Molecular and functional heterogeneity of IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells

IL-10 is a prototypical anti-inflammatory cytokine, which is fundamental to the maintenance of immune homeostasis, especially in the intestine. There is an assumption that cells producing IL-10 have an immunoregulatory function. However, here we report that IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells are phenotypically and functionally heterogeneous. By combining single cell transcriptome and functional analyses, we identified a subpopulation of IL-10-producing Foxp3 neg CD4 + T cells that displays regulatory activity unlike other IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells, which are unexpectedly pro-inflammatory. The combinatorial expression of co-inhibitory receptors is sufficient to discriminate IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells with regulatory function from others and to identify them across different tissues and disease models in mice and humans. These regulatory IL-10-producing Foxp3 neg CD4 + T cells have a unique transcriptional program, which goes beyond the regulation of IL-10 expression. Finally, we found that patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease demonstrate a deficiency in this specific regulatory T-cell subpopulation

Cytolytic T-cell response against Epstein-Barr virus in lung cancer patients and healthy subjects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to examine whether EBV seropositive patients with lung cancer have an altered virus-specific CTL response, as compared to age-matched healthy controls and whether any variation in this response could be attributed to senescence.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from lung cancer patients, age-matched and younger healthy individuals were used to measure EBV-specific CTLs after in vitro amplification with the GLCTLVAML and RYSIFFDYM peptides followed by HLA-multimer staining.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Lung cancer patients and aged-matched controls had significantly lesser EBV-specific CTL than younger healthy individuals. Multimer positive populations from either group did not differ with respect to the percentage of multimer positive CTLs and the intensity of multimer binding.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study provides evidence that patients with lung cancer exhibit an EBV-specific CTL response equivalent to that of age-matched healthy counterparts. These data warrant the examination of whether young individuals have a more robust anti-tumor response, as is the case with the anti-EBV response.</p

Baseline levels of CD8+ T cells against survivin and survivin-2B in the blood of lung cancer patients and cancer-free individuals

Survivin and its variant survivin-2B have been considered as potential candidates for cancer immunotherapy. The magnitude however of spontaneously occurring CD8+ T cells circulating precursor CTLs (pCTL), has never been evaluated. We set out to measure in 20 patients with lung carcinomas and 5 aged matched healthy male individuals (expressing HLA-A2 and/or -A24), the frequency of pCTLs specific for two naturally processed and presented peptides of survivin (LTLGEFLKL presented by HLA-A2) and survivin-2B (AYACNTSTL presented by HLA-A24) since these peptides are the only ones used in immunotherapeutic trials. The frequency of peptide-specific pCTLs was estimated using a sensitive method that combines HLA-multimer flow cytometric technology with a previous step of in vitro amplification under limiting dilution conditions. Anti-survivin or anti-survivin-2B specific CTL clones were not detected in 17 out of the 21 tested patients, and in none of the healthy individuals. In a number of peripheral blood mononuclear cell microcultures of the remaining 4 patients, diffuse clusters stained weakly by the HLA-multimers were observed which were not amplified after further stimulation and, therefore, they were finally considered as negative. The significance of the levels of spontaneously occurring CTL-responses against survivin and survivin-2B peptides, in cancer patients and cancer-free subjects, remains to be elucidated and it would be interesting to be considered in relation to the clinical efficacy of anti-cancer vaccination protocols. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved