scholarly journals Single-cell transcriptomics reveals expansion of cytotoxic CD4 T-cells in supercentenarians

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosuke Hashimoto ◽  
Tsukasa Kouno ◽  
Tomokatsu Ikawa ◽  
Norihito Hayatsu ◽  
Yurina Miyajima ◽  
...  

AbstractSupercentenarians, people who have reached 110 years of age, are a great model of healthy aging. Their characteristics of delayed onset of age-related diseases and compression of morbidity imply that their immune system remains functional. Here we performed single-cell transcriptome analysis of 61,202 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), derived from seven supercentenarians and five younger controls. We identified a marked increase of cytotoxic CD4 T-cells (CD4 CTLs) coupled with a substantial reduction of B-cells as a novel signature of supercentenarians. Furthermore, single-cell T-cell receptor sequencing of two supercentenarians revealed that CD4 CTLs had accumulated through massive clonal expansion, with the most frequent clonotypes accounting for 15% to 35% of the entire CD4 T-cell population. The CD4 CTLs exhibited substantial heterogeneity in their degree of cytotoxicity as well as a nearly identical transcriptome to that of CD8 CTLs. This indicates that CD4 CTLs utilize the transcriptional program of the CD8 lineage while retaining CD4 expression. Our study reveals that supercentenarians have unique characteristics in their circulating lymphocytes, which may represent an essential adaptation to achieve exceptional longevity by sustaining immune responses to infections and diseases.SignificanceExceptionally long-lived people such as supercentenarians tend to spend their entire lives in good health, implying that their immune system remains active to protect against infections and tumors. However, their immunological condition has been largely unexplored. We profiled thousands of circulating immune cells from supercentenarians at single-cell resolution, and identified a large number of CD4 T-cells that have cytotoxic features. This characteristic is very unique to supercentenarians, because generally CD4 T-cells have helper, but not cytotoxic, functions under physiological conditions. We further profiled their T-cell receptors, and revealed that the cytotoxic CD4 T-cells were accumulated through clonal expansion. The conversion of helper CD4 T-cells to a cytotoxic variety might be an adaptation to the late stage of aging.

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (48) ◽  
pp. 24242-24251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosuke Hashimoto ◽  
Tsukasa Kouno ◽  
Tomokatsu Ikawa ◽  
Norihito Hayatsu ◽  
Yurina Miyajima ◽  
...  

Supercentenarians, people who have reached 110 y of age, are a great model of healthy aging. Their characteristics of delayed onset of age-related diseases and compression of morbidity imply that their immune system remains functional. Here we performed single-cell transcriptome analysis of 61,202 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), derived from 7 supercentenarians and 5 younger controls. We identified a marked increase of cytotoxic CD4 T cells (CD4 cytotoxic T lymphocytes [CTLs]) as a signature of supercentenarians. Furthermore, single-cell T cell receptor sequencing of 2 supercentenarians revealed that CD4 CTLs had accumulated through massive clonal expansion, with the most frequent clonotypes accounting for 15 to 35% of the entire CD4 T cell population. The CD4 CTLs exhibited substantial heterogeneity in their degree of cytotoxicity as well as a nearly identical transcriptome to that of CD8 CTLs. This indicates that CD4 CTLs utilize the transcriptional program of the CD8 lineage while retaining CD4 expression. Indeed, CD4 CTLs extracted from supercentenarians produced IFN-γ and TNF-α upon ex vivo stimulation. Our study reveals that supercentenarians have unique characteristics in their circulating lymphocytes, which may represent an essential adaptation to achieve exceptional longevity by sustaining immune responses to infections and diseases.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 813
Author(s):  
Norwin Kubick ◽  
Pavel Klimovich ◽  
Patrick Henckell Flournoy ◽  
Irmina Bieńkowska ◽  
Marzena Łazarczyk ◽  
...  

