scholarly journals A synthetic stroma-free germinal center niche using material-surface driven polyvalent signaling efficiently induces antigen-specific humoral immunity ex vivo

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyung-Ho Roh ◽  
Hannah K. Wilson ◽  
Pallab Pradhan ◽  
Kevin Bai ◽  
Caitlin D. Bohannon ◽  
...  

AbstractB cells play a major role in the adaptive immune response by producing antigen-specific antibodies against pathogens and imparting immunological memory. Following infection or vaccination, antibody-secreting B cells and memory B cells are generated in specialized regions of lymph nodes and spleens, called germinal centers. Here, we report a fully synthetic ex-vivo system that recapitulates the generation of antigen-specific germinal-center (GC) like B cells using material-surface driven polyvalent signaling. This synthetic germinal center (sGC) reaction was effectively induced using biomaterial-based artificial “follicular T helper cells (TFH)” that provided both natural CD40-CD40L ligation as well as crosslinking of CD40; and by mimicking artificial “follicular dendritic cells (FDC)” to provide efficient, polyvalent antigen presentation. The artificial sGC reaction resulted in efficient B cell expansion, immunoglobulin (Ig) class switching, and expression of germinal center phenotypes. Antigen presentation during sGC reaction selectively enhanced the antigen-specific B cell population and induced somatic hyper-mutations for potential affinity maturation. The resulting B cell population consisted primarily of GC-like B cells (centrocytes) as well as some plasma-like B cells expressing CD138. With concurrent cell sorting, we successfully created highly enriched populations of antigen-specific B cells. Adoptive transfer of these GC-like B cells into non-irradiated isogeneic or non-lethally irradiated congenic recipient mice showed successful engraftment and survival of the donor cells for the 4 week test period. We show that this material-surface driven sGC reaction can be successfully applied to not only splenic B cells but also B cells isolated from more therapeutically relevant sources such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), thus making our current work an exciting prospect in the new era of personalized medicine and custom-immunotherapy.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela L. Graney ◽  
Kristine Lai ◽  
Sarah Post ◽  
Ilana Brito ◽  
Jason Cyster ◽  
...  

AbstractAntibiotic-resistant bacteria are a major global health threat that continues to rise due to a lack of effective vaccines. Of concern are Klebsiella pneumoniae that fail to induce in vivo germinal center B cell responses, which facilitate antibody production to fight infection. Immunotherapies using antibodies targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria are emerging as promising alternatives, however, cannot be efficiently derived ex vivo, necessitating the need for immune technologies to develop therapeutics. Here, four-arm PEG-organoids were developed to elucidate the effects of polymer end-point chemistry, integrin ligands, and mode of K. pneumoniae antigen presentation on germinal center-like B cell epigenetics, to better define the cell-microenvironment factors regulating ex vivo germinal center dynamics. Notably, PEG vinyl sulfone or acrylate failed to sustain primary immune cells, but functionalization with maleimide (PEG-4MAL) led to B cell expansion and germinal center-like induction. RNA sequencing analysis of lymph node stromal and germinal center B cells showed niche associated heterogeneity of integrin-related genes. Incorporation of niche-mimicking bioadhesive peptides revealed that collagen 1 mimicking peptides promoted germinal center-like dynamics and epigenetics. PEG-4MAL organoids elucidated the impact of K. pneumoniae membrane embedded protein antigen versus soluble antigen presentation on germinal center-like activation and preserved the response across young and aged mice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 112.2-113
Author(s):  
M. Gatto ◽  
S. Bjursten ◽  
C. Jonell ◽  
C. Jonsson ◽  
S. Mcgrath ◽  
...  

