1
|
Farzad F, Yaghoubi N, Jabbari-Azad F, Mahmoudi M, Mohammadi M. Prognostic Value of Serum MICA Levels as a Marker of Severity in COVID-19 Patients. Immunol Invest 2022; 51:1856-1866. [PMID: 35481955 DOI: 10.1080/08820139.2022.2069035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
The COVID-19 global pandemic and high mortality rates necessitate the development of diagnostic and prognostic tools, as well as expanding testing capacity. Existing methods for detecting and characterizing SARS-CoV-2 infection are typically based on viral genome detection or measuring COVID-19-specific antibody levels. Despite their value, these methods are unable to predict disease outcomes in patients. Given the critical role of innate immune cells, particularly natural killer (NK) cells, in antiviral defense, this study sought to determine the prognostic value of serum secretory MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence A (sMICA) levels as an essential ligand for the NKG2D receptor, the master regulator of NK cell development and responsiveness. Serum MICA levels were measured by ELISA assay. Sera (n = 60) from SARS-CoV-2 positive patients were collected, and disease severity was determined using clinical criteria. The patient group included 30 patients with mild disease and 30 severely ill patients, as well as 30 healthy controls. Our findings revealed that serum MICA levels were significantly higher in patients than in controls, especially in cases with severe complications (P < .0001). Higher serum MICA levels may be associated with respiratory failure in COVID-19 and may serve as a marker of clinical severity in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, particularly when clinical manifestations are insufficient to make a confident prediction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Faramarz Farzad
- Department of Immunology, Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.,Allergy Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Neda Yaghoubi
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | | | - Mahmoud Mahmoudi
- Immunology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Mojgan Mohammadi
- Immunology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Host-Adapted Gene Families Involved in Murine Cytomegalovirus Immune Evasion. Viruses 2022; 14:v14010128. [PMID: 35062332 PMCID: PMC8781790 DOI: 10.3390/v14010128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Revised: 01/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cytomegaloviruses (CMVs) are host species-specific and have adapted to their respective mammalian hosts during co-evolution. Host-adaptation is reflected by “private genes” that have specialized in mediating virus-host interplay and have no sequence homologs in other CMV species, although biological convergence has led to analogous protein functions. They are mostly organized in gene families evolved by gene duplications and subsequent mutations. The host immune response to infection, both the innate and the adaptive immune response, is a driver of viral evolution, resulting in the acquisition of viral immune evasion proteins encoded by private gene families. As the analysis of the medically relevant human cytomegalovirus by clinical investigation in the infected human host cannot make use of designed virus and host mutagenesis, the mouse model based on murine cytomegalovirus (mCMV) has become a versatile animal model to study basic principles of in vivo virus-host interplay. Focusing on the immune evasion of the adaptive immune response by CD8+ T cells, we review here what is known about proteins of two private gene families of mCMV, the m02 and the m145 families, specifically the role of m04, m06, and m152 in viral antigen presentation during acute and latent infection.
Collapse
|
3
|
Griessl M, Renzaho A, Freitag K, Seckert CK, Reddehase MJ, Lemmermann NAW. Stochastic Episodes of Latent Cytomegalovirus Transcription Drive CD8 T-Cell "Memory Inflation" and Avoid Immune Evasion. Front Immunol 2021; 12:668885. [PMID: 33968074 PMCID: PMC8100209 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.668885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2021] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Acute infection with murine cytomegalovirus (mCMV) is controlled by CD8+ T cells and develops into a state of latent infection, referred to as latency, which is defined by lifelong maintenance of viral genomes but absence of infectious virus in latently infected cell types. Latency is associated with an increase in numbers of viral epitope-specific CD8+ T cells over time, a phenomenon known as "memory inflation" (MI). The "inflationary" subset of CD8+ T cells has been phenotyped as KLRG1+CD62L- effector-memory T cells (iTEM). It is agreed upon that proliferation of iTEM requires repeated episodes of antigen presentation, which implies that antigen-encoding viral genes must be transcribed during latency. Evidence for this has been provided previously for the genes encoding the MI-driving antigenic peptides IE1-YPHFMPTNL and m164-AGPPRYSRI of mCMV in the H-2d haplotype. There exist two competing hypotheses for explaining MI-driving viral transcription. The "reactivation