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Tumor neoantigen heterogeneity impacts bystander immune inhibition of pancreatic cancer growth

The threshold for immunogenic clonal fraction in a heterogeneous solid tumor required to induce effective bystander killing of non-immunogenic subclones is unknown. Pancreatic cancer poses crucial challenges for immune therapeutic interventions due to low mutational burden and consequent lack of neoantigens. Here, we designed a model to incorporate artificial neoantigens into genes of interest in cancer cells and to test the potential of said antigens to actuate bystander killing. By precisely controlling the abundance of a neoantigen in the tumor, we studied the impact of neoantigen frequency on immune response and immune escape. Our results showed that a single, strong, widely expressed neoantigen could lead to a robust antitumor response when at least 80% of cancer cells express the neoantigen. Further, immunological assays revealed induction of T-cell responses against a non-target self-antigen on KRAS oncoprotein, when we inoculated animals with a high frequency of tumor cells expressing a test neoantigen. Using nanoparticle-based gene therapy, we successfully altered the tumor microenvironment by perturbing interleukin-12 and interleukin-10 gene expression. The subsequent remodeling of the microenvironment reduced the threshold of neoantigen frequency at which bioluminescent signal intensity for tumor burden decreased 1.5-logfold, marking a robust tumor growth inhibition, from 83% to as low as 29%. Our results thus suggest that bystander killing is rather inefficient in immunologically cold tumors like pancreatic cancer and requires an extremely high abundance of neoantigens. However, the bystander killing mediated antitumor response can be rescued, when supported by adjuvant immune therapy.

cancer biology↗

Spatially and cell-type resolved quantitative proteomic atlas of healthy human skin

Human skin provides both physical integrity and immunological protection from the external environment using functionally distinct layers, cell types and extracellular matrix. Despite its central role in human health and disease, the constituent proteins of skin have not been systematically characterized. Here, we combined advanced tissue dissection methods, flow cytometry and state-of-the-art proteomics to describe a spatially-resolved quantitative proteomic atlas of human skin. We quantified 10,701 proteins as a function of their spatial location and cellular origin. The resulting protein atlas and our initial data analyses demonstrate the value of proteomics for understanding cell-type diversity within the skin. We describe the quantitative distribution of structural proteins, known and novel proteins specific to cellular subsets and those with specialized immunological functions such as cytokines and chemokines. We anticipate that this proteomic atlas of human skin will become an essential community resource for basic and translational research (www.skin.science).

cell biology↗

SARS-CoV2 spike protein displays biologically significant similarities with paramyxovirus surface proteins; a bioinformatics study

Recent emergence of SARS-CoV2 and associated COVID-19 pandemic has posed a great challenge for the scientific community. Understanding various aspects of SARS-CoV2 biology, virulence and pathogenesis as well as determinants of immune response have become a global research priority. In this study, we performed bioinformatic analyses on SAR-CoV2 protein sequences, trying to unravel biologically important similarities between this newly emerged virus with other RNA viruses. Comparing the proteome of SARS-CoV2 with major positive and negative strand ssRNA viruses showed significant homologies between SARS-CoV2 spike protein with pathogenic paramyxovirus fusion proteins. This spike-fusion homology was not limited to SARS-CoV2 and it existed for some other pathogenic coronaviruses; nonetheless, SARS-CoV2 spike-fusion homology was orders of magnitude stronger than homologies observed for other known coronaviruses. Moreover, this homology did not seem to be a consequence of general ssRNA virus phylogenetic relations. We also explored potential immunological significance of this spike-fusion homology. Spike protein epitope analysis using experimentally verified data deposited in Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) revealed that the majority of spikes T cell epitopes as well as many B cell and MHC binding epitopes map within the spike-fusion homology region. Overall, our data indicate that there might be a relation between SARS-CoV2 and paramyxoviruses at the level of their surface proteins and this relation could be of crucial immunological importance.

bioinformatics↗

Unsupervised machine learning reveals key immune cell subsets in COVID-19, rhinovirus infection, and cancer therapy