Background:Inflammatory arthritis (IA) is frequent among rheumatic side effects induced by checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy for metastatic malignancies1. While T cells are likely to sustain the inflammatory process2, fewer data are available concerning the role of B cells3.Objectives:To investigate the phenotype of circulating B cells in patients who develop CPI-induced IA (CPI-IA) and to compare it with features of B cells in patients not developing immune-related adverse events (irAE) upon CPI treatment.Methods:B cell subsets at baseline (before CPI initiation) and during CPI treatment were analyzed in CPI-IA patients and in patients receiving CPI but who did not develop irAE (non-irAE). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were analyzed by flow cytometry and B cells were identified as CD19+ and divided into naïve (CD27-IgD+), memory (CD27+IgD+/-), double negative (CD27-IgD-) and transitional (CD10+CD24+CD38+/hi) B cells. Levels of CD21, an activation marker on transitional B cells, were also analyzed. Non-parametric tests were used for analysis of differences between groups.Results:Six CPI-IA and 7 non-irAE patients matched for age, gender and CPI treatment were included, who had received CPI treatment due to metastatic melanoma. Flow cytometry revealed a significant increase of circulating B cells (p=0.002) (Figure 1A) and especially of transitional B cells in CPI-IA patients vs. non-irAE (median %, range: 7.8 (4.5-11.4) vs. 3.2 (1.6-4.3),p=0.007) (Figure 1B), while no remarkable changes were seen across other subsets. Transitional B cell levels significantly decreased from active to quiescent CPI-IA in all patients (p=0.008). In two CPI-IA patients for whom baseline sampling was available, the increase of transitional levels occurred early after CPI treatment and before CPI-IA onset. Levels of expression of CD21 on transitional B cells were increased in CPI-IA vs. non-irAE (p=0.01).Conclusion:Transitional B cells are expanded in CPI-IA patients and seem to increase early after start of CPI therapy. Monitoring this B cell subset might lead to closer follow-up and earlier diagnosis of CPI-IA.References:[1]Ramos-Casals M, Brahmer JR, Callahan MK, et al. Immune-related adverse events of checkpoint inhibitors. Nat Rev Dis Primers 2020;6:38[2]Murray-Brown W, Wilsdon TD, Weedon H, et al. Nivolumab-induced synovitis is characterized by florid T cell infiltration and rapid resolution with synovial biopsy-guided therapy. J Immunother Cancer 2020;8:e000281[3]Das R, Bar N, Ferreira M, et al. Early B cell changes predict autoimmunity following combination immune checkpoint blockade. J Clin Invest. 2018;128:715-2Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2020 ◽  
Vol 217 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Li ◽  
Liying Gong ◽  
Alexandre P. Meli ◽  
Danielle Karo-Atar ◽  
Weili Sun ◽  
...  

Antigen uptake and presentation by naive and germinal center (GC) B cells are different, with the former expressing even low-affinity BCRs efficiently capture and present sufficient antigen to T cells, whereas the latter do so more efficiently after acquiring high-affinity BCRs. We show here that antigen uptake and processing by naive but not GC B cells depend on Cbl and Cbl-b (Cbls), which consequently control naive B and cognate T follicular helper (Tfh) cell interaction and initiation of the GC reaction. Cbls mediate CD79A and CD79B ubiquitination, which is required for BCR-mediated antigen endocytosis and postendocytic sorting to lysosomes, respectively. Blockade of CD79A or CD79B ubiquitination or Cbls ligase activity is sufficient to impede BCR-mediated antigen processing and GC development. Thus, Cbls act at the entry checkpoint of the GC reaction by promoting naive B cell antigen presentation. This regulation may facilitate recruitment of naive B cells with a low-affinity BCR into GCs to initiate the process of affinity maturation.


Rheumatology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (11) ◽  
pp. 3435-3442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arman Aue ◽  
Franziska Szelinski ◽  
Sarah Y Weißenberg ◽  
Annika Wiedemann ◽  
Thomas Rose ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives SLE is characterized by two pathogenic key signatures, type I IFN and B-cell abnormalities. How these signatures are interrelated is not known. Type I-II IFN trigger activation of Janus kinase (JAK) – signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT). JAK-STAT inhibition is an attractive therapeutic possibility for SLE. We assess STAT1 and STAT3 expression and phosphorylation at baseline and after IFN type I and II stimulation in B-cell subpopulations of SLE patients compared with other autoimmune diseases and healthy controls (HD) and related it to disease activity. Methods Expression of STAT1, pSTAT1, STAT3 and pSTAT3 in B and T cells of 21 HD, 10 rheumatoid arthritis (RA), seven primary Sjögren’s (pSS) and 22 SLE patients was analysed by flow cytometry. STAT1 and STAT3 expression and phosphorylation in PBMCs (peripheral blood mononuclear cells) of SLE patients and HD after IFNα and IFNγ incubation were further investigated. Results SLE patients showed substantially higher STAT1 but not pSTAT1 in B- and T-cell subsets. Increased STAT1 expression in B-cell subsets correlated significantly with SLEDAI and Siglec-1 on monocytes, a type I IFN marker. STAT1 activation in plasmablasts was IFNα dependent while monocytes exhibited dependence on IFNγ. Conclusion Enhanced expression of STAT1 by B-cell candidates as a key node of two immunopathogenic signatures (type I IFN and B-cells) related to important immunopathogenic pathways and lupus activity. We show that STAT1 is activated upon IFNα exposure in SLE plasmablasts. Thus, Jak inhibitors, targeting JAK-STAT pathways, hold a promise to block STAT1 expression and control plasmablast induction in SLE.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (48) ◽  
pp. 2001232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela L. Graney ◽  
Kristine Lai ◽  
Sarah Post ◽  
Ilana Brito ◽  
Jason Cyster ◽  
...  