hypothesis" proposes frequent events of productive virus reactivation from latency. Reactivation involves a coordinated gene expression cascade from immediate-early (IE) to early (E) and late phase (L) transcripts, eventually leading to assembly and release of infectious virus. In contrast, the "stochastic transcription hypothesis" proposes that viral genes become transiently de-silenced in latent viral genomes in a stochastic fashion, not following the canonical IE-E-L temporal cascade of reactivation. The reactivation hypothesis, however, is incompatible with the finding that productive virus reactivation is exceedingly rare in immunocompetent mice and observed only under conditions of compromised immunity. In addition, the reactivation hypothesis fails to explain why immune evasion genes, which are regularly expressed during reactivation in the same cells in which epitope-encoding genes are expressed, do not prevent antigen presentation and thus MI. Here we show that IE, E, and L genes are transcribed during latency, though stochastically, not following the IE-E-L temporal cascade. Importantly, transcripts that encode MI-driving antigenic peptides rarely coincide with those that encode immune evasion proteins. As immune evasion can operate only in cis, that is, in a cell that simultaneously expresses antigenic peptides, the stochastic transcription hypothesis explains why immune evasion is not operative in latently infected cells and, therefore, does not interfere with MI.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Niels A. W. Lemmermann
- Institute for Virology, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Becker S, Fink A, Podlech J, Giese I, Schmiedeke JK, Bukur T, Reddehase MJ, Lemmermann NA. Positive Role of the MHC Class-I Antigen Presentation Regulator m04/gp34 of Murine Cytomegalovirus in Antiviral Protection by CD8 T Cells. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2020; 10:454. [PMID: 32984075 PMCID: PMC7479846 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Murine cytomegalovirus (mCMV) codes for MHC class-I trafficking modulators m04/gp34, m06/gp48, and m152/gp40. By interacting with the MHC class-Iα chain, these proteins disconnect peptide-loaded MHC class-I (pMHC-I) complexes from the constitutive vesicular flow to the cell surface. Based on the assumption that all three inhibit antigen presentation, and thus the recognition of infected cells by CD8 T cells, they were referred to as “immunoevasins.” Improved antigen presentation mediated by m04 in the presence of m152 after infection with deletion mutant mCMV-Δm06W, compared to mCMV-Δm04m06 expressing only m152, led us to propose renaming these molecules “viral regulators of antigen presentation” (vRAP) to account for both negative and positive functions. In accordance with a positive function, m04-pMHC-I complexes were found to be displayed on the cell surface, where they are primarily known as ligands for Ly49 family natural killer (NK) cell receptors. Besides the established role of m04 in NK cell silencing or activation, an anti-immunoevasive function by activation of CD8 T cells is conceivable, because the binding site of m04 to MHC class-Iα appears not to mask the peptide binding site for T-cell receptor recognition. However, functional evidence was based on mCMV-Δm06W, a virus of recently doubted authenticity. Here we show that mCMV-Δm06W actually represents a mixture of an authentic m06 deletion mutant and a mutant with an accidental additional deletion of a genome region encompassing also gene m152. Reanalysis of previously published experiments for the authentic mutant in the mixture confirms the previously concluded positive vRAP function of m04.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sara Becker
- Institute for Virology, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Annette Fink
- Institute for Virology, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Jürgen Podlech
- Institute for Virology, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Irina Giese
- TRON - Translational Oncology, Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz gGmbH, Mainz, Germany
| | - Julia K Schmiedeke
- Institute for Virology, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Thomas Bukur
- TRON - Translational Oncology, Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz gGmbH, Mainz, Germany
| | - Matthias J Reddehase
- Institute for Virology, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Niels A Lemmermann