Understanding the evolution of interleukins and interleukin receptors is essential to control the function of CD4+ T cells in various pathologies. Numerous aspects of CD4+ T cells’ presence are controlled by interleukins including differentiation, proliferation, and plasticity. CD4+ T cells have emerged during the divergence of jawed vertebrates. However, little is known about the evolution of interleukins and their origin. We traced the evolution of interleukins and their receptors from Placozoa to primates. We performed phylogenetic analysis, ancestral reconstruction, HH search, and positive selection analysis. Our results indicated that various interleukins' emergence predated CD4+ T cells divergence. IL14 was the most ancient interleukin with homologs in fungi. Invertebrates also expressed various interleukins such as IL41 and IL16. Several interleukin receptors also appeared before CD4+ T cells divergence. Interestingly IL17RA and IL17RD, which are known to play a fundamental role in Th17 CD4+ T cells first appeared in mollusks. Furthermore, our investigations showed that there is not any single gene family that could be the parent group of interleukins. We postulate that several groups have diverged from older existing cytokines such as IL4 from TGFβ, IL10 from IFN, and IL28 from BCAM. Interleukin receptors were less divergent than interleukins. We found that IL1R, IL7R might have diverged from a common invertebrate protein that contained TIR domains, conversely, IL2R, IL4R and IL6R might have emerged from a common invertebrate ancestor that possessed a fibronectin domain. IL8R seems to be a GPCR that belongs to the rhodopsin-like family and it has diverged from the Somatostatin group. Interestingly, several interleukins that are known to perform a critical function for CD4+ T cells such as IL6, IL17, and IL1B have gained new functions and evolved under positive selection. Overall evolution of interleukin receptors was not under significant positive selection. Interestingly, eight interleukin families appeared in lampreys, however, only two of them (IL17B, IL17E) evolved under positive selection. This observation indicates that although lampreys have a unique adaptive immune system that lacks CD4+ T cells, they could be utilizing interleukins in homologous mode to that of the vertebrates' immune system. Overall our study highlights the evolutionary heterogeneity within the interleukins and their receptor superfamilies and thus does not support the theory that interleukins evolved solely in jawed vertebrates to support T cell function. Conversely, some of the members are likely to play conserved functions in the innate immune system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 235.1-236
Author(s):  
R. Kumar ◽  
N. Yoosuf ◽  
C. Gerstner ◽  
S. Turcinov ◽  
K. Chemin ◽  
...  

Background:Autoimmunity to citrullinated autoantigens forms a critical component of disease pathogenesis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Presence of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) in patients has high diagnostic value. Recently, several citrullinated antigen specific CD4+T cells have been described. However, detailed studies of their T-cell receptor usage and in-vivo profile suffer from the disadvantage that these cells are present at very low frequencies. In this context, we here present a pipeline for TCR repertoire analysis of antigen-specific CD4+T cells from RA patients, including both citrulline and influenza (control) specificities using in-vitro peptide challenge induced-cell expansion.Objectives:To enable studies of the T cell repertoire of citrullinated antigen-specific CD4+T cells in rheumatoid arthritisMethods:Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) (n=7) and synovial fluid mononuclear cells (SFMCs) (n=5) from HLA-DR*0401-postive RA patients were cultured in the presence of citrullinated Tenascin C peptide cocktails or influenza peptides (positive control). Citrulline reactive cells were further supplemented with recombinant human IL-15 and IL-7 on day 2. All cultures were replenished with fresh medium on day 6 and rIL-2 was added every 2 days from then. Assessment of proportion of peptide-HLA-tetramer positive cells was performed using flow cytometry whereby individual antigen-specific CD4+T cells were sorted into 96-well plates containing cell lysis buffer, followed by PCR-based alpha/beta TCR sequencing. TCR sequencing data was demultiplexed and aligned for TCR gene usage using MiXCR. Some tetramer positive cells were sorted into complete medium containing human IL-2 and PHA for expansion of antigen-specific cells. Cells were supplemented with irradiated allogenic PBMCs (30 times number of antigen specific cells). Clones of antigen specific CD4+T cells were further subjected to tetramer staining to confirm expansion of cells.Results:As evidenced by increase in frequency of tetramer positive CD4+T cells, in vitro peptide stimulation resulted in expansion of both influenza specific (Fig. 1a) and citrullinated antigen specific (Fig. 1b) CD4+T cells. Polyclonal in-vitro expansion of tenascin C tetramer positive sorted cells followed by tetramer staining further confirmed antigen specificity and enrichment for antigen specific CD4+T cells after polyclonal stimulation (Fig.1c). TCR repertoire analysis in PB and SF dataset from the first patient showed clonal expansion of influenza specific cells in both sites. Synovial fluid had more diversity of expanding clones as compared to paired PB, with few expanded clones being shared among SF and PB. We observed a more diverse TCR repertoire in citrulline specific CD4+T cells. We also observed sharing of TCR alpha chains among different citrulline specific CD4+T cell clones.Fig. 1In-vitroexpansion of antigen specific CD4+T cells:Conclusion:This method provides a highly suitable approach for investigating TCR specificities of antigen specific CD4+T cells under conditions of low cell yields. Building on this dataset will allow us to assess specific features of TCR usage of autoreactive T cells in RA.PBMCs were cultured in presence of (a) influenza (HA, MP54) and (b) citrullinated tenascin peptides. The proportion of antigen specific CD4+T cells was assessed using HLA-class II tetramer staining. We observed an increase in frequency of (a) Infleunza specific cells (red dots in upper left and lower right quadrants) and (b) citrullinated tenascin C specific cells (red dots in lower right quadrant), at day 13 post culture as compared to day 3. (c) Sorting of citrullinated tenascin specific CD4+T cells, followed by PHA expansion resulted in visible increase in proportion of citrullinated tenascin specific CD4+T cells.Disclosure of Interests:Ravi kumar: None declared, Niyaz Yoosuf: None declared, Christina Gerstner: None declared, Sara Turcinov: None declared, Karine Chemin: None declared, Vivianne Malmström Grant/research support from: VM has had research grants from Janssen Pharmaceutica


Author(s):  
Xiang-Na Zhao ◽  
Yue You ◽  
Guo-Lin Wang ◽  
Hui-Xia Gao ◽  
Xiao-Ming Cui ◽  
...  

SUMMARYRecent studies have characterized the single-cell immune landscape of host immune response of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), specifically focus on the severe condition. However, the immune response in mild or even asymptomatic patients remains unclear. Here, we performed longitudinal single-cell transcriptome sequencing and T cell/B cell receptor sequencing on 3 healthy donors and 10 COVID-19 patients with asymptomatic, moderate, and severe conditions. We found asymptomatic patients displayed distinct innate immune responses, including increased CD56briCD16− NK subset, which was nearly missing in severe condition and enrichment of a new Th2-like cell type/state expressing a ciliated cell marker. Unlike that in moderate condition, asymptomatic patients lacked clonal expansion of effector CD8+ T cells but had a robust effector CD4+ T cell clonal expansion, coincide with previously detected SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4+ T cells in unexposed individuals. Moreover, NK and effector T cells in asymptomatic patients have upregulated cytokine related genes, such as IFNG and XCL2. Our data suggest early innate immune response and type I immunity may contribute to the asymptomatic phenotype in COVID-19 disease, which could in turn deepen our understanding of severe COVID-19 and guide early prediction and therapeutics.


2000 ◽  
Vol 191 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Alderson ◽  
Teresa Bement ◽  
Craig H. Day ◽  
Liqing Zhu ◽  
David Molesh ◽  
...  

Development of a subunit vaccine for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is likely to be dependent on the identification of T cell antigens that induce strong proliferation and interferon γ production from healthy purified protein derivative (PPD)+ donors. We have developed a sensitive and rapid technique for screening an Mtb genomic library expressed in Escherichia coli using Mtb-specific CD4+ T cells. Using this technique, we identified a family of highly related Mtb antigens. The gene of one family member encodes a 9.9-kD antigen, termed Mtb9.9A. Recombinant Mtb9.9A protein, expressed and purified from E. coli, elicited strong T cell proliferation and IFN-γ production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells from PPD+ but not PPD− individuals. Southern blot analysis and examination of the Mtb genome sequence revealed a family of highly related genes. A T cell line from a PPD+ donor that failed to react with recombinant Mtb9.9A recognized one of the other family members, Mtb9.9C. Synthetic peptides were used to map the T cell epitope recognized by this line, and revealed a single amino acid substitution in this region when compared with Mtb9.9A. The direct identification of antigens using T cells from immune donors will undoubtedly be critical for the development of vaccines to several intracellular pathogens.


Author(s):  
Derek J Hanson ◽  
Hu Xie ◽  
Danielle M Zerr ◽  
Wendy M Leisenring ◽  
Keith R Jerome ◽  
...  

