Metabolic signaling in T cells Shyer, Justin A; Flavell, Richard A; Bailis, Will
Cell research,
08/2020, Letnik:
30, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The maintenance of organismal homeostasis requires partitioning and transport of biochemical molecules between organ systems, their composite cells, and subcellular organelles. Although ...transcriptional programming undeniably defines the functional state of cells and tissues, underlying biochemical networks are intricately intertwined with transcriptional, translational, and post-translational regulation. Studies of the metabolic regulation of immunity have elegantly illustrated this phenomenon. The cells of the immune system interface with a diverse set of environmental conditions. Circulating immune cells perfuse peripheral organs in the blood and lymph, patrolling for pathogen invasion. Resident immune cells remain in tissues and play more newly appreciated roles in tissue homeostasis and immunity. Each of these cell populations interacts with unique and dynamic tissue environments, which vary greatly in biochemical composition. Furthermore, the effector response of immune cells to a diverse set of activating cues requires unique cellular adaptations to supply the requisite biochemical landscape. In this review, we examine the role of spatial partitioning of metabolic processes in immune function. We focus on studies of lymphocyte metabolism, with reference to the greater immunometabolism literature when appropriate to illustrate this concept.
Abstract
T
H
17 cells exemplify environmental immune adaptation: they can acquire both a pathogenic and an anti-inflammatory fate. However, it is not known whether the anti-inflammatory fate is ...merely a vestigial trait, or whether it serves to preserve the integrity of the host tissues. Here we show that the capacity of T
H
17 cells to acquire an anti-inflammatory fate is necessary to sustain immunological tolerance, yet it impairs immune protection against
S
.
aureus
. Additionally, we find that TGF-β signalling via Smad3/Smad4 is sufficient for the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, in T
H
17 cells. Our data thus indicate a key function of T
H
17 cell plasticity in maintaining immune homeostasis, and dissect the molecular mechanisms explaining the functional flexibility of T
H
17 cells with regard to environmental changes.
The intestinal mucosal barrier controlling the resident microbiome is dependent on a protective mucus layer generated by goblet cells, impairment of which is a hallmark of the inflammatory bowel ...disease, ulcerative colitis. Here, we show that IL-18 is critical in driving the pathologic breakdown of barrier integrity in a model of colitis. Deletion of Il18 or its receptor Il18r1 in intestinal epithelial cells (Δ/EC) conferred protection from colitis and mucosal damage in mice. In contrast, deletion of the IL-18 negative regulator Il18bp resulted in severe colitis associated with loss of mature goblet cells. Colitis and goblet cell loss were rescued in Il18bp−/−;Il18rΔ/EC mice, demonstrating that colitis severity is controlled at the level of IL-18 signaling in intestinal epithelial cells. IL-18 inhibited goblet cell maturation by regulating the transcriptional program instructing goblet cell development. These results inform on the mechanism of goblet cell dysfunction that underlies the pathology of ulcerative colitis.
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•IL-18/IL-18R signaling in intestinal epithelial cells promotes DSS-induced colitis•Hyperactive epithelial IL-18 signaling drives goblet cell depletion during colitis•Epithelial IL-18 signaling prevents goblet cell maturation prior to colitis•IL-18 intercepts the transcriptional program controlling goblet cell development
Production of the cytokine IL-18 by epithelial cells, previously thought to protect the mucosal barrier from the effect of inflammation, is critical to drive the pathologic breakdown of intestinal barrier integrity, directly inhibiting goblet cell maturation prior to the onset of colitis.
The annotation of the mammalian protein-coding genome is incomplete. Arbitrary size restriction of open reading frames (ORFs) and the absolute requirement for a methionine codon as the sole initiator ...of translation have constrained the identification of potentially important transcripts with non-canonical protein-coding potential
. Here, using unbiased transcriptomic approaches in macrophages that respond to bacterial infection, we show that ribosomes associate with a large number of RNAs that were previously annotated as 'non-protein coding'. Although the idea that such non-canonical ORFs can encode functional proteins is controversial
, we identify a range of short and non-ATG-initiated ORFs that can generate stable and spatially distinct proteins. Notably, we show that the translation of a new ORF 'hidden' within the long non-coding RNA Aw112010 is essential for the orchestration of mucosal immunity during both bacterial infection and colitis. This work expands our interpretation of the protein-coding genome and demonstrates that proteinaceous products generated from non-canonical ORFs are crucial for the immune response in vivo. We therefore propose that the misannotation of non-canonical ORF-containing genes as non-coding RNAs may obscure the essential role of a multitude of previously undiscovered protein-coding genes in immunity and disease.
Significance The protooncogene c-Myc (Myc) is an oncogenic driver in many cancers, but is difficult to target directly with drugs. An alternative strategy is to use drugs that inhibit factors that ...regulate Myc expression. Notch drives Myc expression in most T-cell leukemias, but clinical trials of Notch inhibitors have been disappointing, possibly because cells emerge that express Myc in a Notch-independent fashion. Here we identify the genomic switches that regulate Myc expression in the Notch-inhibitor–sensitive and –resistant states. Our findings suggest that Notch inhibitor resistance occurs through a “switch swap” that relieves Notch dependency while increasing dependency on a different factor, bromodomain containing 4 (Brd4). These studies provide a rationale for targeting Myc in T cell leukemias with combinations of Notch and Brd4 inhibitors.
Notch is needed for T-cell development and is a common oncogenic driver in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The protooncogene c-Myc ( Myc ) is a critical target of Notch in normal and malignant pre-T cells, but how Notch regulates Myc is unknown. Here, we identify a distal enhancer located >1 Mb 3′ of human and murine Myc that binds Notch transcription complexes and physically interacts with the Myc proximal promoter. The Notch1 binding element in this region activates reporter genes in a Notch-dependent, cell-context–specific fashion that requires a conserved Notch complex binding site. Acute changes in Notch activation produce rapid changes in H3K27 acetylation across the entire enhancer (a region spanning >600 kb) that correlate with Myc expression. This broad Notch-influenced region comprises an enhancer region containing multiple domains, recognizable as discrete H3K27 acetylation peaks. Leukemia cells selected for resistance to Notch inhibitors express Myc despite epigenetic silencing of enhancer domains near the Notch transcription complex binding sites. Notch-independent expression of Myc in resistant cells is highly sensitive to inhibitors of bromodomain containing 4 (Brd4), a change in drug sensitivity that is accompanied by preferential association of the Myc promoter with more 3′ enhancer domains that are strongly dependent on Brd4 for function. These findings indicate that altered long-range enhancer activity can mediate resistance to targeted therapies and provide a mechanistic rationale for combined targeting of Notch and Brd4 in leukemia.
CRISPR-Cas9 technology allows for rapid, targeted genome editing at nearly any loci with limited off-target effects. Here, we describe a method for using retroviral transduction to deliver ...single-guide RNA to primary bone marrow-derived macrophages. This protocol allows for high-throughput reverse genetics assays in primary immune cells and is also compatible with retroviral systems for transgene expression.
Tribbles homolog 2 (Trib2) is a pseudokinase that induces acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in mice and is highly expressed in a subset of human AML. Trib2 has 3 distinct regions, a proline-rich ...N-terminus, a serine/threonine kinase homology domain, and a C-terminal constitutive photomorphogenesis 1 (COP1)–binding domain. We performed a structure-function analysis of Trib2 using in vitro and in vivo assays. The N-terminus was not required for Trib2-induced AML. Deletion or mutation of the COP1-binding site abrogated the ability of Trib2 to degrade CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α (C/EBP-α), block granulocytic differentiation, and to induce AML in vivo. Furthermore, COP1 knockdown inhibited the ability of Trib2 to degrade C/EBP-α, showing that it is important for mediating Trib2 activity. We also show that the Trib2 kinase domain is essential for its function. Trib2 contains variant catalytic loop sequences, compared with conventional kinases, that we show are necessary for Trib2 activity. The kinase domain mutants bind, but cannot efficiently degrade, C/EBP-α. Together, our data demonstrate that Trib2 can bind both COP1 and C/EBP-α, leading to degradation of C/EBP-α. Identification of the functional regions of Trib2 that are essential to its oncogenic role provides the basis for developing inhibitors that will block Trib functions in cancer.
Delta/Notch-like EGF-related receptor (DNER) has been reported to act as a Notch ligand, despite lacking a Delta/Serrate/Lag (DSL) binding domain common to all other known ligands. The established ...Notch ligand Delta-like 1 (DLL1), but not DNER, activated Notch1 in a luciferase assay, prevented the differentiation of myoblasts through Notch signaling, and bound Notch-fc in a cell-based assay. DNER is not a Notch ligand and its true function remains unknown.
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