For an emerging disease like COVID-19, systems immunology tools may quickly identify and quantitatively characterize cells associated with disease progression or clinical response. With repeated sampling, immune monitoring creates a real-time portrait of the cells reacting to a novel virus before disease specific knowledge and tools are established. However, single cell analysis tools can struggle to reveal rare cells that are under 0.1% of the population. Here, the machine learning workflow Tracking Responders Expanding (T-REX) was created to identify changes in both very rare and common cells in diverse human immune monitoring settings. T-REX identified cells that were highly similar in phenotype and localized to hotspots of significant change during rhinovirus and SARS-CoV-2 infections. Specialized reagents used to detect the rhinovirus-specific CD4+ cells, MHCII tetramers, were not used during unsupervised analysis and instead left out to serve as a test of whether T-REX identified biologically significant cells. In the rhinovirus challenge study, T-REX identified virus-specific CD4+ T cells based on these cells being a distinct phenotype that expanded by [≥]95% following infection. T-REX successfully identified hotspots containing virus-specific T cells using pairs of samples comparing Day 7 of infection to samples taken either prior to infection (Day 0) or after clearing the infection (Day 28). Mapping pairwise comparisons in samples according to both the direction and degree of change provided a framework to compare systems level immune changes during infectious disease or therapy response. This revealed that the magnitude and direction of systemic immune change in some COVID-19 patients was comparable to that of blast crisis acute myeloid leukemia patients undergoing induction chemotherapy and characterized the identity of the immune cells that changed the most. Other COVID-19 patients instead matched an immune trajectory like that of individuals with rhinovirus infection or melanoma patients receiving checkpoint inhibitor therapy. T-REX analysis of paired blood samples provides an approach to rapidly identify and characterize mechanistically significant cells and to place emerging diseases into a systems immunology context.

systems biology↗

The nitrogen-fixing symbiotic cyanobacterium, Nostoc punctiforme can regulate plant programmed cell death

Cyanobacteria such as Nostoc spp. can form nitrogen-fixing symbioses with a broad range of plant species. Unlike other plant-bacteria symbioses, little is understood about the immunological and developmental signalling events induced by Nostoc cyanobionts (symbiotic cyanobacteria). Here, we used suspension cell cultures to elucidate the early molecular mechanisms underpinning the association between cyanobionts and plants by studying the effects of conditioned medium (CM) from Nostoc punctiforme cultures on plant programmed cell death (PCD), a typical immune response activated during incompatible interactions. We showed that N. punctiforme-CM could suppress PCD induced by a temperature stress. Interestingly, this was preceded by significant transcriptional reprogramming, as evidenced by the differential regulation of a network of defence-associated genes, as well as genes implicated in regulating cell growth and differentiation. This work is the first to show that cyanobionts can regulate PCD in plants and provides a valuable transcriptome resource for the early immunological and developmental signalling events elicited by Nostoc cyanobionts.

plant biology↗

Mosaic vaccination: how distributing different vaccines across a population could improve epidemic control

Although vaccination has been remarkably effective against some pathogens, for others, rapid antigenic evolution results in vaccination conferring only weak and/or short-lived protection. Consequently, considerable effort has been invested in developing more evolutionarily robust vaccines, either by targeting highly conserved components of the pathogen (universal vaccines) or by including multiple immunological targets within a single vaccine (multi-epitope vaccines). An unexplored third possibility is to vaccinate individuals with one of a number of qualitatively different vaccines, creating a mosaic of individual immunity in the population. Here we explore whether a mosaic vaccination strategy can deliver superior epidemiological outcomes to conventional vaccination, in which all individuals receive the same vaccine. We suppose vaccine doses can be distributed between distinct vaccine targets (e.g., different surface proteins against which an immune response can be generated) and/or immunologically-distinct variants at these targets (e.g., strains); the pathogen can undergo antigenic evolution at both targets. Using simple mathematical models, we show that mosaic vaccination often outperforms conventional vaccination, leading to fewer infected individuals, improved vaccine efficacy, and lower individual risks over the course of the epidemic.

