The Fc-mediated effector functions of a potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody, SC31, isolated from an early convalescent COVID-19 patient, are essential for the optimal therapeutic efficacy of the antibody.

Although SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies are promising therapeutics against COVID-19, little is known about their mechanism(s) of action or effective dosing windows. We report the generation and development of SC31, a potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody, isolated from a convalescent patient. Antibody-mediated neutralization occurs via an epitope within the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. SC31 exhibited potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 activities in multiple animal models. In SARS-CoV-2 infected K18-human ACE2 transgenic mice, treatment with SC31 greatly reduced viral loads and attenuated pro-inflammatory responses linked to the severity of COVID-19. Importantly, a comparison of the efficacies of SC31 and its Fc-null LALA variant revealed that the optimal therapeutic efficacy of SC31 requires Fc-mediated effector functions that promote IFNγ-driven anti-viral immune responses, in addition to its neutralization ability. A dose-dependent efficacy of SC31 was observed down to 5mg/kg when administered before viral-induced lung inflammatory responses. In addition, antibody-dependent enhancement was not observed even when infected mice were treated with SC31 at sub-therapeutic doses. In SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters, SC31 treatment significantly prevented weight loss, reduced viral loads, and attenuated the histopathology of the lungs. In rhesus macaques, the therapeutic potential of SC31 was evidenced through the reduction of viral loads in both upper and lower respiratory tracts to undetectable levels. Together, the results of our preclinical studies demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of SC31 in three different models and its potential as a COVID-19 therapeutic candidate.

Singapore Ocular Tuberculosis Immunity Study (SPOTIS): Role of T-lymphocyte Profiling in Patients with Presumed Ocular Tuberculosis.

Objective: A prospective clinical study to assess the utility of CD4 + T cell lymphocyte profiling from peripheral blood in patients with ocular tuberculosis (TB).Methods: Thirty-six Asian patients with presumed diagnosis of ocular TB were recruited for T-lymphocyte profiling. MTB antigen specific CD4 assay was set up, and flow cytometric data were analyzed using FlowJo software.Results: There was no significant difference between treatment responders and non-responders for the proportion of CD4 + T cells specific for PPD or ESAT-6+ CFP-10, but treatment responders did have significantly higher frequency of CD38+ (p = .0357) and CD38+ HLA-DR+ (p = .0357) on the PPD-specific CD4 + T cells.Conclusion: This study is one of the first of its kind to look into MTB specific T cell activation marker profiling of peripheral blood in patients with ocular TB. Further studies need to be undertaken to assess the utility of CD4 + T cell phenotypes as a biomarker for ocular TB.

Primer-free FISH probes from metagenomics/metatranscriptomics data permit the study of uncharacterised taxa in complex microbial communities.

Methods for the study of member species in complex microbial communities remain a high priority, particularly for rare and/or novel member species that might play an important ecological role. Specifically, methods that link genomic information of member species with its spatial structure are lacking. This study adopts an integrative workflow that permits the characterisation of previously unclassified bacterial taxa from microbiomes through: (1) imaging of the spatial structure; (2) taxonomic classification and (3) genome recovery. Our study attempts to bridge the gaps between metagenomics/metatranscriptomics and high-resolution biomass imaging methods by developing new fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) probes-termed as R-Probes-from shotgun reads that harbour hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene. The sample-centric design of R-Probes means that probes can directly hybridise to OTUs as detected in shotgun sequencing surveys. The primer-free probe design captures larger microbial diversity as compared to canonical probes. R-Probes were designed from deep-sequenced RNA-Seq datasets for both FISH imaging and FISH-Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FISH-FACS). FISH-FACS was used for target enrichment of previously unclassified bacterial taxa prior to downstream multiple displacement amplification (MDA), genomic sequencing and genome recovery. After validation of the workflow on an axenic isolate of Thauera species, the techniques were applied to investigate two previously uncharacterised taxa from a tropical full-scale activated sludge community. In some instances, probe design on the hypervariable region allowed differentiation to the species level. Collectively, the workflow can be readily applied to microbiomes for which shotgun nucleic acid survey data is available.

Studies on B Cells in the Fruit-Eating Black Flying Fox (Pteropus alecto).

The ability of bats to act as reservoir for viruses that are highly pathogenic to humans suggests unique properties and functional characteristics of their immune system. However, the lack of bat specific reagents, in particular antibodies, has limited our knowledge of bat's immunity. Here, we report a panel of cross-reactive antibodies against MHC-II, NK1.1, CD3, CD21, CD27, and immunoglobulin (Ig), that allows flow cytometry analysis of B, T and NK cell populations in two different fruit-eating bat species namely, Pteropus alecto and E. spelaea. Results confirmed predominance of T cells in the spleen and blood of bats, as previously reported by us. However, the percentages of B cells in bone marrow and NK cells in spleen varied greatly between wild caught P. alecto bats and E. spelaea colony bats, which may reflect inherent differences of their immune system or different immune status. Other features of bat B cells were investigated. A significant increase in sIg+ B cell population was observed in the spleen and blood from LPS-injected bats but not from poly I:C-injected bats, supporting T-independent polyclonal B cell activation by LPS. Furthermore, using an in vitro calcium release assay, P. alecto B cells exhibited significant calcium release upon cross-linking of their B cell receptor. Together, this work contributes to improve our knowledge of bat adaptive immunity in particular B cells.