Lupus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1337-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Benitez ◽  
K Torralba ◽  
M Ngo ◽  
L M Salto ◽  
K S Choi ◽  
...  

Objective We evaluated the effects of the B-cell activating factor (BAFF)-targeting antibody Belimumab on human nonmemory B-cell pools. Human B-cell pools were identified using surface markers adapted from mouse studies that specifically assessed reductions in immature B cells due to BAFF depletion. Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have high levels of both BAFF and immature B cells. Mechanistic mouse studies provide a framework for understanding human responses to therapies that target B cells. Methods Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from healthy donors and SLE patients on Belimumab or standard-of-care therapy (SCT). Cells were stained for flow cytometry to identify B-cell subsets based on CD21/CD24. Differences in subset proportions were determined by one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc test. Results Patients treated with Belimumab show alterations in the nonmemory B-cell pool characterized by a decrease in the Transitional 2 (T2) subset ( p = 0.002), and an increase in the proportion of Transitional 1 (T1) cells ( p = 0.005) as compared with healthy donors and SCT patients. The naïve B-cell compartment showed no significant differences between the groups ( p = 0.293). Conclusion Using a translational approach, we show that Belimumab-mediated BAFF depletion reduces the T2 subset in patients, similar to observations in mouse models with BAFF depletion.


Antibodies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Kim Doyon-Laliberté ◽  
Josiane Chagnon-Choquet ◽  
Michelle Byrns ◽  
Matheus Aranguren ◽  
Meriam Memmi ◽  
...  

We have previously characterized a human blood CD19+CD1c+IgM+CD27+CD21loCD10+ innate-like B-cell population, which presents features shared by both transitional immature and marginal zone (MZ) B-cells, named herein “precursor-like” MZ B-cells. B-cells with similar attributes have been associated with regulatory potential (Breg). In order to clarify this issue and better characterize this population, we have proceeded to RNA-Seq transcriptome profiling of mature MZ and precursor-like MZ B-cells taken from the blood of healthy donors. We report that ex vivo mature MZ and precursor-like MZ B-cells express transcripts for the immunoregulatory marker CD83 and nuclear receptors NR4A1, 2, and 3, known to be associated with T-cell regulatory (Treg) maintenance and function. Breg associated markers such as CD39 and CD73 were also expressed by both populations. We also show that human blood and tonsillar precursor-like MZ B-cells were the main B-cell population to express elevated levels of CD83 and NR4A1-3 proteins ex vivo and without stimulation. Sorted tonsillar precursor-like MZ B-cells exerted regulatory activity on autologous activated CD4+ T-cells, and this was affected by a CD83 blocking reagent. We believe these observations shed light on the Breg potential of MZ populations, and identify NR4A1-3 as potential Breg markers, which as for Tregs, may be involved in stabilization of a regulatory status. Since expression and activity of these molecules can be modulated therapeutically, our findings may be useful in strategies aiming at modulation of Breg responses.


Blood ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1586-1594 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Dono ◽  
S Hashimoto ◽  
F Fais ◽  
V Trejo ◽  
SL Allen ◽  
...  