evolutionary biology↗

CytoGLMM: Conditional Differential Analysis for Flow and Mass Cytometry Experiments

BackgroundFlow and mass cytometry are important modern immunology tools for measuring expression levels of multiple proteins on single cells. The goal is to better understand the mechanisms of responses on a single cell basis by studying differential expression of proteins. We focus on cell-specific differential analysis and one fixed cell type. In contrast, most current methods learn cell types and perform differential analysis jointly. Our narrower field of application allows us to define a more specific statistical model with easier to control statistical guarantees. ResultsDifferential analysis of marker expressions can be difficult due to marker correlations and inter-individual heterogeneity, particularly for studies of human immunology. We address these challenges with two multiple regression strategies: A bootstrapped generalized linear model and a generalized linear mixed model. On simulated datasets, we compare the robustness towards marker correlations and heterogeneity of both strategies. For paired experiments, we find that both strategies maintain the target false discovery rate under medium correlations and that mixed models are statistically more powerful under the correct model specification. For unpaired experiments, our results indicate that much larger patient sample sizes are required to detect differences. We illustrate the CytoGLMM R package and workflow for both strategies on a pregnancy dataset. ConclusionsOur approach to find differential proteins in flow and mass cytometry data reduces biases arising from maker correlations and safeguards against false discoveries induced by patient heterogeneity.

bioinformatics↗

Body size affects immune cell proportions in birds and non-volant mammals, but not bats

Powered flight has evolved several times in vertebrates and constrains morphology and physiology in ways that likely have shaped how organisms cope with infections. Some of these constraints likely have impacts on aspects of immunology, such that larger fliers might prioritize risk reduction and safety. Addressing how the evolution of flight may have driven relationships between body size and immunity could be particularly informative for understanding the propensity of some taxa to harbor many virulent and sometimes zoonotic pathogens without showing clinical disease. Here, we used a scaling framework to quantify scaling relationships between body mass and the proportions of two types of white blood cells--lymphocytes, and granulocytes (neutr-/heterophils)--across 60 bat species, 414 bird species, and 256 non-volant mammal species. By using phylogenetically-informed statistical models on field-collected data from wild Neotropical bats, data gleaned from other wild bats available in the literature, and data from captive non-volant mammals and birds, we show that lymphocyte and neutrophil proportions do not vary systematically with body mass among bats. In contrast, larger birds and non-volant mammals have disproportionately higher granulocyte proportions than expected for their body size. Future comparative studies of wild bats, birds, and non-volant mammals of similar body mass should aim to further differentiate evolutionary effects and other aspects of life history on immune defense. Summary statementPowered flight might constrain morphology such that certain immunological features are prioritized. We show that bats largely have similar cell proportions across body mass compared to strong allometric scaling relationships in birds and non-flying mammals.

physiology↗

Antiviral activity of bacterial TIR domains via signaling molecules that trigger cell death

The Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain is a canonical component of animal and plant immune systems. In plants, intracellular pathogen sensing by immune receptors triggers their TIR domains to generate a molecule which is a variant of cyclic ADP-ribose (v-cADPR). This molecule is hypothesized to activate plant cell death via a yet unresolved pathway. TIR domains were recently also shown to be involved in a bacterial anti-phage defense system called Thoeris, but the mechanism of Thoeris defense remained unknown. In this study we report that phage infection triggers Thoeris TIR-domain proteins to produce an isomer of cyclic ADP-ribose. This molecular signal activates a second protein, ThsA, which then depletes the cell of the essential molecule nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and leads to abortive infection and cell death. We further show that similar to eukaryotic innate immune systems, bacterial TIR-domain proteins determine the immunological specificity to the invading pathogen. Our results describe a new antiviral signaling pathway in bacteria, and suggest that generation of intracellular signaling molecules is an ancient immunological function of TIR domains conserved in both plant and bacterial immunity.

microbiology↗

HIV-1 Vpr drives a tissue residency-like phenotype during selective infection of resting memory T cells

