A Prime-Pull-Amplify Vaccination Strategy To Maximize Induction of Circulating and Genital-Resident Intraepithelial CD8+ Memory T Cells.

Recent insight into the mechanisms of induction of tissue-resident memory (TRM) CD8+ T cells (CD8+ TRM) enables the development of novel vaccine strategies against sexually transmitted infections. To maximize both systemic and genital intraepithelial CD8+ T cells against vaccine Ags, we assessed combinations of i.m. and intravaginal routes in heterologous prime-boost immunization regimens with unrelated viral vectors. Only i.m. prime followed by intravaginal boost induced concomitant strong systemic and intraepithelial genital-resident CD8+ T cell responses. Intravaginal boost with vectors expressing vaccine Ags was far superior to intravaginal instillation of CXCR3 chemokine receptor ligands or TLR 3, 7, and 9 agonists to recruit and increase the pool of cervicovaginal CD8+ TRM Transient Ag presentation increased trafficking of cognate and bystander circulating activated, but not naive, CD8+ T cells into the genital tract and induced in situ proliferation and differentiation of cognate CD8+ TRM Secondary genital CD8+ TRM were induced in the absence of CD4+ T cell help and shared a similar TCR repertoire with systemic CD8+ T cells. This prime-pull-amplify approach elicited systemic and genital CD8+ T cell responses against high-risk human papillomavirus type 16 E7 oncoprotein and conferred CD8-mediated protection to a vaccinia virus genital challenge. These results underscore the importance of the delivery route of nonreplicating vectors in prime-boost immunization to shape the tissue distribution of CD8+ T cell responses. In this context, the importance of local Ag presentation to elicit genital CD8+ TRM provides a rationale to develop novel vaccines against sexually transmitted infections and to treat human papillomavirus neoplasia.

High PD-L1/CD86 MFI ratio and IL-10 secretion characterize human regulatory dendritic cells generated for clinical testing in organ transplantation.

Human regulatory dendritic cells (DCreg) were generated from CD14 immunobead-purified or elutriated monocytes in the presence of vitamin D3 and IL-10. They exhibited similar, low levels of costimulatory CD80 and CD86, but comparatively high levels of co-inhibitory programed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and IL-10 production compared to control immature DC (iDC). Following Toll-like receptor 4 ligation, unlike control iDC, DCreg resisted phenotypic and functional maturation and further upregulated PD-L1:CD86 expression. Whereas LPS-stimulated control iDC (mature DC; matDC) secreted pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor but no IL-10, the converse was observed for LPS-stimulated DCreg. DCreg weakly stimulated naïve and memory allogeneic CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation and IFNγ, IL-17A and perforin/granzyme B production in MLR. Their stimulatory function was enhanced however, by blocking PD-1 ligation. High-throughput T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing revealed that, among circulating T cell subsets, memory CD8+ T cells contained the most alloreactive TCR clonotypes and that, while matDC expanded these alloreactive memory CD8 TCR clonotypes, DCreg induced more attenuated responses. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of generating highly-purified GMP-grade DCreg for systemic infusion, their influence on the alloreactive T cell response, and a key mechanistic role of the PD1 pathway.

Unexpected Role for Adaptive αßTh17 Cells in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a devastating disorder characterized by increased alveolar permeability with no effective treatment beyond supportive care. Current mechanisms underlying ARDS focus on alveolar endothelial and epithelial injury caused by products of innate immune cells and platelets. However, the role of adaptive immune cells in ARDS remains largely unknown. In this study, we report that expansion of Ag-specific αßTh17 cells contributes to ARDS by local secretion of IL-17A, which in turn directly increases alveolar epithelial permeability. Mice with a highly restrictive defect in Ag-specific αßTh17 cells were protected from experimental ARDS induced by a single dose of endotracheal LPS. Loss of IL-17 receptor C or Ab blockade of IL-17A was similarly protective, further suggesting that IL-17A released by these cells was responsible for this effect. LPS induced a rapid and specific clonal expansion of αßTh17 cells in the lung, as determined by deep sequencing of the hypervariable CD3RßVJ region of the TCR. Our findings could be relevant to ARDS in humans, because we found significant elevation of IL-17A in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with ARDS, and rIL-17A directly increased permeability across cultured human alveolar epithelial monolayers. These results reveal a previously unexpected role for adaptive immune responses that increase alveolar permeability in ARDS and suggest that αßTh17 cells and IL-17A could be novel therapeutic targets for this currently untreatable disease.

Membrane association of the CD3ε signaling domain is required for optimal T cell development and function.