- Institute for Virology, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Gezinir E, Podlech J, Gergely KM, Becker S, Reddehase MJ, Lemmermann NAW. Enhancement of Antigen Presentation by Deletion of Viral Immune Evasion Genes Prevents Lethal Cytomegalovirus Disease in Minor Histocompatibility Antigen-Mismatched Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2020; 10:279. [PMID: 32582572 PMCID: PMC7296086 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2020] [Accepted: 05/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Hematoablative treatment followed by hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for reconstituting the co-ablated immune system is a therapeutic option to cure aggressive forms of hematopoietic malignancies. In cases of family donors or unrelated donors, immunogenetic mismatches in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and/or minor histocompatibility (minor-H) loci are unavoidable and bear a risk of graft-vs.-host reaction and disease (GvHR/D). Transient immunodeficiency inherent to the HCT protocol favors a productive reactivation of latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) that can result in multiple-organ CMV disease. In addition, there exists evidence from a mouse model of MHC class-I-mismatched GvH-HCT to propose that mismatches interfere with an efficient reconstitution of antiviral immunity. Here we used a mouse model of MHC-matched HCT with C57BL/6 donors and MHC-congenic BALB.B recipients that only differ in polymorphic autosomal background genes, including minor-H loci coding for minor-H antigens (minor-HAg). Minor-HAg mismatch is found to promote lethal CMV disease in absence of a detectable GvH response to an immunodominant minor-HAg, the H60 locus-encoded antigenic peptide LYL8. Lethality of infection correlates with inefficient reconstitution of viral epitope-specific CD8+ T cells. Notably, lethality is prevented and control of cytopathogenic infection is restored when viral antigen presentation is enhanced by deletion of immune evasion genes from the infecting virus. We hypothesize that any kind of mismatch in GvH-HCT can induce "non-cognate transplantation tolerance" that dampens not only a mismatch-specific GvH response, which is beneficial, but adversely affects also responses to mismatch-unrelated antigens, such as CMV antigens in the specific case, with the consequence of lethal CMV disease.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Emin Gezinir
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Jürgen Podlech
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Kerstin M Gergely
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Sara Becker
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Matthias J Reddehase
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Niels A W Lemmermann
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Holtappels R, Schader SI, Oettel O, Podlech J, Seckert CK, Reddehase MJ, Lemmermann NAW. Insufficient Antigen Presentation Due to Viral Immune Evasion Explains Lethal Cytomegalovirus Organ Disease After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2020; 10:157. [PMID: 32351904 PMCID: PMC7174590 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 03/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Reactivation of latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) poses a clinical problem in transiently immunocompromised recipients of hematopoietic cell (HC) transplantation (HCT) by viral histopathology that results in multiple organ manifestations. Compared to autologous HCT and to syngeneic HCT performed with identical twins as HC donor and recipient, lethal outcome of CMV infection is more frequent in allogeneic HCT with MHC/HLA or minor histocompatibility loci mismatch between donor and recipient. It is an open question if a graft-vs.-host (GvH) reaction exacerbates CMV disease, or if CMV exacerbates GvH disease (GvHD), or if interference is mutual. Here we have used a mouse model of experimental HCT and murine CMV (mCMV) infection with an MHC class-I mismatch by gene deletion, so that either HCT donor or recipient lack a single MHC class-I molecule, specifically H-2 Ld. This particular immunogenetic disparity has the additional advantage that it allows to experimentally separate GvH reaction of donor-derived T cells against recipient's tissues from host-vs.-graft (HvG) reaction of residual recipient-derived T cells against the transplanted HC and their progeny. While in HvG-HCT with Ld-plus donors and Ld-minus recipients almost all infected recipients were found to control the infection and survived, almost all infected recipients died of uncontrolled virus replication and consequent multiple-organ viral histopathology in case of GvH-HCT with Ld-minus donors and Ld-plus recipients. Unexpectedly, although anti-Ld-reactive CD8+ T cells were detected, mortality was not found to be associated with GvHD histopathology. By comparing HvG-HCT and GvH-HCT, investigation into the mechanism revealed an inefficient reconstitution of antiviral high-avidity CD8+ T cells, associated with lack of formation of protective nodular inflammatory foci (NIF) in host tissue, selectively in GvH-HCT. Most notably, mice infected with an immune evasion gene deletion mutant of mCMV survived under otherwise identical GvH-HCT conditions. Survival was associated with enhanced antigen presentation and formation of protective NIF by antiviral CD8+ T cells that control the infection and prevent viral histopathology. This is an impressive example of lethal viral disease in HCT recipients based on a failure of the immune control of CMV infection due to viral immune evasion in concert with an MHC class-I mismatch.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Matthias J. Reddehase
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Niels A. W. Lemmermann
- Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| |
Collapse
|