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replicates in CD4+ T cells leading to profound T cell loss, immunological dysfunction and AIDS. Determining how HIV-1 shapes the immunological niche in which it resides to create a permissive environment is central to informing efforts to limit pathogenesis, disturb viral reservoirs and achieve a cure. A key roadblock in understanding HIV-T cell interactions is the requirement to activate CD4+ T cells in vitro in order to make them permissive to infection. This dramatically alters T cell biology, obscuring native virus-host interactions. Here we show that HIV-1 cell-to-cell spread permits efficient and productive infection of resting CD4+ T cells without the need for prior activation. Infection is preferential for resting memory T cells, is observed with both CXCR4-tropic virus and CCR5-tropic transmitter-founder viruses and results in virus production and onward spreading infection. Strikingly, we find that HIV-1 infection of resting memory CD4+ T cells primes for induction of a tissue-resident memory (TRM)-like phenotype evidenced by upregulation of TRM markers CD69/CXCR6 alongside co-expression of CD49a, PD-1, CD101 as well as transcription factor Blimp-1. Furthermore, we reveal that HIV-1 initiates a transcriptional program that overlaps with the core TRM transcriptional signature. This reprograming depends on the HIV-1 accessory protein Vpr. We propose that HIV-1 infection drives a CD4+ TRM-phenotype potentially sequestering infected cells within tissues to support viral replication and persistence.

microbiology↗

Ovine CD14- an immune response gene has a role against gastrointesinal nematode Haemonchus contortus -a novel report

CD14 (also known as monocyte differentiation antigen) is an important immune response gene known to be primarily responsible for innate immunity against bacterial pathogen and as pattern recognition receptor (PRR) binds with LPS (endotoxin), lipoproteins, lipotechoic acid of bacteria.So far very limited work has been conducted in parasitic immunology. In the current study, we reported the role of CD14 in parasitic immunology in livestock species (sheep) for the first time. Ovine CD14 is characterized as a horse-shoe shaped as a bent solenoid with a hydrophobic amino-terminal pocket for CD14 along with domains. High mutation frequency was observed, out of total 41 mutations identified, 23 mutations were observed to be thermodynamically unstable and 11 mutations were deleterious in nature, causing major functional alteration of important domains of CD14, an indicative for variations in individual susceptibility for sheeps against Haemonchus contortus infestations. In silico studies with molecular docking reveals a role of immune response against Haemonchus contortus in sheep, which is later confirmed with experimental evidence through differential mRNA expression analysis for sheep, which revealed better expression of CD14 in Haemonchus contortus infected sheep compared to that of healthy sheep. We confirmed the above findings with supportive evidences with haematological and biochemical analyses. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted to assess the evolutionary relationship with respect to human and observed that sheep may well be used as model organism due better genetic closeness compared to that of mouse.

genomics↗

Larvae and adults exhibit contrasting patterns of immune gene expression and infection resistance in wild flour beetle populations

In nature, hosts face shifting patterns of parasite exposure and life history trade-offs as they develop from birth to old age. As a result, the net fitness benefit of immunological investment can change dramatically from one life stage to the next. Previous work has revealed a puzzling diversity of relative immune investment patterns among juvenile and adult stages, and it is not clear whether lessons learned from one particular population or species can be generalized to wild populations, after accounting for local adaptation and other variance-generating processes. In this study, we quantify larval and adult immune gene expression and resistance to bacterial infection in two flour beetle species (Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum) from two lab-adapted and five wild-derived populations. Our results provide a clear signal of higher infection-induced immunological investment and resistance in adults relative to larvae, despite variation among species in immune gene regulation. Better characterization of stage-specific investment in infection resistance in natural populations can inform our understanding of life history evolution and improve predictions of disease dynamics in the wild.

evolutionary biology↗

Human iPSC-derived renal cells change their immunogenic properties during maturation: Implications for regenerative therapies

