Repertoire analysis of memory T-cell receptors in Japanese patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Unraveling Cross-Organ Impacts of Airborne Pollutants: A Multiomics Study on Respiratory Exposure and Gastrointestinal Health

Poor air quality is increasingly linked to gastrointestinal diseases, suggesting a potential correlation with human intestine health. However, this relationship remains largely unexplored due to limited research. This study used a controlled mouse model exposed to cooking oil fumes (COFs) and metagenomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to elucidate interactions between intestine microbiota and host metabolism under environmental stress. Our findings reveal that short-term COF inhalation induces pulmonary inflammation within 3 days and leads to gastrointestinal disturbances, elucidating a pathway connecting respiratory exposure to intestinal dysfunction. The exposure intensity significantly correlates with changes in intestinal tissue integrity, microbial composition, and metabolic function. Extended exposure of 7 days disrupts intestine microbiota and alters tryptophan metabolism, with further changes observed after 14 days, highlighting an adaptive response. These results highlight the vulnerability of intestinal health to airborne pollutants and suggest a pathway through which inhaled pollutants may affect distant organ systems.

Mechanism investigation of fermented egg-milk peptides on colonic inflammatory diseases: based on in vivo and in silico research

Fermented egg-milk peptides (FEMPs) could alleviate the symptoms of inflammatory diseases but the underlying regulating mechanism of effective ingredients is unclear now. Our research was designed to confirm the protective function of FEMP, then analyze the potential targets and pathways that could be regulated by digested FEMP (dFEMP). The results showed that FEMP could ease the inflammatory symptoms in the colon, repair the damage of inflammation, and decrease the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines (decreased by 31.81% TNF-α, 60.20% IL-1β, 85.65% IL-6). The results of in silico experiments revealed that dFEMP could influence many inflammation-related targets. Most targets affected the inflammation-related function and participated in the inflammatory signaling pathways, such as the T cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathway. Besides, molecular docking results revealed that hydrogen-bonding and salt bridges played vital roles in the dFEMP-target interactions. Combining in vivo experiments with in silico experiments, this study can prove a new theory for research between the bioactive peptides and inflammation.

Reduced diversity of intestinal T-cell receptor repertoire in patients with Crohn’s disease

Background

The intestinal microenvironment directly determines the human T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire. Despite its extreme diversity, TCR repertoire analysis may provide a better understanding of the immune system in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Methods

To investigate TCR repertoires in the intestinal mucosa, RNA sequencing was performed for inflamed and non-inflamed intestinal mucosa samples obtained from 13 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and healthy mucosa from nine non-IBD controls.

Results

The gene expression frequency of the TCR repertoire showed a clear separation between inflamed mucosa of patients with CD and healthy mucosa of non-IBD controls in the hierarchical clustering heatmap. The richness of TCR repertoires measured by the Chao1 index did not show a significant difference among groups, whereas diversity measured by the D50 diversity index was decreased in the inflamed mucosa of CD patients. Rare/small TCR clonotypes occupied a large proportion of TCR repertoires in healthy mucosa of controls, whereas expanded clonotypes were common in inflamed mucosa of patients with CD. Segment usages of TRAV2, TRAV22, TRAV40, TRJ14, TRAJ51, TRBV1, TRBV21.1, and TRBJ1.5 were significantly decreased in CD patients. KEGG enrichment analysis identified the enrichment of several KEGG pathways, including inflammatory bowel disease (p = 0.0012), Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation (p = 0.0011), and intestinal immune network for IgA production (p = 0.0468).

Conclusions

The diversity of the TCR repertoire is reduced in inflamed mucosa of CD patients, which might contribute to intestinal inflammation.

T cell receptor revision and immune repertoire changes in autoimmune diseases

Autoimmune disease (AID) is a condition in which the immune system breaks down and starts to attack the body. Some common AIDs include systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes mellitus and so forth. The changes in T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire have been found in several autoimmune diseases, and may be responsible for the breakdown of peripheral immune tolerance. In this review, we discussed the processes of TCR revision in peripheral immune environment, the changes in TCR repertoire that occurred in various AIDs, and the specifically expanded T cell clones. We hope our discussion can provide insights for the future studies, helping with the discovery of disease biomarkers and expanding the strategies of immune-targeted therapy. HighlightsRestricted TCR repertoire and biased TCR-usage are found in a variety of AIDs.TCR repertoire shows tissue specificity in a variety of AID diseases.The relationship between TCR repertoire diversity and disease activity is still controversial in AIDs.Dominant TCR clonotypes may help to discover new disease biomarkers and expand the strategies of immune-targeted therapy.