional state.

Palmitoyl derivatives of GpMBP epitopes: T-cell response and peptidases susceptibility.

We report for the first time the immunoadjuvant effects of lipoconjugation of peptide antigens in an in vitro system by using CD4+ T-cells. The lipopeptides obtained by conjugating a palmitoyl moiety at the N(alpha)-terminal of Gln(74) or at the epsilon-NH(2) of Lys(75) of GpMBP(74-85) induced increased T-cell responsiveness compared to the native nonlipidated peptide. On the other hand, lipoderivatives of GpMBP(82-98) did not increase the T-cell response, demonstrating that the superagonist inducing effect of lipoconjugation is epitope-specific. Digestion of the two native peptides with cathepsin D and L, both implicated in antigen processing, and with a complete lysosomal fraction of a EBV-transformed B cell line shows that GpMBP(74-85) is resistant to cellular proteases, while GpMBP(82-98) is easily digested by these enzymes. These results suggest that the first prerequisite for increasing the T-cell response by lipoconjugation is the stability of the native peptide to peptidases, providing an important insight into the understanding of the immunoadjuvant effect of lipoderivative antigens.