Trained immunity: A program of innate immune memory in health and disease

Bacteria-type-specific biparental immune priming in the pipefish Syngnathus typhle

The transfer of acquired and specific immunity against previously encountered bacteria from mothers to offspring boosts the immune response of the next generation and supports the development of a successful pathogen defense. While most studies claim that the transfer of immunity is a maternal trait, in the sex-role-reversed pipefish Syngnathus typhle, fathers nurse the embryos over a placenta-like structure, which opens the door for additional paternal immune priming. We examined the potential and persistence of bacteria-type-specific parental immune priming in the pipefish S. typhle over maturation time using a fully reciprocal design with two different bacteria species (Vibrio spp. and Tenacibaculum maritimum). Our results suggest that S. typhle is able to specifically prime the next generation against prevalent local bacteria and to a limited extent even also against newly introduced bacteria species. Long-term protection was thereby maintained only against prevailing Vibrio bacteria. Maternal and paternal transgenerational immune priming can complement each other, as they affect different pathways of the offspring immune system and come with distinct degree of specificity. The differential regulation of DNA-methylation genes upon parental bacteria exposure in premature pipefish offspring indicates that epigenetic regulation processes are involved in transferring immune-related information across generations. The identified trade-offs between immune priming and reproduction determine TGIP as a costly trait, which might constrain the evolution of long-lasting TGIP, if parental and offspring generations do not share the same parasite assembly.

Neutrophils in the tumor microenvironment: trying to heal the wound that cannot heal

Neutrophils are the first responders to infection and injury and are critical for antimicrobial host defense. Through the generation of reactive oxidants, activation of granular constituents and neutrophil extracellular traps, neutrophils target microbes and prevent their dissemination. While these pathways are beneficial in the context of trauma and infection, their off-target effects in the context of tumor are variable. Tumor-derived factors have been shown to reprogram the marrow, skewing toward the expansion of myelopoiesis. This can result in stimulation of both neutrophilic leukocytosis and the release of immature granulocytic populations that accumulate in circulation and in the tumor microenvironment. While activated neutrophils have been shown to kill tumor cells, there is growing evidence for neutrophil activation driving tumor progression and metastasis through a number of pathways, including stimulation of thrombosis and angiogenesis, stromal remodeling, and impairment of T cell-dependent anti-tumor immunity. There is also growing appreciation of neutrophil heterogeneity in cancer, with distinct neutrophil populations promoting cancer control or progression. In addition to the effects of tumor on neutrophil responses, anti-neoplastic treatment, including surgery, chemotherapy, and growth factors, can influence neutrophil responses. Future directions for research are expected to result in more mechanistic knowledge of neutrophil biology in the tumor microenvironment that may be exploited as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Memory γδ T Cells-Newly Appreciated Protagonists in Infection and Immunity

Despite the potential for diversity in their T cell receptor, γδ T cells are primarily considered to be innate immune cells. Recently, memory-like γδ T cell responses have been identified in murine models of infection and autoimmunity. Similar memory responses have also been described in human and non-human primate γδ T cells. It has thus become clear that subpopulations of γδ T cells can develop long-lasting memory akin to conventional αβ T cells, with protective and pathogenic consequences. Hence, a re-evaluation of their true capabilities and role in infection and immunity is required. This review discusses recent reports of memory-type responses attributed to γδ T cells and assesses this underappreciated facet of these enigmatic cells.

Microglial Priming and Alzheimer's Disease: A Possible Role for (Early) Immune Challenges and Epigenetics?

Neuroinflammation is thought to contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis that is, to a large extent, mediated by microglia. Given the tight interaction between the immune system and the brain, peripheral immune challenges can profoundly affect brain function. Indeed, both preclinical and clinical studies have indicated that an aberrant inflammatory response can elicit behavioral impairments and cognitive deficits, especially when the brain is in a vulnerable state, e.g., during early development, as a result of aging, or under disease conditions like AD. However, how exactly peripheral immune challenges affect brain function and whether this is mediated by aberrant microglial functioning remains largely elusive. In this review, we hypothesize that: (1) systemic immune challenges occurring during vulnerable periods of life can increase the propensity to induce later cognitive dysfunction and accelerate AD pathology; and (2) that "priming" of microglial cells is instrumental in mediating this vulnerability. We highlight how microglia can be primed by both neonatal infections as well as by aging, two periods of life during which microglial activity is known to be specifically upregulated. Lasting changes in (the ratios of) specific microglial phenotypes can result in an exaggerated pro-inflammatory cytokine response to subsequent inflammatory challenges. While the resulting changes in brain function are initially transient, a continued and/or excess release of such pro-inflammatory cytokines can activate various downstream cellular cascades known to be relevant for AD. Finally, we discuss microglial priming and the aberrant microglial response as potential target for treatment strategies for AD.

Royal Decree: Gene Expression in Trans-Generationally Immune Primed Bumblebee Workers Mimics a Primary Immune Response

Invertebrates lack the cellular and physiological machinery of the adaptive immune system, but show specificity in their immune response and immune priming. Functionally, immune priming is comparable to immune memory in vertebrates. Individuals that have survived exposure to a given parasite are better protected against subsequent exposures. Protection may be cross-reactive, but demonstrations of persistent and specific protection in invertebrates are increasing. This immune priming can cross generations ("trans-generational" immune priming), preparing offspring for the prevailing parasite environment. While these phenomena gain increasing support, the mechanistic foundations underlying such immune priming, both within and across generations, remain largely unknown. Using a transcriptomic approach, we show that exposing bumblebee queens with an injection of heat-killed bacteria, known to induce trans-generational immune priming, alters daughter (worker) gene expression. Daughters, even when unexposed themselves, constitutively express a core set of the genes induced upon direct bacterial exposure, including high expression of antimicrobial peptides, a beta-glucan receptor protein implicated in bacterial recognition and the induction of the toll signaling pathway, and slit-3 which is important in honeybee immunity. Maternal exposure results in a distinct upregulation of their daughters' immune system, with a signature overlapping with the induced individual response to a direct exposure. This will mediate mother-offspring protection, but also associated costs related to reconfiguration of constitutive immune expression. Moreover, identification of conserved immune pathways in memory-like responses has important implications for our understanding of the innate immune system, including the innate components in vertebrates, which share many of these pathways.

Exaptive origins of regulated mRNA decay in eukaryotes

Eukaryotic gene expression is extensively controlled at the level of mRNA stability and the mechanisms underlying this regulation are markedly different from their archaeal and bacterial counterparts. We propose that two such mechanisms, nonsense‐mediated decay (NMD) and motif‐specific transcript destabilization by CCCH‐type zinc finger RNA‐binding proteins, originated as a part of cellular defense against RNA pathogens. These branches of the mRNA turnover pathway might have been used by primeval eukaryotes alongside RNA interference to distinguish their own messages from those of RNA viruses and retrotransposable elements. We further hypothesize that the subsequent advent of “professional” innate and adaptive immunity systems allowed NMD and the motif‐triggered mechanisms to be efficiently repurposed for regulation of endogenous cellular transcripts. This scenario explains the rapid emergence of archetypical mRNA destabilization pathways in eukaryotes and argues that other aspects of post‐transcriptional gene regulation in this lineage might have been derived through a similar exaptation route.

Diversity of immune strategies explained by adaptation to pathogen statistics

Biological organisms have evolved a wide range of immune mechanisms to defend themselves against pathogens. Beyond molecular details, these mechanisms differ in how protection is acquired, processed, and passed on to subsequent generations-differences that may be essential to long-term survival. Here, we introduce a mathematical framework to compare the long-term adaptation of populations as a function of the pathogen dynamics that they experience and of the immune strategy that they adopt. We find that the two key determinants of an optimal immune strategy are the frequency and the characteristic timescale of the pathogens. Depending on these two parameters, our framework identifies distinct modes of immunity, including adaptive, innate, bet-hedging, and CRISPR-like immunities, which recapitulate the diversity of natural immune systems.

The Intestinal Bacterial Microbiome and E. histolytica Infection

Entamoeba histolytica, the etiological agent of amebiasis, is a significant cause of pediatric diarrhea in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The clinical outcome of an E. histolytica exposure varies enormously and can present as diarrhea, dysentery, or amebic liver abscess. Host and parasite factors likely contribute to the outcome of infection with the parasite, but do not explain the wide variation in presentation of disease. This suggests that other environmental factors affect disease. An emerging body of work suggests that the host intestinal bacterial microbiome may have a significant influence on the development and outcome of amebiasis.

Inducible epithelial resistance protects mice against leukemia-associated pneumonia

Despite widespread infection prevention efforts, pneumonia remains the leading cause of death among patients with acute leukemia, due to complex disease- and treatment-dependent immune defects. We have reported that a single inhaled treatment with a synergistic combination of Toll-like receptor 2/6 (TLR 2/6) and TLR9 agonists (Pam2-ODN) induces protective mucosal defenses in mice against a broad range of pathogens. As Pam2-ODN-induced protection persists despite depletion of several leukocyte populations, we tested whether it could prevent pneumonia in a mouse model of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remission induction therapy. Pam2-ODN prevented death due to pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Aspergillus fumigatus when mice were heavily engrafted with leukemia cells, had severe chemotherapy-induced neutropenia or both. Pam2-ODN also extended survival of pneumonia in NSG mice engrafted with primary human AML cells. Protection was associated with rapid pathogen killing in the lungs at the time of infection and with reduced pathogen burdens at distant sites at the end of observation. Pathogen killing was inducible directly from isolated lung epithelial cells and was not abrogated by the presence of leukemia cells or cytotoxic agents. Pam2-ODN had no discernible effect on replication rate, total tumor population, or killing by chemotherapy of mouse or human leukemia cells, either in vitro or in vivo. Taken together, we report that therapeutic stimulation of lung epithelial defenses robustly protects against otherwise lethal pneumonias despite the profound immune dysfunction associated with acute leukemia and its treatment. These findings may suggest an opportunity to protect this population during periods of peak vulnerability.

A Dormant Microbial Component in the Development of Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia (PE) is a complex, multisystem disorder that remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in pregnancy. Four main classes of dysregulation accompany PE and are widely considered to contribute to its severity. These are abnormal trophoblast invasion of the placenta, anti-angiogenic responses, oxidative stress, and inflammation. What is lacking, however, is an explanation of how these themselves are caused. We here develop the unifying idea, and the considerable evidence for it, that the originating cause of PE (and of the four classes of dysregulation) is, in fact, microbial infection, that most such microbes are dormant and hence resist detection by conventional (replication-dependent) microbiology, and that by occasional resuscitation and growth it is they that are responsible for all the observable sequelae, including the continuing, chronic inflammation. In particular, bacterial products such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), also known as endotoxin, are well known as highly inflammagenic and stimulate an innate (and possibly trained) immune response that exacerbates the inflammation further. The known need of microbes for free iron can explain the iron dysregulation that accompanies PE. We describe the main routes of infection (gut, oral, and urinary tract infection) and the regularly observed presence of microbes in placental and other tissues in PE. Every known proteomic biomarker of "preeclampsia" that we assessed has, in fact, also been shown to be raised in response to infection. An infectious component to PE fulfills the Bradford Hill criteria for ascribing a disease to an environmental cause and suggests a number of treatments, some of which have, in fact, been shown to be successful. PE was classically referred to as endotoxemia or toxemia of pregnancy, and it is ironic that it seems that LPS and other microbial endotoxins really are involved. Overall, the recognition of an infectious component in the etiology of PE mirrors that for ulcers and other diseases that were previously considered to lack one.