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Hetemäki I, Sarkkinen J, Heikkilä N, Drechsel K, Mäyränpää MI, Färkkilä A, Laakso S, Mäkitie O, Arstila TP, Kekäläinen E. Dysregulated germinal center reaction with expanded T follicular helper cells in autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy lymph nodes. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2024; 153:1445-1455. [PMID: 38128835 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2023.12.004] [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: 07/05/2023] [Revised: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED, also called APS-1) is an inborn error of immunity with clear signs of B-cell autoimmunity such as neutralizing anti-IFN antibodies. In APECED, mutations in the AIRE gene impair thymic negative selection of T cells. The resulting T-cell alterations may then cause dysregulation of B-cell responses. However, no analysis of interactions of T and B cells in the germinal centers (GCs) in patients' secondary lymphatic tissues has been reported. OBJECTIVE This study examined the relationship between B cells and follicular T helper cells (TfH) in peripheral blood and lymph node (LN) GCs in patients with APECED. METHODS Immunophenotyping of peripheral blood B cells and TfH was performed for 24 patients with APECED. Highly multiplexed fluorescent immunohistochemical staining was performed on 7 LN biopsy samples from the patients to study spatial interactions of lymphocytes in the GCs at the single-cell level. RESULTS The patients' peripheral B-cell phenotype revealed skewing toward a mature B-cell phenotype with marked loss of transitional and naive B cells. The frequency of circulating TfH cells was diminished in the patients, while in the LNs the TfH population was expanded. In LNs the overall frequency of Treg cells and interactions of Treg cells with nonfollicular T cells were reduced, suggesting that aberrant Treg cell function might fail to restrain TfH differentiation. CONCLUSIONS GC reactions are disrupted in APECED as a result of defective T-cell control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iivo Hetemäki
- Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Joona Sarkkinen
- Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Nelli Heikkilä
- Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Karen Drechsel
- Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Mikko I Mäyränpää
- Department of Pathology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Anniina Färkkilä
- Research Program in Systems Oncology, FIMM & HiLIFE University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; iCAN Digital Precision Cancer Medicine, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Saila Laakso
- Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Outi Mäkitie
- Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and Clinical Genetics, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - T Petteri Arstila
- Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Eliisa Kekäläinen
- Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
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Harris EM, Chamseddine S, Chu A, Senkpeil L, Nikiciuk M, Al-Musa A, Woods B, Ozdogan E, Saker S, van Konijnenburg DPH, Yee CS, Nelson R, Lee P, Halyabar O, Hale RC, Day-Lewis M, Henderson LA, Nguyen AA, Elkins M, Ohsumi TK, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Peyper JM, Platt CD, Grace RF, LaBere B, Chou J. Integrating circulating T follicular memory cells and autoantibody repertoires for characterization of autoimmune disorders. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.02.25.24303331. [PMID: 38464255 PMCID: PMC10925364 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.25.24303331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2024]
Abstract
Introduction Autoimmune diseases are heterogeneous and often lack specific or sensitive diagnostic tests. Increased percentages of CD4+CXCR5+PD1+ circulating T follicular helper (cTfh) cells and skewed distributions of cTfh subtypes have been associated with autoimmunity. However, cTfh cell percentages can normalize with immunomodulatory treatment despite persistent disease activity, indicating the need for identifying additional cellular and/or serologic features correlating with autoimmunity. Methods The cohort included 50 controls and 56 patients with autoimmune cytopenias, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, and/or neurologic autoimmune disease. Flow cytometry was used to measure CD4+CXCR5+ T cell subsets expressing the chemokine receptors CXCR3 and/or CCR6: CXCR3+CCR6- Type 1, CXCR3-CCR6- Type 2, CXCR3+CCR6+ Type 1/17, and CXCR3- CCR6+ Type 17 T cells. IgG and IgA autoantibodies were quantified using a microarray featuring 1616 full-length, conformationally intact protein antigens. The 97.5th percentile in the control cohort defined normal limits for T cell subset percentages and total number (burden) of autoantibodies. Results This study focused on CD4+CXCR5+ T cells because CXCR5 upregulation occurs after cognate T-B cell interactions characteristic of autoimmune diseases. We refer to these cells as circulating T follicular memory (cTfm) cells to acknowledge the dynamic nature of antigen-experienced CXCR5+ T cells, which encompass progenitors of cTfh or Tfh cells as well as early effector memory T cells that have not yet lost CXCR5. Compared to controls, 57.1% of patients had increased CXCR5+CXCR3+CCR6+ cTfm1/17 and 25% had increased CXCR5+CXCR3-CCR6+ cTfm17 cell percentages. Patients had significantly more diverse IgG and IgA autoantibodies than controls and 44.6% had an increased burden of autoantibodies of either isotype. Unsupervised autoantibody clustering identified three clusters of patients with IgG autoantibody profiles distinct from those of controls, enriched for patients with active autoimmunity and monogenic diseases. An increased percentage of cTfm17 cells was most closely associated with an increased burden of high-titer IgG and IgA autoantibodies. A composite measure integrating increased cTfm1/17, cTfm17, and high-titer IgG and/or IgA autoantibodies had 91.1% sensitivity and 90.9% specificity for identifying patients with autoimmunity. Percentages of cTfm1/17 and cTfm17 percentages and numbers of high-titer autoantibodies in patients receiving immunomodulatory treatment did not differ from those in untreated patients, thus suggesting that measurements of cTfm can complement measurements of other cellular markers affected by treatment. Conclusions This study highlights two new approaches for assessing autoimmunity: measuring CD4+CXCR5+ cTfm subsets as well as total burden of autoantibodies. Our findings suggest that these approaches are particularly relevant to patients with rare autoimmune disorders for whom target antigens and prognosis are often unknown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily M. Harris
- Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sarah Chamseddine
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Anne Chu
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Northeastern University, Boston, MA
