Generation of macrophages with altered viral sensitivity from genome-edited rhesus macaque iPSCs to model human disease

Genome editing iPSC to purposing enhancement of induce CD8 killer T cell function for regenerative immunotherapy

In recent years, immunotherapy has become a standard cancer therapy, joining surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. This therapeutic approach involves the use of patient-derived antigen-specific T cells or genetically modified T cells engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) or T cell receptors (TCR) that specifically target cancer antigens. However, T cells require ex vivo stimulation for proliferation when used in therapy, and the resulting "exhaustion," which is characterized by a diminished proliferation capacity and anti-tumor activity, poses a significant challenge. As a solution, we reported "rejuvenated" CD8 + T cells that possess high proliferation capacity from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in 2013. This review discusses the status and future developments in immunotherapy using iPSC-derived T cells, drawing insights from our research to overcome the exhaustion associated with antigen-specific T cell therapy.

TRIM5 Promotes Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Through CD4(+) T Cells and Macrophage

Purpose

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a typical autoimmune disease characterized by the involvement of multiple organs and the production of antinuclear antibodies. This study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism of SLE.

Patients and Methods

We retrieved genome-wide gene expression levels from five public datasets with relatively large sample sizes from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and we compared the expression profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from SLE patients and healthy controls (HCs). The expression of seven target genes in PBMCs from 25 cases and 3 HCs was further validated by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT‒qPCR). Flow cytometry was used for verifying the proportion of naive CD4(+) T cells and M2 macrophages in PBMCs from 5 cases and 4 HCs.

Results

We found 14 genes (TRIM5, FAM8A1, SHFL, LHFPL2, PARP14, IFIT5, PARP12, DDX60, IRF7, IF144, OAS1, OAS3, RHBDF2, and RSAD2) that were differentially expressed among all five datasets. The heterogeneity test under the fixed effect model showed no obvious heterogeneity of TRIM5, FAM8A1, and SHFL across different populations. TRIM5 was positively correlated with the remaining 13 genes. By separating patient samples into TRIM5-high and TRIM5-low groups, we found that up-regulated genes in the TRIM5-high group were mainly enriched in virus-related pathways. Immune cell proportion analysis and flow cytometry revealed that naive CD4(+) T cells were significantly decreased while M2 macrophages were increased in the SLE group. TRIM5 expression levels were negatively correlated with naive CD4(+) T cells but positively correlated with M2 macrophages.

Conclusion

Our data indicated that TRIM5 might be a key factor that modulates SLE etiology, possibly through naive CD4(+) T cells and M2 macrophages.

iPSC-Derived Macrophages: The Differentiation Protocol Affects Cell Immune Characteristics and Differentiation Trajectories

The generation of human macrophages from induced pluripotent stem cells (iMacs) is a rapidly developing approach used to create disease models, screen drugs, study macrophage-pathogen interactions and develop macrophage-based cell therapy. To generate iMacs, different types of protocols have been suggested, all thought to result in the generation of similar iMac populations. However, direct comparison of iMacs generated using different protocols has not been performed. We have compared the productivity, the differentiation trajectories and the characteristics of iMacs generated using two widely used protocols: one based on the formation of embryoid bodies and the induction of myeloid differentiation by only two cytokines, interleukin-3 and macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and the other utilizing multiple exogenous factors for iMac generation. We report inter-protocol differences in the following: (i) protocol productivity; (ii) dynamic changes in the expression of genes related to inflammation and lipid homeostasis following iMac differentiation and (iii) the transcriptomic profiles of terminally differentiated iMacs, including the expression of genes involved in inflammatory response, antigen presentation and lipid homeostasis. The results document the dependence of fine iMac characteristics on the type of differentiation protocol, which is important for further development of the field, including the development of iMac-based cell therapy.

CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to create nonhuman primate models for studying stem cell therapies for HIV infection

Nonhuman primates (NHPs) are well-established basic and translational research models for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections and pathophysiology, hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation, and assisted reproductive technologies. Recent advances in CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technologies present opportunities to refine NHP HIV models for investigating genetic factors that affect HIV replication and designing cellular therapies that exploit genetic barriers to HIV infections, including engineering mutations into CCR5 and conferring resistance to HIV/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infections. In this report, we provide an overview of recent advances and challenges in gene editing NHP embryos and discuss the value of genetically engineered animal models for developing novel stem cell-based therapies for curing HIV.

Generation of SIV-resistant T cells and macrophages from nonhuman primate induced pluripotent stem cells with edited CCR5 locus

Adoptive therapies with genetically modified somatic T cells rendered HIV resistance have shown promise for AIDS therapy. A renewable source of HIV-resistant human T cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) would further facilitate and broaden the applicability of these therapies. Here, we report successful targeting of the CCR5 locus in iPSCs generated from T cells (T-iPSCs) or fibroblasts (fib-iPSCs) from Mauritian cynomolgus macaques (MCM), using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. We found that CCR5 editing does not affect hematopoietic and T cell differentiation potentials of fib-iPSCs. However, T-iPSCs with edited CCR5 lost their capacity to differentiate into CD4+CD8+ T cells while maintaining myeloid differentiation potential. T cells and macrophages produced from CCR5-edited MCM iPSCs did not support replication of the CCR5-tropic simian immunodeficiency viruses SIVmac239 (T cell tropic) and SIVmac316 (macrophage-tropic). Overall, these studies provide a platform for further exploration of AIDS therapies based on gene-edited iPSCs in a nonhuman primate model.