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Liu WC, Chang CM, Zhang Y, Liao HT, Chang WC. Dynamics of T-cell receptor repertoire in patients with ankylosing spondylitis after biologic therapy. Int Immunopharmacol 2024; 127:111342. [PMID: 38101220 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.111342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease in which T-cell immune responses play important roles. AS has been characterized by altered T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire profiles, which are thought to be caused by expansion of disease-related TCR clonotypes. However, how biological agents affect the TCR repertoire status and whether their therapeutic outcomes are associated with certain features or dynamic patterns of the TCR repertoire are still elusive. MATERIAL AND METHODS We collected clinical samples from AS patients pre- and post-treatment with biologics. TCR repertoire sequencing was conducted to investigate associations of TCRα and TCRβ repertoire characteristics with disease activity and inflammatory indicators/cytokines. RESULTS Our results showed that good responders were associated with an increase in the TCR repertoire diversity with higher proportions of contracted TCR clonotypes. Additionally, we further identified a positive correlation between TCR repertoire diversity and interleukin (IL)-23 levels in AS patients. A network analysis revealed that contracted AS-associated TCR clonotypes with the same complementary-determining region 3 (CDR3) motifs, which represented high probabilities of sharing TCR specificities to AS-related antigens, were dominant in good responders of AS after treatment with biologic therapies. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggested an important connection between TCR repertoire changes and therapeutic outcomes in biologic-treated AS patients. The status and dynamics of TCR repertoire profiles are useful for assessing the prognosis of biologic treatments in AS patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Chih Liu
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Che-Mai Chang
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yanfeng Zhang
- Genetics Research Division, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA
| | - Hsien-Tzung Liao
- Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Faculty of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan; Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
| | - Wei-Chiao Chang
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Integrative Research Center for Critical Care, Department of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University-Wanfang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Pharmacy, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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Chang CM, Peng KY, Chan CK, Lin YF, Liao HW, Chang JG, Wu MS, Wu VC, Chang WC. Divergent Characteristics of T-Cell Receptor Repertoire Between Essential Hypertension and Aldosterone-Producing Adenoma. Front Immunol 2022; 13:853403. [PMID: 35619691 PMCID: PMC9127864 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.853403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) is a benign adrenal tumor that results in persistent hyperaldosteronism. As one major subtype of primary aldosteronism, APA leads to secondary hypertension that is associated with immune dysregulation. However, how the adaptive immune system, particularly the T-cell population, is altered in APA patients remains largely unknown. Here, we performed TCR sequencing to characterize the TCR repertoire between two age-matched groups of patients: one with APA and the other one with essential hypertension (EH). Strikingly, we found a significant reduction of TCR repertoire diversity in the APA group. Analyses on TCR clustering and antigen annotation further showed that the APA group possessed lower diversity in TCR clonotypes with non-common antigen-specific features, compared with the EH group. In addition, our results indicated that the strength of correlation between generation probabilities and frequencies of TCR clonotypes was significantly higher in the APA group than that in the EH group. Finally, we observed that clinical features, including plasma aldosterone level, aldosterone–renin ratio, and blood sodium level, were positively associated with the strength of correlation between generation and abundance of TCR clonotypes in the APA group. Our findings unveiled the correlation between T-cell immune repertoire and APA, suggesting a critical role of such adrenal adenoma in the T-cell immunity of patients with hypertension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Che-Mai Chang
- Ph.D. Program in Medical Biotechnology, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Kang-Yung Peng
- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.,TAIPAI, Taiwan Primary Aldosteronism Investigation (TAIPAI) Study Group, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chieh-Kai Chan
- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Feng Lin
- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hung-Wei Liao
- Chinru Clinic, Department of Nephrology, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Jan-Gowth Chang
- Epigenome Research Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.,School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
| | - Mai-Szu Wu
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.,Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.,TMU-Research Center of Urology and Kidney (TMU-RCUK), Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Vin-Cent Wu
- Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.,TAIPAI, Taiwan Primary Aldosteronism Investigation (TAIPAI) Study Group, Taipei, Taiwan.,Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wei-Chiao Chang
- Master Program in Clinical Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacoproteomics, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Integrative Research Center for Critical Care, Department of Pharmacy, Wanfang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Department of Medical Research, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan
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Chang CM, Feng PH, Wu TH, Alachkar H, Lee KY, Chang WC. Profiling of T Cell Repertoire in SARS-CoV-2-Infected COVID-19 Patients Between Mild Disease and Pneumonia. J Clin Immunol 2021; 41:1131-1145. [PMID: 33950324 PMCID: PMC8096628 DOI: 10.1007/s10875-021-01045-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 04/14/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a public health emergency. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and fatigue. While most patients with COVID-19 present with mild illness, some patients develop pneumonia, an important risk factor for mortality, at early stage of viral infection, putting these patients at increased risk of death. So far, little has been known about differences in the T cell repertoires between COVID-19 patients with and without pneumonia during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Herein, we aimed to investigate T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire profiles and patient-specific SARS-CoV-2-associated TCR clusters between COVID-19 patients with mild disease (no sign of pneumonia) and pneumonia. The TCR sequencing was conducted to characterize the peripheral TCR repertoire profile and diversity. The TCR clustering and CDR3 annotation were exploited to further discover groups of patient-specific TCR clonotypes with potential SARS-CoV-2 antigen specificities. Our study indicated a slight decrease in the TCR repertoire diversity and a skewed CDR3 length usage in patients with pneumonia compared to those with mild disease. The SARS-CoV-2-associated TCR clusters enriched in patients with mild disease exhibited significantly higher TCR generation probabilities and most of which were highly shared among patients, compared with those from pneumonia patients. Importantly, using similarity network-based clustering followed by the sequence conservation analysis, we found different patterns of CDR3 sequence motifs between mild disease- and pneumonia-specific SARS-CoV-2-associated public TCR clusters. Our results showed that characteristics of overall TCR repertoire and SARS-CoV-2-associated TCR clusters/clonotypes were divergent between COVID-19 patients with mild disease and patients with pneumonia. These findings provide important insights into the correlation between the TCR repertoire and disease severity in COVID-19 patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Che-Mai Chang
- Ph.D. Program in Medical Biotechnology, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Po-Hao Feng
- Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, No. 291, Zhongzheng Rd., Zhonghe Dist., New Taipei City, 235, Taiwan
- Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tsung-Hsun Wu
- Master Program in Clinical Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacoproteomics, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Houda Alachkar
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Kang-Yun Lee
- Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, No. 291, Zhongzheng Rd., Zhonghe Dist., New Taipei City, 235, Taiwan.
- Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
| | - Wei-Chiao Chang
- Master Program in Clinical Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacoproteomics, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, No. 250, Wuxing St., Xinyi Dist., Taipei, 110, Taiwan.
- Department of Pharmacy, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Integrative Research Center for Critical Care, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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