| | - Leetah Senkpeil
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Matthew Nikiciuk
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Northeastern University, Boston, MA
| | - Amer Al-Musa
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Brian Woods
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Sarife Saker
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Christina S.K. Yee
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ryan Nelson
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Pui Lee
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Olha Halyabar
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Rebecca C. Hale
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Megan Day-Lewis
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Lauren A. Henderson
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alan A. Nguyen
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Megan Elkins
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | | | | | - Craig D. Platt
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Rachael F. Grace
- Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Brenna LaBere
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Current affiliation: Division of Allergy and Immunology, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ 85016
| | - Janet Chou
- Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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Wang Q, Feng D, Jia S, Lu Q, Zhao M. B-Cell Receptor Repertoire: Recent Advances in Autoimmune Diseases. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol 2024; 66:76-98. [PMID: 38459209 DOI: 10.1007/s12016-024-08984-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024]
Abstract
In the field of contemporary medicine, autoimmune diseases (AIDs) are a prevalent and debilitating group of illnesses. However, they present extensive and profound challenges in terms of etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment. A major reason for this is the elusive pathophysiological mechanisms driving disease onset. Increasing evidence suggests the indispensable role of B cells in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. Interestingly, B-cell receptor (BCR) repertoires in autoimmune diseases display a distinct skewing that can provide insights into disease pathogenesis. Over the past few years, advances in high-throughput sequencing have provided powerful tools for analyzing B-cell repertoire to understand the mechanisms during the period of B-cell immune response. In this paper, we have provided an overview of the mechanisms and analytical methods for generating BCR repertoire diversity and summarize the latest research progress on BCR repertoire in autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS), multiple sclerosis (MS), and type 1 diabetes (T1D). Overall, B-cell repertoire analysis is a potent tool to understand the involvement of B cells in autoimmune diseases, facilitating the creation of innovative therapeutic strategies targeting specific B-cell clones or subsets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Wang
- Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenomics, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
- Clinical Medical Research Center of Major Skin Diseases and Skin Health of Hunan Province, Changsha, China
| | - Delong Feng
- Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenomics, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
- Clinical Medical Research Center of Major Skin Diseases and Skin Health of Hunan Province, Changsha, China
| | - Sujie Jia
- Department of Pharmacy, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing, 210042, China
| | - Qianjin Lu
- Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing, 210042, China.
- Key Laboratory of Basic and Translational Research on Immune-Mediated Skin Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Nanjing, China.
| | - Ming Zhao
- Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenomics, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
- Clinical Medical Research Center of Major Skin Diseases and Skin Health of Hunan Province, Changsha, China.
- Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing, 210042, China.
- Key Laboratory of Basic and Translational Research on Immune-Mediated Skin Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Nanjing, China.
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Huang T, Pi C, Xu X, Feng Y, Zhang J, Gu H, Fang J. Effect of BAFF blockade on the B cell receptor repertoire and transcriptome in a mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus. Front Immunol 2024; 14:1307392. [PMID: 38264661 PMCID: PMC10803406 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1307392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease. Anti-B-cell-activating factor (BAFF) therapy effectively depletes B cells and reduces SLE disease activity. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of BAFF blockade on B cell receptor (BCR) repertoire and gene expression. Methods Through next-generation sequencing, we analyzed gene expression and BCR repertoire in MRL/lpr mice that received long-term anti-BAFF therapy. Based on gene expression profiles, we predicted the relative proportion of immune cells using ImmuCellAI-mouse, validating our predictions via flow cytometry and FluoroSpot. Results The loss of BCR repertoire diversity and richness, along with increased clonality and differential frequency distribution of the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable (IGHV) segment gene usage, were observed in BAFF-blockade mice. Meanwhile, the distribution of complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) length and CDR3 amino acid usage remained unaffected. BAFF blockade resulted in extensive changes in gene expression, particularly that of genes related to B cells and immunoglobulins. Besides, the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α responses and interferon (IFN)-α/γ were downregulated, consistent with the decrease in IFN-γ and TNF-α serum levels following anti-BAFF therapy. In addition, BAFF blockade significantly reduced B cell subpopulations and plasmacytoid dendritic cells, and caused the depletion of antibody-secreting cells. Discussion Our comparative BCR repertoire and transcriptome analyses of MRL/lpr mice subjected to BAFF blockade provide innovative insights into the molecular pathophysiology of SLE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Huang
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Chenyu Pi
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaoqing Xu
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yan Feng
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jingming Zhang
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Hua Gu
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jianmin Fang
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
- Biomedical Research Center, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
- Department of Neurology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
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