Therapeutic success of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based therapies critically depends on immunological compatibility of the hiPSC-derived transplant. As grafted hiPSC-derived cells are often immature, we hypothesized that their immunologic properties may change due to post-grafting maturation. Subsequently, this will affect their interaction with the host immune system and may compromise graft tolerance. In the present study allogeneic and autologous cellular immunity of primary cells, therof reprogrammed hiPSC, hiPSC-derived progenitor and terminally differentiated cells was investigated in vitro by using renal cells as a model system. In contrast to allogeneic primary cells, hiPSC-derived early renal progenitors and mature renal epithelial cells were both tolerated not only by autologous but also by allogeneic T cells. These immune-privileged properties resulted from active immune-modulation and low immune visibility, which declined during the process of cell maturation. However, autologous and allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell responses were not suppressed by hiPSC-derived renal cells and efficiently changed NK cell activation status. These findings clearly show a dynamic stage-specific dependency of autologous and allogeneic T- and NK cell responses to the hiPSC-derived renal cell lineage with consequences for effective cell therapies. The study suggests that hiPSC-derived early progenitors may provide advantageous immune suppressive properties when applied in cell therapy. The data furthermore indicate a need to suppress NK cell activation in allogeneic as well as autologous settings.

cell biology↗

Analysis of immune subtypes across the epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity spectrum

Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity plays a critical role in many solid tumor types as a mediator of metastatic dissemination and treatment resistance. In addition, there is also a growing appreciation that the epithelial/mesenchymal status of a tumor plays a role in immune evasion and immune suppression. A deeper understanding of the immunological features of different tumor types has been facilitated by the availability of large gene expression datasets and the development of methods to deconvolute bulk RNA-Seq data. These resources have generated powerful new ways of characterizing tumors, including classification of immune subtypes based on differential expression of immunological genes. In the present work, we combine scoring algorithms to quantify epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity with immune subtype analysis to understand the relationship between epithelial plasticity and immune subtype across cancers. We find heterogeneity of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) status both within and between cancer types, with greater heterogeneity in the expression of EMT-related factors than of MET-related factors. We also find that specific immune subtypes have associated EMT scores and differential expression of immune checkpoint markers.

cancer biology↗

Pan-cancer survey of tumour mass dormancy and underlying mutational processes

Tumour mass dormancy is the key intermediate step between immune surveillance and cancer progression, yet due to its transitory nature it has been difficult to capture and characterise. Little is understood of its prevalence across cancer types and of the mutational background that may favour such a state. While this balance is finely tuned internally by the equilibrium between cell proliferation and cell death, the main external factors contributing to tumour mass dormancy are immunological and angiogenic. To understand the genomic and cellular context in which tumour mass dormancy may develop, we comprehensively profiled signals of immune and angiogenic dormancy in 9,631 cancers from the Cancer Genome Atlas and linked them to tumour mutagenesis. We find evidence for immunological and angiogenic dormancy-like signals in 16.5% of bulk sequenced tumours, with a frequency of up to 33% in certain tissues. Mutations in the CASP8 and HRAS oncogenes were positively selected in dormant tumours, suggesting an evolutionary pressure for controlling cell growth/apoptosis signals. By surveying the mutational damage patterns left in the genome by known cancer risk factors, we found that ageing-induced mutations were relatively depleted in these tumours, while patterns of smoking and defective base excision repair were linked with increased tumour mass dormancy. Furthermore, we identified a link between APOBEC mutagenesis and dormancy, which comes in conjunction with immune exhaustion and may partly depend on the expression of the angiogenesis regulator PLG as well as interferon and chemokine signals. Tumour mass dormancy also appeared to be impaired in hypoxic conditions in the majority of cancers. The microenvironment of dormant cancers was enriched in cytotoxic and regulatory T cells, as expected, but also in macrophages and showed a reduction in inflammatory Th17 signals. Finally, tumour mass dormancy was linked with improved patient survival outcomes. Our analysis sheds light onto the complex interplay between dormancy, exhaustion, APOBEC activity and hypoxia, and sets directions for future mechanistic explorations.

cancer biology↗

Microbiome diversity and host immune functions may define the fate of sponge holobionts under future ocean conditions

