Dataset Information

Identifying CNS-colonizing T cells as potential therapeutic targets to prevent progression of multiple sclerosis

ABSTRACT: Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS), can be suppressed in its early stages but eventually becomes clinically progressive and unresponsive to therapy. Here we investigate whether the therapeutic resistance of progressive MS can be attributed to chronic immune cell accumulation behind the blood brain barrier. Methods: We systematically track CNS-homing immune cells in the peripheral blood of 31 MS patients and 31 matched healthy individuals in an integrated analysis of 497,705 single cell transcriptomes and 355,433 surface protein profiles from 71 samples. Through spatial RNA-sequencing we localize these cells in post-mortem brain tissue of 6 progressive MS patients contrasted against 4 control brains (20 samples, 85,000 spot transcriptomes). Findings: We identify a specific pathogenic CD161+/LTB+ T cell population that resides in brains of progressive MS patients. Intriguingly, our data suggest that the colonization of the CNS by these T cells may begin earlier in the disease course, as they can be mobilized to the blood by usage of the integrin-blocking antibody natalizumab in relapsing-remitting MS patients. Conclusions: As a consequence, we lay the groundwork for a therapeutic strategy to deplete CNS-homing T cells before they can fuel treatment-resistant progression. Funding: This study was supported by funding from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, the OAK Foundation, Medical Research Council UK and Wellcome.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE144744 | GEO | 2021/02/16

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Infiltrating T-lymphocytes from the peripheral blood into the central nervous system (CNS) play a dynamic role in the development of a neurological immune-mediated diseases. HAM/TSP is a chronic progressive inflammatory neurological disorder associated with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) infection. In this chronic myelopathy, virus-infected circulating T-cells infiltrate the CNS and an immune response is initiated against the components of CNS. As the HTLV-I proviral load (PVL) has been used as the best clinical marker for patient diagnostic with HAM/TSP, we hypothesized there might be a signature on T-cell receptor (TCR) clonal repertoire in these patients, which could distinguish HAM/TSP patients from the healthy population, as well as from patients with a more heterogeneous CNS-reactive inflammatory disease as multiple sclerosis (MS). With this in mind, we applied an innovative unbiased molecular technique – unique molecular identifier (UMI) library-strategy to investigate with high accuracy the TCR clonal repertoire by high throughput sequencing (HTS) technology. cDNA-TCR β-chain libraries were sequenced from 2 million peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in 14 HAM/TSP patients, 34 MS patients and 20 healthy controls (HC). To address whether the clonal expansion correlates with the patient’s PVL level, analysis of longitudinal TCR repertoire was performed in 2 HAM/TSP patients. Over 5.6 million TCR sequences were generated per sample on HiSeq 2500 Illumina system and analyzed through the molecular identifier groups-based error correction pipeline (MiGEC). Bioinformatic analysis showed that clones with more than 8 reads had a lower coefficient of variation (CV) and then could be used with confidence to evaluate the TCR clonal expansion. While HAM/TSP patients showed the higher clonal T-cell expansion compared to MS and HC, increase of the TCR clonal expansion was inversely correlated with the diversity of TCR repertoire in all subject’s group. In addition, correlation of the PVL with TCR clonal expansion was observed in HAM/TSP patients at longitudinal time-points. Surprisingly, MS patients showed a higher diversity of TCR repertoire along with a very slight clonal T-cell expansion in comparison to either HAM/TSP patients or HC. Despite of the higher TCR clonal expansion in HAM/TSP patients, a non-shared or “private” TCR repertoire was observed in these patients. No clones that shared the same CDR3 amino acid sequences were seen in HC and MS patients. However, a cluster of related CDR3 amino acid sequences were observed for 18 out of 34 MS patients when evaluated by phylogenetic tree analysis. It suggestes that a TCR-repertoire signature might characterize patients with MS. Our findings suggest that even though a unique TCR-b repertoire shapes the immune response in patients with neurological immune-mediated disease, a relatedness on clonal T-cell repertoire exist in MS.

Dataset Information

Identifying CNS-colonizing T cells as potential therapeutic targets to prevent progression of multiple sclerosis

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure