Precarious balance: Th17 cells in host defense. Infect Immun. 2010;78:32-38. [PMID: 19901061 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00929-09]

Molecular immune responses to aerosol challenge with Francisella tularensis in mice inoculated with live vaccine candidates of varying efficacy

Background

Francisella tularensis is a facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen and the etiological agent of tularemia. The subspecies F. tularensis tularensis is especially virulent for humans when inhaled and respiratory tularemia is associated with high mortality if not promptly treated. A live vaccine strain (LVS) derived from the less virulent holarctica subspecies confers incomplete protection against aerosol challenge with subsp. tularensis. Moreover, correlates of protection have not been established for LVS.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In the present study we compare molecular immune responses elicited by LVS and two defined deletion mutants of clinical subsp. tularensis strain, SCHU S4, that confer enhanced protection in a mouse model. BALB/c mice were immunized intradermally then challenged with an aerosol of SCHU S4 six weeks later. Changes in the levels of a selected panel of cytokines and chemokines were examined in the lungs, spleens, and sera of vaccinated and challenged mice. Mostly, increased cytokine and chemokine levels correlated with increased bacterial burden. However, after adjusting for this variable, immunization with either of the two Schu S4 mutants resulted in higher levels of several pulmonary cytokines, versus those resulting after LVS immunization, including IL-17. Moreover, treatment of mice immunized with ΔclpB with anti-IL-17 antibodies post-challenge enhanced lung infection.

Conclusions/Significance

This is the first report characterizing local and systemic cytokine and chemokine responses in mice immunized with vaccines with different efficacies against aerosol challenge with virulent F. tularensis subsp. tularensis. It shows that increases in the levels of most of these immunomodulators, including those known to be critical for protective immunity, do not superficially correlate with protection unless adjusted for the effects of bacterial burden. Additionally, several cytokines were selectively suppressed in the lungs of naïve mice, suggesting that one mechanism of vaccine action is to overcome this pathogen-induced immunosuppression.

Interleukin-17 is not required for classical macrophage activation in a pulmonary mouse model of Cryptococcus neoformans infection

Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that causes disease in individuals with suppressed cell-mediated immunity. Recent studies in our laboratory have shown that increases in pulmonary Th1-type and interleukin-17A (IL-17A) cytokine production, classical macrophage activation, and sterilizing immunity are elicited in response to infection with a gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-producing C. neoformans strain, H99γ. IL-17A-treated macrophages, compared to IL-4-treated macrophages, have been demonstrated to exhibit increased microbicidal activity in vitro, a characteristic consistent with classical macrophage activation. The purpose of these studies is to determine the role of IL-17A in the induction of classically activated macrophages following infection with C. neoformans. Immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR were used to characterize the macrophage activation phenotype in lung tissues of mice treated with isotype control or anti-IL-17A antibodies and given an experimental pulmonary infection with C. neoformans strain H99γ. The pulmonary fungal burden was resolved, albeit more slowly, in mice depleted of IL-17A compared to the fungal burden in isotype control-treated mice. Nonetheless, no difference in classical macrophage activation was observed in IL-17A-depleted mice. Similarly, classical macrophage activation was evident in mice deficient in IL-17A or the IL-17 receptor A, which mediates IL-17A signaling, following pulmonary infection with wild-type C. neoformans strain H99 or H99γ. These studies suggest that IL-17A may play a role in the early immune response to C. neoformans but is not required for classical macrophage activation in mice experimentally infected with C. neoformans.

Transcriptomic and innate immune responses to Yersinia pestis in the lymph node during bubonic plague

A delayed inflammatory response is a prominent feature of infection with Yersinia pestis, the agent of bubonic and pneumonic plague. Using a rat model of bubonic plague, we examined lymph node histopathology, transcriptome, and extracellular cytokine levels to broadly characterize the kinetics and extent of the host response to Y. pestis and how it is influenced by the Yersinia virulence plasmid (pYV). Remarkably, dissemination and multiplication of wild-type Y. pestis during the bubonic stage of disease did not induce any detectable gene expression or cytokine response by host lymph node cells in the developing bubo. Only after systemic spread had led to terminal septicemic plague was a transcriptomic response detected, which included upregulation of several cytokine, chemokine, and other immune response genes. Although an initial intracellular phase of Y. pestis infection has been postulated, a Th1-type cytokine response associated with classical activation of macrophages was not observed during the bubonic stage of disease. However, elevated levels of interleukin-17 (IL-17) were present in infected lymph nodes. In the absence of pYV, sustained recruitment to the lymph node of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN, or neutrophils), the major IL-17 effector cells, correlated with clearance of infection. Thus, the ability to counteract a PMN response in the lymph node appears to be a major in vivo function of the Y. pestis virulence plasmid.

Trypanosomiasis-induced Th17-like immune responses in carp

Background

In mammalian vertebrates, the cytokine interleukin (IL)-12 consists of a heterodimer between p35 and p40 subunits whereas interleukin-23 is formed by a heterodimer between p19 and p40 subunits. During an immune response, the balance between IL-12 and IL-23 can depend on the nature of the pathogen associated molecular pattern (PAMP) recognized by, for example TLR2, leading to a preferential production of IL-23. IL-23 production promotes a Th17-mediated immune response characterized by the production of IL-17A/F and several chemokines, important for neutrophil recruitment and activation. For the cold blooded vertebrate common carp, only the IL-12 subunits have been described so far.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Common carp is the natural host of two protozoan parasites: Trypanoplasma borreli and Trypanosoma carassii. We found that these parasites negatively affect p35 and p40a gene expression in carp. Transfection studies of HEK293 and carp macrophages show that T. carassii-derived PAMPs are agonists of carp TLR2, promoting p19 and p40c gene expression. The two protozoan parasites induce different immune responses as assessed by gene expression and histological studies. During T. carassii infections, in particular, we observed a propensity to induce p19 and p40c gene expression, suggestive of the formation of IL-23. Infections with T. borreli and T. carassii lead to an increase of IFN-γ2 gene expression whereas IL-17A/F2 gene expression was only observed during T. carasssii infections. The moderate increase in the number of splenic macrophages during T. borreli infection contrasts the marked increase in the number of splenic neutrophilic granulocytes during T. carassii infection, along with an increased gene expression of metalloproteinase-9 and chemokines.

Conclusion/Significance

This is the first study that provides evidence for a Th17-like immune response in fish in response to infection with a protozoan parasite.

The yin and yang of regulatory T cells and inflammation in RA

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by chronic inflammation leading to joint destruction. Regulatory T (T(REG)) cells are potent suppressors of autoimmunity, but are not capable of controlling every aspect of the inflammatory reaction. We have found that T(REG)-cell function is abnormal in patients with RA, and that a distinct population of T(REG) cells with potent suppressive properties is induced after therapy with inhibitors of tumor necrosis factor. In this Review, we discuss the mutual interactions between the opposing forces of T(REG) cells and inflammation in the context of RA. Therapeutic approaches that enhance T(REG)-cell function whilst controlling inflammation are likely to be the most effective strategies for restoring immune tolerance in patients with this disease.

IL-17 in systemic lupus erythematosus

IL-17 is a cytokine with powerful proinflammatory activity. Production of IL-17 is abnormally increased in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a multiorgan chronic autoimmune disease. In patients with SLE, CD3⁺CD4⁻CD8⁻ (double negative) T cells are an important source of IL-17. IL-17 produced by double negative and CD4 T cells participates in the pathogenesis of the disease. IL-17-producing T cells are present in the kidneys of patients with lupus nephritis. IL-17 increased production in patients with SLE can amplify the immune response by increasing target organ inflammation and damage and by augmenting the production of antibodies by B cells.

Astrocytes modulate the chemokine network in a pathogen-specific manner

Immune responses in the central nervous system (CNS) are carefully regulated. Despite the absence of most immune processes and a substantive blood brain barrier, potent immune responses form during infection and autoimmunity. Astrocytes are innate immune sentinels that ensheath parenchymal blood vessels and sit at the gateway to the CNS parenchyma. Viral and bacterial infections trigger the influx of distinct leukocyte subsets. We show that astrocytes alone are sufficient for distinguishing between these two main types of infection and triggers release of relevant chemokines that relate to the microbe recognised. Bacterial-associated molecules induced the preferential expression of CCL2, CXCL1, CCL20 and CCL3 whilst a virus-associated dsRNA analogue preferentially up-regulated CXCL10 and CCL5. Thus, astrocytes can respond to infection in a distinct and appropriate manner suggesting they have the capacity to attract appropriate sets of leukocytes into the brain parenchyma. Astrocytes themselves are unable to respond to these chemokines since they were devoid of most chemokine receptors but expressed CXCR4, CXCR7 and CXCR6 at rest. Stimulation with TGF-beta specifically up-regulated CXCR6 expression and may explain how TGF-beta/CXCL16-expressing gliomas are so effective at attracting astroglial cells.