The sponge-associated microbial community contributes to the overall health and adaptive capacity of the sponge holobiont. This community is regulated by the environment, as well as the immune system of the host. However, little is known about the effect of environmental stress on the regulation of host immune functions and how this may, in turn, affect sponge-microbe interactions. In this study, we compared the microbiomes and immune repertoire of two sponge species, the demosponge, Neopetrosia compacta and the calcareous sponge, Leucetta chagosensis, under varying levels of acidification and warming stress. Neopetrosia compacta harbors a diverse bacterial assemblage and possesses a rich repertoire of scavenger receptors while L. chagosensis has a less diverse microbiome and an expanded range of pattern recognition receptors and proteins with immunological domains. Upon exposure to warming and acidification, the microbiome and host transcriptome of N. compacta remained stable, which correlated with high survival. In contrast, the bacterial community of L. chagosensis exhibited drastic restructuring and widespread downregulation of host immune-related pathways, which accompanied tissue necrosis and mortality. Differences in microbiome diversity and immunological repertoire of diverse sponge groups highlight the central role of host-microbe interactions in predicting the fate of sponges under future ocean conditions.

microbiology↗

Comethyl: A network-based methylome approach to investigate the multivariate nature of health and disease

Health outcomes are frequently shaped by difficult to dissect inter-relationships between biological, behavioral, social, and environmental factors. DNA methylation patterns reflect such multi-variate intersections, providing a rich source of novel biomarkers and insight into disease etiologies. Recent advances in whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) enable investigation of DNA methylation over all genomic CpGs, but existing bioinformatic approaches lack accessible system-level tools. Here, we develop the R package Comethyl, for weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) of user-defined genomic regions that generates modules of comethylated regions, which are then tested for correlations with sample traits. First, regions are defined by CpG genomic location or regulatory annotation and filtered based on CpG count, sequencing depth, and variability. Next, correlation networks are used to find modules of interconnected nodes using methylation values within the selected regions. Each module containing multiple comethylated regions is reduced in complexity to a single eigennode value, which is then tested for correlations with experimental metadata. Comethyl has the ability to cover the noncoding regulatory regions of the genome with high relevance to interpretation of genome-wide association studies and integration with other types of epigenomic data. We demonstrate the utility of Comethyl on a dataset of male cord blood samples from newborns later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) versus typical development. Comethyl successfully identified an ASD-associated module containing gene regions with brain glial functions. Comethyl is expected to be useful in uncovering the multi-variate nature of health disparities for a variety of common disorders. Comethyl is available at github.com/cemordaunt/comethyl. Description of the AuthorsCharles E. Mordaunt, Ph.D. developed Comethyl while a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at UC Davis. He is currently a Computational Biologist at GSK. Julia S. Mouat is a doctoral student in the Integrative Genetics and Genomics graduate group at UC Davis with interests in health disparities and intergenerational epigenetic risk factors for autism spectrum disorders. Rebecca J. Schmidt, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at UC Davis, with expertise in the use of epigenetics in epidemiology and neurodevelopmental disorders. Janine M. LaSalle, Ph.D. is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Co-Director of the Perinatal Origins of Disparities Center, and Deputy Director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center at UC Davis, with expertise in epigenomics and neurodevelopmental disorders.

bioinformatics↗

Age-related Immune-Stromal Networks Inhibit Response to Regenerative Immunotherapies

Aging is associated with immunological changes that compromise response to infections and vaccines, exacerbate inflammatory diseases and could potentially mitigate tissue repair. Even so, age-related changes to the immune response to tissue damage and regenerative medicine therapies remain unknown. Here, we characterized how aging induces senescence and immunological changes that inhibit tissue repair and therapeutic response to a clinical regenerative biological scaffold derived from extracellular matrix. Tissue signatures of inflammation and interleukin (IL)-17 signaling increased with injury and treatment in aged animals, and computational analysis uncovered age-associated senescent-T cell communication that promotes type 3 immunity in T cells. Local inhibition of type 3 immune activation using IL17-neutralizing antibodies improved healing and restored therapeutic response to the regenerative biomaterial, promoting muscle repair in older animals. These results provide insights into tissue immune dysregulation that occurs with aging that can be targeted to rejuvenate repair.

bioengineering↗