SAHA and cisplatin sensitize gastric cancer cells to doxorubicin by induction of DNA damage, apoptosis and perturbation of AMPK-mTOR signalling.

Chemotherapy remains the most prescribed anti-cancer therapy, despite patients suffering severe side effects and frequently developing chemoresistance. These complications can be partially overcome by combining different chemotherapeutic agents that target multiple biological pathways. However, selecting efficacious drug combinations remains challenging. We previously used fission yeast Schizosaccharomycespombe as a surrogate model to predict drug combinations, and showed that suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and cisplatin can sensitise gastric adenocarcinoma cells toward the cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin. Yet, how this combination undermines cell viability is unknown. Here, we show that SAHA and doxorubicin markedly enhance the cleavage of two apoptosis markers, caspase 3 and poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP-1), and increase the phosphorylation of γH2AX, a marker of DNA damage. Further, we found a prominent reduction in Ser485 phosphorylation of AMP-dependent protein kinase (AMPK), and reductions in its target mTOR and downstream ribosomal protein S6 phosphorylation. We show that SAHA contributes most of the effect, as confirmed using another histone deacetylase inhibitor, trichostatin A. Overall, our results show that the combination of SAHA and doxorubicin can induce apoptosis in gastric adenocarcinoma in a synthetically lethal manner, and that fission yeast offers an efficient tool for identifying potent drug combinations against human cancer cells.

Priming with high and low respiratory allergen dose induces differential CD4+ T helper type 2 cells and IgE/IgG1 antibody responses in mice.

Sensitization of allergic patients normally takes place over several years and is the result of repeated exposure to low levels of allergen. Most mouse asthma models use a high dose of allergen administered over a short period. We have investigated the role of dose in the immune response to an inhaled respiratory allergen (Blomia tropicalis). We observed the effect of priming dose on the allergic response in mice intranasally immunized with low (0·5 µg) and high (50 µg) doses of B. tropicalis extract and killed 1 day after the last challenge. For both doses of allergen, T helper type 2 (Th2) cells and Th2 cytokines were evident as well as eosinophilic inflammation accompanied by mucus hyper-secretion. By contrast, IgE and IgG1 antibody responses were normally only detected at high-dose priming. To investigate the mechanism for these effects, we found group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) were increased 48 hr after challenge in the low-dose-treated but not the high-dose-treated mice. Furthermore, we determined whether repeated low-dose exposure with different priming protocols could induce an antibody response. Repeated low-dose exposure to 0·5 µg three times weekly for 4 weeks (cumulative 6 µg) had the same effect as a shorter high-dose exposure (cumulative 80 µg) and increasing cumulative dose induced antibody responses. These data indicate that low doses of allergen are sufficient to prime Th2 cells and ILC2s, but insufficient to induce antibody responses. Cumulative exposure to small amounts of allergen induces both Th2 and antibody responses and may better reflect natural sensitization.

Influenza A virus infection results in a robust, antigen-responsive, and widely disseminated Foxp3+ regulatory T cell response.

Foxp3(+) CD4(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) represent a highly suppressive T cell subset with well-characterized immunosuppressive effects during immune homeostasis and chronic infections, although the role of these cells in acute viral infections is poorly understood. The present study sought to examine the induction of Foxp3(+) CD4(+) Tregs in a nonlethal murine model of pulmonary viral infection by the use of the prototypical respiratory virus influenza A. We establish that influenza A virus infection results in a robust Foxp3(+) CD4(+) T cell response and that regulatory T cell induction at the site of inflammation precedes the effector T cell response. Induced Foxp3(+) CD4(+) T cells are highly suppressive ex vivo, demonstrating that influenza virus-induced Foxp3(+) CD4(+) T cells are phenotypically regulatory. Influenza A virus-induced regulatory T cells proliferate vigorously in response to influenza virus antigen, are disseminated throughout the site of infection and primary and secondary lymphoid organs, and retain Foxp3 expression in vitro, suggesting that acute viral infection is capable of inducing a foreign-antigen-specific Treg response. The ability of influenza virus-induced regulatory T cells to suppress antigen-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell proliferation and cytokine production correlates closely to their ability to respond to influenza virus antigens, suggesting that virus-induced Tregs are capable of attenuating effector responses in an antigen-dependent manner. Collectively, these data demonstrate that primary acute viral infection is capable of inducing a robust, antigen-responsive, and suppressive regulatory T cell response.

Adaptive immunity to nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae.

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) colonizes the upper respiratory tract of most healthy people and is also a major cause of infection in chronic obstructive lung disease. The immune response to this bacterium has not been well characterized. We tested the hypothesis that recurrent airway infection with NTHi may be associated with nonclearing adaptive immunity. Study subjects were healthy control subjects and patients with idiopathic bronchiectasis who had severe chronic infection with H. influenzae. We established that all subjects in both groups had detectable antibody to NTHi, suggesting that most normal people have developed an adaptive immune response. To characterize the nature of the immune response, we measured antigen-specific production of T helper cell cytokines and CD40 ligand by flow cytometry and immunoglobulin subclass levels in peripheral blood. We found that normal control subjects made Th1 response to NTHi with distinct CD40 ligand production. In contrast, subjects with bronchiectasis had predominant production of Th2 cytokines, decreased expression of CD40 ligand, and different immunoglobulin G subclass production. Therefore, chronic infection with NTHi in bronchiectasis is associated with a change in adaptive immunity that may be important in the pathogenesis of bronchial infection.