The TCR:CD3 complex transduces signals that are critical for optimal T cell development and adaptive immunity. In resting T cells, the CD3ε cytoplasmic tail associates with the plasma membrane via a proximal basic-rich stretch (BRS). In this study, we show that mice lacking a functional CD3ε-BRS exhibited substantial reductions in thymic cellularity and limited CD4- CD8- double-negative (DN) 3 to DN4 thymocyte transition, because of enhanced DN4 TCR signaling resulting in increased cell death and TCR downregulation in all subsequent populations. Furthermore, positive, but not negative, T cell selection was affected in mice lacking a functional CD3ε-BRS, which led to limited peripheral T cell function and substantially reduced responsiveness to influenza infection. Collectively, these results indicate that membrane association of the CD3ε signaling domain is required for optimal thymocyte development and peripheral T cell function.

The analysis of clonal diversity and therapy responses using STAT3 mutations as a molecular marker in large granular lymphocytic leukemia.

T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia and chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer cells are intriguing entities between benign and malignant lymphoproliferation. The molecular pathogenesis has partly been uncovered by the recent discovery of somatic activating STAT3 and STAT5b mutations. Here we show that 43% (75/174) of patients with T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia and 18% (7/39) with chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer cells harbor STAT3 mutations when analyzed by quantitative deep amplicon sequencing. Surprisingly, 17% of the STAT3-mutated patients carried multiple STAT3 mutations, which were located in different lymphocyte clones. The size of the mutated clone correlated well with the degree of clonal expansion of the T-cell repertoire analyzed by T-cell receptor beta chain deep sequencing. The analysis of sequential samples suggested that current immunosuppressive therapy is not able to reduce the level of the mutated clone in most cases, thus warranting the search for novel targeted therapies. Our findings imply that the clonal landscape of large granular lymphocytic leukemia is more complex than considered before, and a substantial number of patients have multiple lymphocyte subclones harboring different STAT3 mutations, thus mimicking the situation in acute leukemia.

High-throughput sequencing reveals restricted TCR Vß usage and public TCRß clonotypes among pancreatic lymph node memory CD4(+) T cells and their involvement in autoimmune diabetes.

Islet-reactive memory CD4(+) T cells are an essential feature of type 1 diabetes (T1D) as they are involved in both spontaneous disease and in its recurrence after islet transplantation. Expansion and enrichment of memory T cells have also been shown in the peripheral blood of diabetic patients. Here, using high-throughput sequencing, we investigated the clonal diversity of the TCRß repertoire of memory CD4(+) T cells in the pancreatic lymph nodes (PaLN) of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice and examined their clonal overlap with islet-infiltrating memory CD4T cells. Both prediabetic and diabetic NOD mice exhibited a restricted TCRß repertoire dominated by clones expressing TRBV13-2, TRBV13-1 or TRBV5 gene segments. There is a limited degree of TCRß overlap between the memory CD4 repertoire of PaLN and pancreas as well as between the prediabetic and diabetic group. However, public TCRß clonotypes were identified across several individual animals, some of them with sequences similar to the TCRs from the islet-reactive T cells suggesting their antigen-driven expansion. Moreover, the majority of the public clonotypes expressed TRBV13-2 (Vß8.2) gene segment. Nasal vaccination with an immunodominat peptide derived from the TCR Vß8.2 chain led to protection from diabetes, suggesting a critical role for Vß8.2(+) CD4(+) memory T cells in T1D. These results suggest that memory CD4(+) T cells bearing limited dominant TRBV genes contribute to the autoimmune diabetes and can be potentially targeted for intervention in diabetes. Furthermore, our results have important implications for the identification of public T cell clonotypes as potential novel targets for immune manipulation in human T1D.

High-throughput sequencing of islet-infiltrating memory CD4+ T cells reveals a similar pattern of TCR Vß usage in prediabetic and diabetic NOD mice.

Autoreactive memory CD4(+) T cells play a critical role in the development of type 1 diabetes, but it is not yet known how the clonotypic composition and TCRß repertoire of the memory CD4(+) T cell compartment changes during the transition from prediabetes to diabetes. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to analyze the TCRß repertoire of sorted islet-infiltrating memory CD4(+)CD44(high) T cells in 10-week-old prediabetic and recently diabetic NOD mice. We show that most clonotypes of islet-infiltrating CD4(+)CD44(high) T cells were rare, but high-frequency clonotypes were significantly more common in diabetic than in prediabetic mice. Moreover, although the CD4(+)CD44(high) TCRß repertoires were highly diverse at both stages of disease development, dominant use of TRBV1 (Vß2), TRBV13-3 (Vß8.1), and TRBV19 (Vß6) was evident in both prediabetic and diabetic mice. Our findings strongly suggest that therapeutic targeting of cells specifically expressing the dominant TCRß might reduce pancreatic infiltration in prediabetic mice and attenuate the progression to diabetes.