Abstract We sought to determine whether donor-derived human herpesvirus (HHV) 6B–specific CD4+ T-cell abundance is correlated with HHV-6B detection after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. We identified 33 patients who received HLA-matched, non–T-cell–depleted, myeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation and underwent weekly plasma polymerase chain reaction testing for HHV-6B for 100 days thereafter. We tested donor peripheral blood mononuclear cells for HHV-6B–specific CD4+ T cells. Patients with HHV-6B detection above the median peak viral load (200 copies/mL) received approximately 10-fold fewer donor-derived total or HHV-6B–specific CD4+ T cells than those with peak HHV-6B detection at ≤200 copies/mL or with no HHV-6B detection. These data suggest the importance of donor-derived immunity for controlling HHV-6B reactivation.


Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (11) ◽  
pp. 5255-5255
Author(s):  
Heather J. Symons ◽  
M. Yair Levy ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Xiaotao Zhou ◽  
Ephraim J. Fuchs

Abstract The “allogeneic effect” refers to the induction of host B cell antibody synthesis or host T cell cytotoxicity, including tumoricidal activity, by an infusion of allogeneic lymphocytes. We have previously shown that treatment of mice with cyclophosphamide (Cy) followed by infusion of CD8+ T cell-depleted allogeneic spleen cells (Cy + CD8− DLI) induces anti-tumor activity in a model of minimal residual leukemia, even though the donor cells are eventually rejected by the host immune system. The purpose of the current investigation was to test the activity of Cy + CD8− DLI in the treatment of well-established cancer, and to characterize the mechanisms of the anti-tumor effect. BALB/c mice were inoculated intravenously (IV) with the syngeneic A20 lymphoma/leukemia or the RENCA renal cell carcinoma on day 0 and were then treated with nothing, Cy alone on day 14, or Cy + CD8− DLI from MHC-mismatched C57BL/6 donors on day 15. In both tumor models, the combination of Cy + CD8− DLI significantly prolonged survival compared to mice treated with nothing or with Cy alone. While depletion of CD4+ T cells from the DLI significantly diminished the beneficial effect of CD8− DLI, purified CD4+ T cells alone were inactive, demonstrating that donor CD4+ T cells and another population of cells were required for optimal anti-tumor activity. Several observations pointed to an active role for the host immune system in the anti-tumor activity of Cy + CD8− DLI. First, host T cells participated in the anti-tumor effect of treatment with Cy alone, since the drug’s activity was diminished in tumor-bearing scid mice or in normal BALB/c mice depleted of T cells. Second, while Cy + CD8− DLI caused no GVHD in tumor-bearing but immunocompetent BALB/c recipients, it caused fatal acute GVHD in either tumor-bearing scid or T-cell depleted BALB/c mice. Finally, the anti-tumor effect of Cy + CD8- DLI was also significantly inhibited in BALB/c mice that were depleted of CD8+ T cells. These results demonstrate that transiently engrafting T cells administered after Cy can induce significant anti-tumor effects against both solid and liquid tumors. We propose that upon recognition of alloantigen on host antigen-presenting cells (APCs), allogeneic donor CD4+ T cells deliver activating ligands to the APCs, thereby generating effective “help” to break tolerance in tumor-specific host CD8+ T cells. This mechanism may correspond to the “allogeneic effect” in the anti-tumor response described over three decades ago.


Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 1730-1730
Author(s):  
Izumi Masamoto ◽  
Sawako Horai ◽  
Tomohiro Kozako ◽  
Makoto Yoshimitsu ◽  
Junko Niimoto ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 1730 Human T-lymphotropic virus type-1(HTLV-1) is the causative agent of adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). HTLV-1 infected T cell growth or leukemogenesis in ATL is controlled by various host immune surveillance systems. Among them, CD70 on HTLV-1 infected T cells coupled with CD27 on virus specific cytotoxic T cells has been suggested to play an important role in ATL leukemogenesis. The CD70 molecule is the only known ligand for CD27, a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily 7. This negative immunoregulatory pathway downregulates cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity against CD70-expressing virus infected cells. In the present study, we examined CD70 expression on primary lymphocytes of HTLV-1 carriers and ATL patients, its relationship with HTLV-1 Tax protein expression, and the effect on CTL induction. CD70 expression was higher on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of HTLV-1 infected carriers compared with healthy donors (p = 0.021, n = 21, Mann-Whitney U test), and higher in ATL patients compared to carriers (p = 0.045, n = 38, Mann-Whitney U test). CD70 expression may be observed in CD4 T cells, as well as B cells, but not in CD8 T cells or monocytes. CD70 expression in CD4 T cells is related to HTLV-1 infection, because of increased detection of HTLV-1 Tax protein during over night culture of CD70-expressing cells. Experiments using an ATL cell line, in which Tax expression is inducible by doxycycline stimulation, demonstrated enhanced CD70 expression when Tax protein was induced in HTLV-1 infected cells. Anti-CD70 antibody enhanced CD107a mobilization, a marker of recent cytotoxic degranulation, in HTLV-1 Tax specific CTLs in PBMCs from asymptomatic carriers in vitro, suggesting that the CD70/CD27 pathway plays an important role in the immune response to HTLV-1 infection in carriers, as well as ATL patients. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 118 (21) ◽  
pp. 2280-2280
Author(s):  
Katharina Nora Steinitz ◽  
Brigitte Binder ◽  
Christian Lubich ◽  
Rafi Uddin Ahmad ◽  
Markus Weiller ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 2280 Development of neutralizing antibodies against FVIII is the major complication in the treatment of patients with hemophilia A. Although several genetic and environmental risk factors have been identified, it remains unclear why some patients develop antibodies while others do not. Understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive the decision of the immune system whether or not to make antibodies against FVIII would help to design novel therapeutics. We used a new humanized hemophilic mouse model that expresses the human MHC-class II molecule HLA-DRB1*1501 on the background of a complete knock out of all murine MHC-class II genes. Initial studies had indicated that only a fraction of these mice developed antibodies when intravenously (i.v.) treated with human FVIII. These findings which resemble the situation in patients with severe hemophilia A, evoked the question if the lack of antibody development in non-responder mice reflects the induction of specific immune tolerance after i.v. application of FVIII or represent non-responsiveness for other reasons. We addressed this question by choosing another application route (subcutaneous, s.c.) and by combining i.v. application with a concomitant activation of the innate immune system applying LPS, a well characterized ligand for toll-like receptor 4, together with FVIII. Both strategies resulted in the development of antibodies in all mice included in the study what suggested that non-responsiveness against i.v. FVIII does not reflect an inability to develop antibodies against FVIII. Next, we asked if i.v. FVIII does induce immune tolerance in non-responder mice. We pretreated mice with i.v. FVIII, selected non-responder mice and challenged them with s.c. FVIII. None of the mice developed antibodies what indicated that i.v. pretreatment had induced immune tolerance in non-responder mice. Currently, we test the hypothesis that immune tolerance after i.v. application is induced and maintained by FVIII-specific regulatory T cells. The differences in responder rates after i.v. and s.c. application of FVIII raised the question if there are differences in FVIII T-cell epitopes involved in the initial activation of FVIII-specific CD4+ T cells. We obtained spleen cells from mice treated with either i.v. or s.c. FVIII and generated CD4+ T-cell hybridoma libraries that were tested for peptide specificities. For this purpose we used a FVIII peptide library containing 15 mers with an offset of 3 amino acids. Our results indicate that the pattern of FVIII-specific T-cell epitopes involved in the activation of FVIII-specific CD4+ T cells after i.v. and s.c. application of FVIII is almost identical and represents a small set of FVIII peptides distributed over the A1, A2, B, A3 and C1 domains. Based on our results we conclude that the new HLA-DRB1*1501 hemophilic mouse model represents an interesting opportunity to uncover the mechanisms that drive the decision of the immune system whether or not to develop antibodies against FVIII. Disclosures: Steinitz: Baxter BioScience: Employment. Binder:Baxter BioScience: Employment. Lubich:Baxter BioScience: Employment. Ahmad:Baxter BioScience: Employment. Weiller:Baxter BioScience: Employment. de la Rosa:Baxter BioScience: Employment. Schwarz:Baxter BioScience: Employment. Scheiflinger:Baxter BioScience: Employment. Reipert:Baxter Innovations GmbH: Employment.


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