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from five patients with IgG+ B-type chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) were analyzed for the presence of clone-specific Ig H chain variable region gene mRNA transcripts linked to C mu and/or C alpha. This was assessed by (1) comparing the lengths of portions of the VHDJH of the IgG+ CLL clones with those of the mu and alpha isotype-expressing B cells, (2) performing clone-specific endonuclease digestion studies, and (3) determining the DNA sequences of the mu and alpha isotype-expressing cDNA. Thus, when B-cell mRNA from these five patients were reverse transcribed with C gamma-specific primers and then amplified by polymerase chain reaction, dominant cDNA were found with lengths corresponding to those of the IgG+ CLL B cell. In addition, in four cases, cDNA of lengths identical to those of the CLL B cell were detected when mRNA was reverse transcribed and amplified using c mu- and/or C alpha-specific primers, strongly suggesting clonal relatedness. These CLL-related mu- and alpha- expressing cDNA were present in greater amounts that unrelated (non- CLL) mu- and alpha-expressing cDNA from normal B cells that used genes of the same VH family. When the sequences of these CLL-related C mu- and C alpha-expressing cDNA were compared with those of the IgG+ CLL clones, it was clear that they were derived from the same ancestral gene as the IgG-expressing CLL B cell, thus documenting their common origin. Finally, nucleotide point mutations were observed in the mu- and alpha-expressing cDNA of certain patients, indicating divergence with the CLL. These data suggest that IgM+ B cells, which are precursors of the leukemic B cells, exist in increased numbers in the blood of most patients with IgG+ B-CELL and that these cells may differentiate, accumulate V genes mutations, and undergo isotype switching in vivo. In addition, the data are consistent with a sequential-hit model for the evolution of CLL.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-99
Author(s):  
Alexandra Langlois ◽  
Bahar Torabi ◽  
Marieme Dembele ◽  
Marylin Desjardins ◽  
Reza Alizadehfar ◽  
...  

Background: Gastrointestinal defects and immunodeficiency syndrome (GIDID) is a severe neonatal disorder usually fatal within the first months of life. We report a case presenting with intestinal atresia, combined immunodeficiency, and a novel association with hypothyroidism and cardiac malformations. The immune phenotype was remarkable for agammaglobulinemia, lymphopenia, and mildly decreased lymphocyte proliferation. We present here the unique phenotype as well as studies to determine if the agammaglobulinemia was due to an intrinsic B lymphocyte defect. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from the patient and a healthy control were isolated by Ficoll-Hypaque centrifugation and stimulated with anti-CD40, IL-4 and IL-21 for 7 days. Total IgG production was measured by ELISA in the supernatant of the stimulated sample on day 7. Cells were stained for CD19, CD27, IgM, CD11b, CD11c, and CD14. Results: At day 7, supernatant from the patient stimulated cells contained levels of total IgG comparable to the control (755 ng/mL vs. 658 ng/mL, respectively). B cell maturation appeared impaired, as morphologically the patient sample demonstrated fewer B cell clones and cells with dendritic projections. Conclusions: Despite this typical severe clinical picture of GIDID with agammaglobulinemia, IgG production was detected under optimal stimulation for induction of plasma cells. This suggests that there may not be an inherent defect in class switching and antibody production in B cells in this disorder. It is possible that the in vivo physical or cytokine milieu may be defective for optimal B cell function. Further studies assessing the function of the immune cells as well as possible gastrointestinal loss of immunoglobulins are needed in this disease. Statement of novelty: Despite much improvement in understanding the effects of TTC7A mutations in GIDID, the root cause of hypogammaglobulinemia in these patients is still unclear. The work portrayed in this study furthers the current knowledge. It suggests that when appropriately stimulated in vitro, this patient’s B cells were capable of adequate immunoglobulin production. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, this patient is the first with this genetic defect to be reported with hypothyroidism and cardiac malformations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg A. Kirchenbaum ◽  
Ted M. Ross

The domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) serves as an animal model for the study of several viruses that cause human disease, most notably influenza. Despite the importance of this animal model, characterization of the immune response by flow cytometry (FCM) is severely hampered due to the limited number of commercially available reagents. To begin to address this unmet need and to facilitate more in-depth study of ferret B cells including the identification of antibody-secreting cells, eight unique murine monoclonal antibodies (mAb) with specificity for ferret immunoglobulin (Ig) were generated using conventional B cell hybridoma technology. These mAb were screened for reactivity against ferret peripheral blood mononuclear cells by FCM and demonstrate specificity for CD79β+B cells. Several of these mAb are specific for the light chain of surface B cell receptor (BCR) and enable segregation of kappa and lambda B cells. Additionally, a mAb that yielded surface staining of nearly all surface BCR positive cells (i.e., pan ferret Ig) was generated. Collectively, these MαF-Ig mAb offer advancement compared to the existing portfolio of polyclonal anti-ferret Ig detection reagents and should be applicable to a wide array of immunologic assays including the identification of antibody-secreting cells by FCM.


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