Tissue distribution and clonal diversity of the T and B cell repertoire in type 1 diabetes.

The adaptive immune repertoire plays a critical role in type 1 diabetes (T1D) pathogenesis. However, efforts to characterize B cell and T cell receptor (TCR) profiles in T1D subjects have been largely limited to peripheral blood sampling and restricted to known antigens. To address this, we collected pancreatic draining lymph nodes (pLN), "irrelevant" nonpancreatic draining lymph nodes, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and splenocytes from T1D subjects (n = 18) and control donors (n = 9) as well as pancreatic islets from 1 T1D patient; from these tissues, we collected purified CD4+ conventional T cells (Tconv), CD4+ Treg, CD8+ T cells, and B cells. By conducting high-throughput immunosequencing of the TCR ß chain (TRB) and B cell receptor (BCR) immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) on these samples, we sought to analyze the molecular signature of the lymphocyte populations within these tissues and of T1D. Ultimately, we observed a highly tissue-restricted CD4+ repertoire, while up to 24% of CD8+ clones were shared among tissues. We surveyed our data set for previously described proinsulin- and glutamic acid decarboxylase 65-reactive (GAD65-reactive) receptors, and interestingly, we observed a TRB with homology to a known GAD65-reactive TCR (clone GAD4.13) present in 7 T1D donors (38.9%), representing >25% of all productive TRB within Tconv isolated from the pLN of 1 T1D subject. These data demonstrate diverse receptor signatures at the nucleotide level and enriched autoreactive clones at the amino acid level, supporting the utility of coupling immunosequencing data with knowledge of characterized autoreactive receptors.

Web services-based access to local clinical trial databases: a standards initiative of the Association of American Cancer Institutes.

Electronic discovery of the clinical trials being performed at a specific research center is a challenging task, which presently requires manual review of the center's locally maintained databases or web pages of protocol listings. Near real-time automated discovery of available trials would increase the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical trial searching, and would facilitate the development of new services for information providers and consumers. Automated discovery efforts to date have been hindered by issues such as disparate database schemas, vocabularies, and insufficient standards for easy intersystem exchange of high-level data, but adequate infrastructure now exists that make possible the development of applications for near real-time automated discovery of trials. This paper describes the current state (design and implementation) of the Web Services Specification for Publication and Discovery of Clinical Trials as developed by the Technology Task Force of the Association of American Cancer Institutes. The paper then briefly discusses a prototype web service-based application that implements the specification. Directions for evolution of this specification are also discussed.