Agnes Le Bon

Type i interferons potently enhance humoral immunity and can promote isotype switching by stimulating dendritic cells in vivo.

Type I interferons (IFN-I) are rapidly induced following infection and play a key role in nonspecific inhibition of virus replication. Here we have investigated the effects of IFN-I on the generation of antigen-specific antibody responses. The data show that IFN-I potently enhance the primary antibody response to a soluble protein, stimulating the production of all subclasses of IgG, and induce long-lived antibody production and immunological memory. In addition, endogenous production of IFN-I was shown to be essential for the adjuvant activity of CFA. Finally, IFN-I enhanced the antibody response and induced isotype switching when dendritic cells were the only cell type responding to IFN-I. The data reveal the potent adjuvant activity of IFN-I and their important role in linking innate and adaptive immunity.

Links between innate and adaptive immunity via type I interferon.

Type I interferon (IFN-alpha/beta) is expressed rapidly following exposure to a wide variety of infectious agents and plays a key role in innate control of virus replication. Recent studies have demonstrated that dendritic cells both produce IFN-alpha/beta and undergo maturation in response to IFN-alpha/beta. Moreover, IFN-alpha/beta has been shown to potently enhance immune responses in vivo through the stimulation of dendritic cells. These findings indicate that IFN-alpha/beta serves as a signal linking innate and adaptive immunity.

Initial T cell frequency dictates memory CD8+ T cell lineage commitment.

Memory T cells can be divided into central memory T cell (TCM cell) and effector memory T cell (TEM cell) subsets based on homing characteristics and effector functions. Whether TEM and TCM cells represent interconnected or distinct lineages is unclear, although the present paradigm suggests that TEM and TCM cells follow a linear differentiation pathway from naive T cells to effector T cells to TEM cells to TCM cells. We show here that naive T cell precursor frequency profoundly influenced the pathway along which CD8+ memory T cells developed. At low precursor frequency, those TEM cells generated represented a stable cell lineage that failed to further differentiate into TCM cells. These findings do not adhere to the present dogma regarding memory T cell generation and provide a means for identifying factors controlling memory T cell lineage commitment.

Cutting Edge: Enhancement of Antibody Responses Through Direct Stimulation of B and T Cells by Type I IFN

Type I IFN (IFN-αβ) is induced rapidly by infection and plays a key role in innate antiviral defense. IFN-αβ also exerts stimulatory effects on the adaptive immune system and has been shown to enhance Ab and T cell responses. We have investigated the importance of B and T cells as direct targets of IFN-αβ during IFN-α-mediated augmentation of the Ab response against a soluble protein Ag. Strikingly, the ability of IFN-α to stimulate the Ab response and induce isotype switching was markedly reduced in mice in which B cells were selectively deficient for the IFN-αβR. Moreover, IFN-α-mediated enhancement of the Ab response was also greatly impaired in mice in which T cells were selectively IFN-αβR-deficient. These results indicate that IFN-αβR signaling in both B and T cells plays an important role in the stimulation of Ab responses by IFN-αβ.

Direct stimulation of T cells by type I IFN enhances the CD8+ T cell response during cross-priming.

Type I IFN (IFN-αβ), which is produced rapidly in response to infection, plays a key role in innate immunity and also acts as a stimulus for the adaptive immune response. We have investigated how IFN-αβ induces cross-priming, comparing CD8+ T cell responses generated against soluble protein Ags in the presence or absence of IFN-αβ. Injection of IFN-α was found to prolong the proliferation and expansion of Ag-specific CD8+ T cells, which was associated with marked up-regulation of IL-2 and IL-15 receptors on Ag-specific cells and expression of IL-15 in the draining lymph node. Surprisingly, neither IL-2 nor IL-15 was required for IFN-α-induced cross-priming. Conversely, expression of the IFN-αβR by T cells was shown to be necessary for effective stimulation of the response by IFN-α. The finding that T cells represent direct targets of IFN-αβ-mediated stimulation reveals an additional mechanism by which the innate response to infection promotes adaptive immunity.

Shaping of adaptive immune responses to soluble proteins by TLR agonists: A role for IFN-α/β

Toll‐like receptors (TLR) are believed to play a major role in the recognition of invading organisms, although their ability to shape immune responses is not completely understood. Our aim was to investigate in vivo the effect of different TLR stimuli on the generation of antibody responses and the induction of CD8+ T‐cell cross‐priming after immunization with soluble protein antigens. While all TLR agonists tested elicited the production of immunomodulatory cytokines, marked differences were observed in their ability to stimulate antigen‐specific immune responses. Zymosan, poly(I:C) and CpG DNA, which signal through TLR2/6, 3 and 9, respectively, were found to strongly induce the production of IgG2a antibodies, whereas R‐848 (TLR7) and LPS (TLR4) did so much more weakly. In contrast, LPS, poly(I:C) and CpG DNA, but not zymosan, induced functional CD8+ T‐cell responses against OVA; peptidoglycan (TLR2/?) and R‐848 were also ineffective in stimulating cross‐priming. Experiments using IFN‐α/βR‐deficient mice showed that the induction of cross‐priming by LPS and poly(I:C) was abrogated in the absence of IFN‐α/β signalling, and induction by CpG DNA was greatly reduced. Overall, our results identify LPS as another TLR agonist that is able to generate functional cross‐priming against a soluble protein antigen. In addition, our results demonstrate that the ability of TLR stimuli to initiate CD8+ T‐cell responses against soluble protein antigens is largely dependent on the IFN‐α/β signalling pathway.

Role of lipopolysaccharide in the induction of type I interferon-dependent cross-priming and IL-10 production in mice by meningococcal outer membrane vesicles.

We investigated the contribution of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to adjuvant properties of native outer membrane vesicles (NOMV), a vaccine candidate for meningococcal B disease. NOMV induce the maturation of and cytokine production by murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells through both toll-like receptors (TLR) 2 and 4 which are mostly dependent on the signalling adaptor MyD88. NOMV are also able to induce B cell proliferation in splenocytes from LPS-hyporesponsive mice. However, induction of IL-10 and type I interferon-dependent, antigen-specific and IFN(gamma)-secreting CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in vivo by NOMV requires LPS. The importance of LPS in the induction of IL-10 and functional cross-priming has implications for NOMV-based vaccine and adjuvant development.

Epitope Specificity and Relative Clonal Abundance Do Not Affect CD8 Differentiation Patterns during Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus Infection

ABSTRACT To evaluate the impact of immunodominance on CD8 T-cell properties, we compared the functional properties of dominant and subdominant populations in the response to lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). To improve functional discrimination, in addition to the usual tests of phenotype and function, we used a sensitive technique that allows the screening of all CD8 effector genes simultaneously in single cells. Surprisingly, these methods failed to reveal a major impact of clonal dominance in CD8 properties throughout the response. Aiming to increase clonal dominance, we examined high-frequency transferred P14 T-cell receptor transgenic (TCR Tg) cells. Under these conditions LCMV is cleared faster, and accordingly we found an accelerated response. However, when Tg and endogenous cells were studied in the same mice, where they should be subjected to the same antigen load, they showed overlapping properties, and the presence of P14 cells did not modify endogenous responses to other LCMV epitopes or a perturbed immunodominance hierarchy in the memory phase. Using allotype-labeled Tg cells, we found that during acute infection up to 80% downregulated their TCR and were undetectable by tetramer binding, and that tetramer-negative and tetramer-positive cells had very different features. Since Tg cells are not available to evaluate immune responses in humans and, in many cases, are not available from the mouse, the tetramer-based evaluation of early immune responses in most situations of high viremia may be incomplete and biased.