Impaired expression of perforin and granulysin in CD8+ T cells at the site of infection in human chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.

Protective immunity in tuberculosis is dependent on the coordinated release of cytolytic effector molecules from effector T cells and the subsequent granule-associated killing of infected target cells. In this study, we investigated the expression of cytolytic (perforin and granzyme A) and antimicrobial (granulysin) molecules at the single-cell level in cryopreserved lung tissue from patients with chronic, progressive tuberculosis disease. Quantification of protein-expressing cells was performed by in situ imaging, while mRNA levels in the infected tissue were analyzed by real-time PCR. Persistent inflammation, including excessive expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase in CD68+ macrophages and significant infiltration of CD3+, CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, was evident in tuberculosis lesions in all patients. However, despite the accumulation of CD3+ T cells, perforin- and granulysin-expressing CD3+ T cells were detected at two- to threefold-lower ratios in the tuberculosis lesions than in distal lung parenchyma and uninfected control lungs, respectively. This was evident at both the protein and mRNA levels. Moreover, perforin- and granulysin-expressing CD8+ T cells were scarce in individual granulomas within the tuberculosis lesions. In contrast, significant up-regulation of granzyme A-expressing CD3+ T cells was evident in the lesions from all patients. Confocal microscopy revealed coexpression of perforin and granulysin, primarily in CD8+ T cells; however, this expression was lower in the tuberculosis lesions. These findings suggest that symptomatic, chronic tuberculosis disease is associated with insufficient up-regulation of perforin and granulysin coexpression in CD8+ T cells at the local site of infection.

Enhanced susceptibility of multidrug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to granulysin peptides correlates with a reduced fitness phenotype.

Previously it was shown that the antimicrobial protein granulysin possesses potent membranolytic activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here we demonstrate that granF2 and G13, which are two short synthetic peptides derived from granulysin, inhibited the in vitro growth of clinical isolates of both multidrug resistant and drug susceptible strains of M. tuberculosis. Importantly, a particularly high activity against multidrug resistant M. tuberculosis correlated with a reduced growth rate compared to drug susceptible strains. A synergistic antibacterial effect of granF2 was further observed in combination with ethambutol, a compound with a documented effect on cell wall permeability. This finding suggests that granF2 and ethambutol exert their functions at different levels of the mycobacterial surface. Upon infection of macrophages in vitro, granF2 but not G13 efficiently reduced the intracellular growth of multidrug resistant M. tuberculosis in the presence of the pore-forming protein streptolysin O. The apoptotic function of granF2 apparently promoted destruction of host cells whereby the peptide gained access to and killed intracellular bacteria. Thus, a cost of resistance and a subsequent reduced fitness, measured as decreased growth among multidrug resistant strains of M. tuberculosis, could be associated with increased susceptibility to natural immune defense mechanisms, such as antimicrobial peptides of granulysin. However, a robust cell wall and the membrane of cells still provide physical shelter for the bacteria that may spare sensitive M. tuberculosis stains from being killed.

Studies of HIV-associated immune responses in lymphoid compartments.

Acute HIV-1 infection results in profound depletion of CD4+ memory T cells in lymphoid tissue (LT) and subsequent persistent replication in activated CD4+ T cells despite induction of an HIV-specific cell-mediated immune response. Interferon-alpha, proinflammatory cytokines, and beta-chemokine production is present in LT. However, impaired expression of co-stimulatory molecules including CD80, CD86, and CD40L may contribute to low polyfunctional CD4+ T cell as well CD8+ T-cell activity. Accumulation of regulatory CD4+ T cells in LT may add to the lack of HIV-specific CD4+ T-cell proliferation and dysfunctional cytotoxic CD8+ T-cell response in LT.

Conserved structure and function in the granulysin and NK-lysin peptide family.

Granulysin and NK-lysin are homologous bactericidal proteins with a moderate residue identity (35%), both of which have antimycobacterial activity. Short loop peptides derived from the antimycobacterial domains of granulysin, NK-lysin, and a putative chicken NK-lysin were examined and shown to have comparable antimycobacterial but variable Escherichia coli activities. The known structure of the NK-lysin loop peptide was used to predict the structure of the equivalent peptides of granulysin and chicken NK-lysin by homology modeling. The last two adopted a secondary structure almost identical to that of NK-lysin. All three peptides form very similar three-dimensional (3-D) architectures in which the important basic residues assume the same positions in space. The basic residues in granulysin are arginine, while those in NK-lysin and chicken NK-lysin are a mixture of arginine and lysine. We altered the ratio of arginine to lysine in the granulysin fragment to examine the importance of basic residues for antimycobacterial activity. The alteration of the amino acids reduced the activity against E. coli to a larger extent than that against Mycobacterium smegmatis. In granulysin, the arginines in the loop structure are not crucial for antimycobacterial activity but are important for cytotoxicity. We suggest that the antibacterial domains of the related proteins granulysin, NK-lysin, and chicken NK-lysin have conserved their 3-D structure and their function against mycobacteria.

Detection of human perforin by ELISpot and ELISA: ex vivo identification of virus-specific cells.

The perforin (PFN) protein is essential for the elimination of target cells by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cells. The study of cells releasing PFN has been hampered by a lack of sensitive methods. We therefore produced PFN-reactive monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and developed capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) and enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assays. Three mAbs were generated and shown to react with unique determinants of PFN. All mAbs recognized intracellular PFN in human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) as assessed by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. Functional PFN capture ELISA and ELISpot assays were developed utilizing two of the mAbs for capture and the third mAb for detection. When examining PFN release by the YT lymphoma cell line, the ELISpot displayed a greater detection sensitivity than the ELISA. Assessment of PFN release by a CTL clone using ELISpot gave results consistent with a parallel (51)Cr-release cytotoxicity assay. Moreover, PFN release by PBMC could be quantified by ELISpot and ELISA after ex vivo stimulation with defined CTL epitopes from common viruses. These novel immunoassays will be valuable for further investigations of the mechanisms underlying granule-mediated apoptosis. In addition, the capture immunoassays could provide tools for studying CTL responses in infectious and tumor diseases as well as for vaccine development.

Bcl-3 and NFkappaB p50-p50 homodimers act as transcriptional repressors in tolerant CD4+ T cells.

The transcriptional events that control T cell tolerance are still poorly understood. To investigate why tolerant T cells fail to produce interleukin (IL)-2, we analyzed the regulation of NFkappaB-mediated transcription in CD4(+) T cells after tolerance induction in vivo. We demonstrate that a predominance of p50-p50 homodimers binding to the IL-2 promoter kappaB site in tolerant T cells correlated with repression of NFkappaB-driven transcription. Impaired translocation of the p65 subunit in tolerant T cells was a result from reduced activation of IkappaB kinase and poor phosphorylation and degradation of cytosolic IkappaBs. Moreover, tolerant T cells expressed high amounts of the p50 protein. However, the increased expression of p50 could not be explained by activation-induced de novo synthesis of the precursor p105, which was constitutively expressed in tolerant T cells. We also demonstrate the exclusive induction of the IkappaB protein B cell lymphoma 3 (Bcl-3) in tolerant T cells as well as its specific binding to the NFkappaB site. These results suggest that the cellular ratio of NFkappaB dimers, and thus the repression of NFkappaB activity and IL-2 production, are regulated at several levels in tolerant CD4(+) T cells in vivo.

Superantigen-induced regulatory T cells display different suppressive functions in the presence or absence of natural CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells in vivo.

Repeated exposures to both microbial and innocuous Ags in vivo have been reported to both eliminate and tolerize T cells after their initial activation and expansion. The remaining tolerant T cells have been shown to suppress the response of naive T cells in vitro. This feature is reminiscent of natural CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells. However, it is not known whether the regulatory function of in vivo-tolerized T cells is similar to the function of natural CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells. In this study, we demonstrate that CD4(+)CD25(+) as well as CD4(+)CD25(-) T cells isolated from mice treated with superantigen three consecutive times to induce tolerance were functionally comparable to natural CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells, albeit more potent. The different subpopulations of in vivo-tolerized CD4(+) T cells efficiently down-modulated costimulatory molecules on dendritic cells, and their suppressive functions were strictly cell contact dependent. Importantly, we demonstrate that conventional CD4(+)CD25(-) T cells could also be induced to acquire regulatory functions by the same regimen in the absence of natural regulatory T cells in vivo, but that such regulatory cells were functionally different.