Project description:Knockout of MHC class II on Ccl19 expressing fibroblastic reticular cells results in the hyper-activation of allogenic CD4+ T cells in the effoctor phase of aGvHD, due to the dyregulation of regulatory T cells (Tregs).
Project description:Allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) is indicated for the treatment of high-risk hematological malignancies, and in some cases is a cancer cure. A major complication associated with PBSCT (affecting approximately half of recipients) is acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). In aGVHD, alloreactive donor T cells becoming activated by host dendritic cells (DC) in response to pro-inflammatory cytokines released during the conditioning regimen. The result is donor-derived CD4+ T helper-type 1 (Th1) cells maturing and subsequently imposing cytolytic effector responses on host tissues, resulting in multi-organ damage. Despite this well-defined pathophysiological mechanism, there are no definitive markers for predicting aGVHD development or progression to clinically advanced stages. In the current study, we enrolled 8 PBSCT recipients in an IRB-approved study and collected peripheral blood at the time to engraftment. Of these, four patients developed aGVHD within 5-10 days post transplant. The remaining four patients were aGVHD-free. Using total RNA collected from whole blood leukocytes, we analyzed each recipientâs gene expression profile on Affymetrix GeneChip Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 microarrays. Experiment Overall Design: Samples 1-4 are control patients; 5-8 are aGVHD patients. Peripheral blood was collected at engraftment and used for microarray analysis. In analysing the data, the type of transplant (MUD, related) was used as a covariate to assess if there were significant changes in gene expression between the control (1-4) and aGVHD (5-8) groups, based on a 10% FDR with a pooled error estimate.
Project description:Main Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of vedolizumab when added to background aGvHD prophylaxis regimen compared to placebo and background aGvHD prophylaxis regimen on intestinal aGvHD-free survival by Day +180 in subjects who receive allo-HSCT as treatment for a hematologic malignancy or myeloproliferative disorder.
Primary end point(s): The primary endpoint is intestinal aGvHD-free survival by Day +180 after allo HSCT. Intestinal aGvHD is defined as Stage 1-4 intestinal involvement per Acute Graft versus-Host Disease Clinical Stage criteria.
Project description:Lethally irradiated C57Bl/6 Act-mOVA mice receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) from C57Bl/6 OT-I animals develop acute graft versus host disease (aGvHD) in a CD8+ T cell-dependent, reproducible manner, and succumb to the disease within 4-7 days. Tracking of UBC-GFP/OT-I graft CD8+ T cells discloses heavy infiltration of the GI tract, liver and lungs at the onset of the disease, and hallmark histologic features of acute gastrointestinal and hepatic GvHD, and aGVHD-associated lymphocytic bronchitis. This dataset describes gene expression patterns of CD45.1/OT-1 CD8+ T cells retrieved from the graft before (aHSCT + Day 0), and from various target organs of the host after (aHSCT + Day 4) grafting them into Act-mOVA recipients.
Project description:Comparing between plasma cytokine proteins on AML patients with or without aGVHD Comparing between plasma cytokine proteins on AML patients with or without aGVHD after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, Day+14
Project description:A non-invasive diagnostic test does not exist for acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD). We therefore sought to identify biomarkers for aGVHD using antibody microarrays (Schleicher and Schuell Serum Biomarker Chips, Whatman) that simultaneously assayed 120 plasma proteins. We measured these proteins in a set of 42 patient plasma samples following an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT): 21 patients with a diagnosis of aGVHD grade II-IV (+GVHD) and 21 patients without aGVHD (–GVHD) at similar times after transplant. We excluded data from 2 hybridizations that had very bright dots and appeared as outliers in preliminary principal components analysis, so that we finally compared 20 +GVHD to 20 -GVHD samples. Keywords: disease state analysis, antibody microarray
Project description:To investigate gene expression profile of medullary thymic epithelial cells with high surface density of MHC class II (mTEChigh), a murine parent into F1 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation model was administered. As recipient mice (B6xDBA/2)F1 (B6D2F1) were used that received either a syngeneic transplant from a (B6xDBA/2)F1 mouse or an allogeneic transplant from a B6 mouse, which leads to acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). mTEChigh (CD45-EpCAM+Ly51-UEA1+MHCIIhigh) are sorted by FACS.
Project description:CD4+ and CD8+ T cells can reciprocally differentiate into Th/Tc1, Th/Tc17 and Th/Tc22. Although alloreactive Th/Tc1 cells play a critical role in initiating pathogenesis of gut acute graft-versus-host disease (Gut-aGVHD), the pathogenic T cells in steroid-resistant Gut-aGVHD (SR-Gut-aGVHD) remains unclear. Here, we show that in murine models of SR-Gut-aGVHD, the pathogenesis is associated with reduction of IFN-g+ Th/Tc1 and IL-17A+IL-22- Th/Tc17 cells but expansion of IL-17-IL-22+ Th/Tc22, particularly Tc22 cells. The IL-22 from Th/Tc22 cells causes dysbiosis.
Project description:Patients diagnosed with cutaneous and/or gastrointestinal aGvHD provide a unique opportunity to perform an in-depth comparison of activated human CD8+ T cells homing to the gut and skin, in some cases even within the same host, at the same time, acting as key players in the same human disease, and exerting their effector functions in these two tissue environments. This study aims at the identification of novel biomarkers associated with skin- and gut-homing CD8+ T cells in general, and CD8+ T cell markers possibly linked to CTL-mediated skin- and gut damage in aGvHD in particular.
Project description:Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease (aGVHD) is a T cell mediated immunological disorder and the leading cause of non-relapse mortality in patients who receive allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplants. Based on recent observations that PRMT5 and arginine methylation is upregulated in activated memory T cells, we hypothesized that PRMT5 is involved in the pathogenesis of aGVHD. Here, we show that PRMT5 expression and enzymatic activity is upregulated in activated T cells in vitro and in T cells from mice developing aGVHD after allogeneic transplant. PRMT5 inhibition using a selective small-molecule inhibitor (C220) significantly reduces mouse and human allogeneic T cell proliferation and inflammatory IFN-g and IL-17 cytokine production. Administration of PRMT5 small-molecule inhibitors significantly improves survival, reducing disease incidence and clinical severity in mouse models of aGVHD without adversely affecting engraftment. Importantly, we show that PRMT5 inhibition retains the beneficial GVL effect by maintaining cytotoxic CD8 T cell responses. PRMT5 inhibition potently reduces transcription of pro-inflammatory genes including Interferon Stimulated Genes (ISG) and IL-17. PRMT5 inhibition deregulates cell-cycle in activated T cells and disrupts signaling by impacting ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Thus, we have identified PRMT5 as a regulator of T cell responses and as a novel therapeutic target in aGVHD.