Autoimmunity, anergy, lentiviral immunity and disease

Two Decades of Publications in Journals Dedicated to Autoimmunity: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Autoimmunity Field from 2004 to 2023

To carry out an in-depth analysis of the scientific research on autoimmunity, we performed the first bibliometric analysis focusing on publications in journals dedicated to autoimmunity (JDTA) indexed by science citation index during the period 2004-2023. Using bibliometric analysis, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed the country, institution, author, reference and keywords information of publications in JDTA, so as to understand the quantity, publication pattern and publication characteristics of these publications. The co-occurrence networks, clustering map and timeline map were created by CiteSpace and VOSviewer software to visualize the results. The CiteSpace was also used to analyze the strongest citation burst of keywords, which could describe the frequency, intensity and time period of high-frequency keywords, and indicate the research hotspots in the field. A total of 5 710 publications were analyzed, and their annual distribution number was basically stable from 2004 to 2023, fluctuating around 300. The United States and Italy led the way in terms of the number of publications, followed by France and China. For international cooperation, the developed countries represented by the United States cooperate more closely, but the cooperation was localized, reflecting that there was no unified model of autoimmunity among countries. UDICE-French Research Universities had the greatest number of publications. Subsequently, the number of publications decreased slowly with the ranking, and the gradient was not large. Eric Gershwin and Yehuda Shoenfeld stood out among the authors. They had an excellent academic reputation and great influence in the field of autoimmunity. The results of keyword analysis showed that JDTA publications mainly studied a variety of autoimmune diseases, especially SLE and RA. At the same time, JDTA publications also paid special attention to the research of cell function, autoantibody expression, animal experiments, disease activity, pathogenesis and treatment. This study is the first to analyze the publications in JDTA from multiple indicators by bibliometrics, thus providing new insights into the research hotspots and development trends in the field of autoimmunity.

The role of NFATc1 in the progression and metastasis of prostate cancer: A review on the molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways

A common type of cancer among men is the prostate cancer that kills many people every year. The multistage of this disease and the involvement of the vital organs of the body have reduced the life span and quality of life of the people involved and turned the treatment process into a complex one. NFATc1 biomarker contributes significantly in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease by increasing its expression in prostate cancer and helping the proliferation, differentiation, and invasion of cancer cells through different signaling pathways. NFATc1 is also able to target the metabolism of cancer cells by inserting specific oncogene molecules such as c-myc that it causes cell growth and proliferation. Bone is a common tissue where prostate cancer cells metastasize. In this regard, the activity of NFATc1, through the regulation of different signaling cascades, including the RANKL/RANK signaling pathway, in turn, increases the activity of osteoclasts, and as a result, bone tissue is gradually ruined. Using Silibinin as a medicinal plant extract can inhibit the activity of osteoclasts related to prostate cancer by targeting NFATc. Undoubtedly, NFATc1 is one of the effective oncogenes related to prostate cancer, which has the potential to put this cancer on the path of progression and metastasis. In this review, we will highlight the role of NFATc1 in the progression and metastasis of prostate cancer. Furthermore, we will summarize signaling pathways and molecular mechanism, through which NFATc1 regulates the process of prostate cancer.

Neonatal immunization prevents the development of a chronic autoimmune response against CD4 caused by HIV-1 gp120 in rats

The AIDS autoimmune hypothesis suggests that suppression of the autoimmunity against CD4 T lymphocytes should positively affect the course of HIV infection. The aim of this study was to determine whether neonatal immunization can be used to prevent induction of anti-CD4 autoimmune response triggered by HIV-1. The induction of anti-CD4 lymphocytes in HIV infection proceeds via their idiotypic interactions with anti-gp120 lymphocytes; therefore, the creation of tolerance to gp120 by means of neonatal immunization with gp120 may prevent subsequent induction of anti-CD4 lymphocytes. Neonatal immunization with CD4 may also be effective, since it can increase natural tolerance to CD4 and prevent its subsequent breakdown by gp120. Thus, anti-gp120 lymphocytes and anti-CD4 lymphocytes are potential neonatal stimulation targets. To determine which of these targets can be manipulated during the neonatal period, a computer model of the immune network was used. The computer model predictions were tested in a rat model of autoimmune CD4 T lymphocytopenia induced by gp120. The in silico studies predicted that stimulating a clone against an external antigen that is in idiotype-anti-idiotype interactions with an autoclone, when stimulation is performed during the time that the dynamic behavior type of the immune network is being established, changes the autoimmune response from self-perpetuating to transient. Experimental studies confirmed the predictions of the computer model and showed that neonatal immunization with gp120 suppresses anti-CD4 autoantibody production and prevents the development of autoimmune CD4 T lymphocytopenia triggered in adult rats by gp120. Neonatal HIV-1 gp120 immunization enhances natural tolerance to CD4.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Proteins Mimic Human T Cell Receptors Inducing Cross-Reactive Antibodies

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) hides from the immune system in part by mimicking host antigens, including human leukocyte antigens. It is demonstrated here that HIV also mimics the V-β-D-J-β of approximately seventy percent of about 600 randomly selected human T cell receptors (TCR). This degree of mimicry is greater than any other human pathogen, commensal or symbiotic organism studied. These data suggest that HIV may be evolving into a commensal organism just as simian immunodeficiency virus has done in some types of monkeys. The gp120 envelope protein, Nef protein and Pol protein are particularly similar to host TCR, camouflaging HIV from the immune system and creating serious barriers to the development of safe HIV vaccines. One consequence of HIV mimicry of host TCR is that antibodies against HIV proteins have a significant probability of recognizing the corresponding TCR as antigenic targets, explaining the widespread observation of lymphocytotoxic autoantibodies in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Quantitative enzyme-linked immunoadsorption assays (ELISA) demonstrated that every HIV antibody tested recognized at least one of twelve TCR, and as many as seven, with a binding constant in the 10-8 to 10-9 m range. HIV immunity also affects microbiome tolerance in ways that correlate with susceptibility to specific opportunistic infections.

Anticeramide antibody and butyrylcholinesterase in peripheral neuropathies

Ceramide is a glycosphingolipid, a component of nerve and non neuronal cell membrane and plays a role in maintaining the integrity of neuronal tissue. Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is a multifunctional enzyme, its involvement in neurodegenerative diseases has been well established. Anticeramide antibody (Ab-Cer) and enzyme BChE have been implicated in peripheral neuropathies. The present study investigates whether there is an association between Ab-Cer and BChE activities and peripheral neuropathies. Patients included: human immunodeficiency virus associated peripheral neuropathy (HIV-PN, n=39), paucibacillary leprosy (PB-L, n=36), multibacillary leprosy (MB-L, n=52), diabetic neuropathy (DN, n=22), demyelinating sensory motor polyneuropathy (DSMN, n=13) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP, n=10). Plasma Ab-Cer was measured by indirect enzyme linked immune assay (ELISA) and BChE activity in plasma was measured by colorimetric method. Ab-Cer levels were significantly elevated in MB-L and DN as compared to healthy subjects (HS). BChE levels were significantly higher in MB-L and DN as well as in HIV and HIV-PN. There is no significant difference in either Ab-Cer or BChE levels in DSMN and CIDP. Elevated plasma Ab-Cer and BChE levels may be considered significant in the pathogenesis of neuropathies. The variation in concurrent involvement of both the molecules in the neuropathies of the study, suggest their unique involvement in neurodegenerative pathways.

Combined Action of Anti-CD4 Autoantibodies and Rheumatoid Factor in the Development of CD4 Lymphocytopenia in Rats Immunized with HIV-1 gp120

The development of immunodeficiency in HIV-infected patients is known to result from CD4⁺ lymphocyte depletion. Most CD4⁺ lymphocyte cells destined to die are not infected. The mechanism of HIV-uninfected cell death has not yet been fully elucidated. The aim of this study is to examine the role of anti-CD4 autoantibodies and physiological rheumatoid factor (RF) in the development of CD4⁺ lymphocytopenia. Immunization of Wistar rats with gp120 HIV-1 induces chronic production of anti-CD4 autoantibodies and decreases CD4⁺ lymphocytes in the blood. However, the anti-CD4 autoantibodies produced as part of the immune response to gp120 do not kill CD4⁺ cells directly. In rats producing anti-CD4 autoantibodies, a low level of peripheral CD4 lymphocytes is associated with high blood RF levels. The sera containing RF killed lymphocytes when the lymphocytes were pretreated with sera containing anti-CD4 autoantibodies. Thus, the death of CD4⁺ lymphocytes in rats immunized with gp120 is a result of the combined action of anti-CD4 autoantibodies and RF, and the action of these factors can be separated in time. The fact that two signals are needed for CD4⁺ lymphocyte death in HIV gp120-immunized rats does not contradict the hypothesis of the activation-induced death of uninfected CD4⁺ cells in HIV-infected humans.

Randomized Phase I: Safety, Immunogenicity and Mucosal Antiviral Activity in Young Healthy Women Vaccinated with HIV-1 Gp41 P1 Peptide on Virosomes

Mucosal antibodies harboring various antiviral activities may best protect mucosal surfaces against early HIV-1 entry at mucosal sites and they should be ideally induced by prophylactic HIV-1 vaccines for optimal prevention of sexually transmitted HIV-1. A phase I, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in twenty-four healthy HIV-uninfected young women. The study objectives were to assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of virosomes harboring surface HIV-1 gp41-derived P1 lipidated peptides (MYM-V101). Participants received placebo or MYM-V101 vaccine at 10 μg/dose or 50 μg/dose intramuscularly at week 0 and 8, and intranasally at week 16 and 24. MYM-V101 was safe and well-tolerated at both doses administered by the intramuscular and intranasal routes, with the majority of subjects remaining free of local and general symptoms. P1-specific serum IgGs and IgAs were induced in all high dose recipients after the first injection. After the last vaccination, vaginal and rectal P1-specific IgGs could be detected in all high dose recipients. Approximately 63% and 43% of the low and high dose recipients were respectively tested positive for vaginal P1-IgAs, while 29% of the subjects from the high dose group tested positive for rectal IgAs. Serum samples had total specific IgG and IgA antibody concentrations ≥ 0.4 μg/mL, while mucosal samples were usually below 0.01 μg/mL. Vaginal secretions from MYM-V101 vaccinated subjects were inhibiting HIV-1 transcytosis but had no detectable neutralizing activity. P1-specific Th1 responses could not be detected on PBMC. This study demonstrates the excellent safety and tolerability of MYM-V101, eliciting systemic and mucosal antibodies in the majority of subjects. Vaccine-induced mucosal anti-gp41 antibodies toward conserved gp41 motifs were harboring HIV-1 transcytosis inhibition activity and may contribute to reduce sexually-transmitted HIV-1.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01084343.

Is developing an HIV-1 vaccine possible?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This review discusses select recent data that suggest that indeed it is possible to make a clinically useful preventive vaccine for HIV-1 and outlines some of the remaining obstacles that stand in the way of success.

RECENT FINDINGS

Passive protection studies, with broad neutralizing antibodies for mucosal simian-HIV challenges, in nonhuman primates have suggested that lower doses of neutralizing antibodies than previously thought may be effective in preventing HIV-1 infection. The use of recombinant antibody technology coupled with the ability to culture single memory B cells has yielded new broad neutralizing antibodies and new targets for vaccine design. The success of the RV144 Thai HIV-1 efficacy trials with a replication-defective recombinant canarypox vector (ALVAC)/gp120 prime, clade B/E recombinant gp120 protein boost showing 31% efficacy has given hope that indeed a protective HIV-1 vaccine can be made.

SUMMARY

Recent data in the last year have provided new hope that a clinically useful preventive HIV-1 vaccine can potentially be made. The path forward will require development of improved immunogens, understanding the correlates of protection to HIV-1, and development of immunogens to induce antibodies that can prevent the initial stages of HIV-1 infection at mucosal sites, in order to improve on the RV144 trial results.

Protective versus pathogenic anti-CD4 immunity: insights from the study of natural resistance to HIV infection

HIV-1 exposure causes several dramatic unbalances in the immune system homeostasis. Here, we will focus on the paradox whereby CD4 specific autoimmune responses, which are expected to contribute to the catastrophic loss of most part of the T helper lymphocyte subset in infected patients, may display the characteristics of an unconventional protective immunity in individuals naturally resistant to HIV-1 infection. Reference to differences in fine epitope mapping of these two oppositely polarized outcomes will be presented, with particular reference to partially or totally CD4-gp120 complex-specific antibodies. The fine tuning of the anti-self immune response to the HIV-1 receptor may determine whether viral exposure will result in infection or, alternatively, protective immunity.

Along this line, an efficacious anti-HIV strategy can rely on the active (i.e., through immunization) or passive targeting of cryptic epitopes of the CD4-gp120 complex, including those harboured within the CD4 molecule. Such epitopes are expected to be safe from genetic drift and thus allow for broad spectrum of efficacy. Moreover, since these epitopes are not routinely exposed in uninfected individuals, they are expected to become targets of neutralizing antibodies or other specifically designed molecules only after viral exposure, with a predictable low impact in terms of potentially harmful anti-CD4 self-reactivity.

The experimentum naturae of naturally resistant individuals indicates a strategy to design innovative strategies to neutralize HIV-1 by acting on the sharp edge between harmful and protective self-reactivity.

In vitro model for the activation of CD4 and CD8 T cell receptors

Previously, most models that sought to explain the misregulation of immune cell function assumed molecular similarities between the disease-causing pathogens and the host's proteins. In recent time several different models have been proposed and in this study, these concepts are compared to a new hypothesis proposing another explanation for this immune dysregulation: the possibility that the mislocalization of proteins may be responsible for autoimmune activity. Based on this hypothesis, proteins are recognized as self or non-self depending on where they appear in sufficiently high concentrations. To examine this new idea, the intracellular human proteins beta-actin, GAPDH, and hemoglobin as well as the extracellular human proteins insulin and albumin, were added to human whole blood samples. After an incubation period, the activation of whole-blood T lymphocytes in the samples was measured. The observed activation pattern of the T lymphocytes fit well with the proposed hypothesis. Therefore, these data suggest that protein mislocalization and/or errors within protein trafficking might be important in the development of autoimmune diseases.

Autoimmunity and HIV/simian immunodeficiency virus infection: A two edged sword

The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the spectrum of autoimmune responses that we have so far characterized in the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected disease susceptible rhesus macaques, the potential role of the lymphopenic state for the generation of the autoimmune response and the important new finding that such autoimmune response in fact can serve to provide both clinical benefit and clinical disease depending on the stage of the disease and the nature of the host proteins that are recognized during this process.

Elevated anti-sulfatide antibodies in Guillain-Barré syndrome in T cell depleted at end-stage AIDS

A 38-year-old man developed the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) associated with untreated end-stage AIDS and CD4+ lymphocyte count of 3 cells/mm(3). The patient had serum high titer anti-sulfatide antibodies and responded well to infusion of immunoglobulin. The data suggest that elevated levels of anti-sulfatide antibodies may play a role in the pathogenesis of GBS in this patient, although a direct neurotropic effect of HIV virus cannot be excluded.

Investigating the human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected monocyte-derived macrophage secretome

Mononuclear phagocytes (bone marrow monocyte-derived macrophages, alveolar macrophages, perivascular macrophages, and microglia) are reservoirs and vehicles of dissemination for the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1). How virus alters mononuclear phagocyte immunoregulatory activities to complete its life cycle and influence disease is incompletely understood. In attempts to better understanding the influence of virus on macrophage functions, we used one-dimensional electrophoresis, and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to analyze the secretome of HIV-1-infected human monocyte-derived macrophages. We identified 110 proteins in culture supernatants of control (uninfected) and virus-infected cells. Differentially expressed cytoskeletal, enzymes, redox, and immunoregulatory protein classes were discovered and validated by Western blot tests. These included, but were not limited to, cystatin C, cystatin B, chitinase 3-like 1 protein, cofilin-1, l-plastin, superoxide dismutase, leukotriene A(4) hydrolase, and alpha-enolase. This study, using a unique proteomics platform, provides novel insights into virus-host cell interactions that likely affect the functional role of macrophages in HIV disease.

Human and Nonhuman Primate Lentiviral Infection and Autoimmunity

The goal of this communication is to summarize the following-the types of autoimmune responses that have been characterized in human HIV-1 infection; the potential mechanisms that were initially thought to be the basis for such autoimmune responses; the prevalence and incidence of conventional autoimmune diseases with HIV-1 infection; the spectrum of autoimmune disorders following the institution of HAART and its associated mechanisms; the role of such autoimmunity in SIV-infected nonhuman primates; and the molecular basis for autoimmune responses, such as the role of exosomes in lentiviral disease.