106 research outputs found
CD28 delivers a unique signal leading to the selective recruitment of RelA and p52 NF-kappa B subunits on IL-8 and Bcl-xL gene promotors
CD28 is one of the most important costimulatory receptors necessary for full T lymphocyte activation. The CD28 receptor can enhance T cell antigen receptor (TCR) signals, as well as deliver independent signals. Indeed, CD28 engagement by 137 can generate TCR-independent signals leading to IkappaB kinase and NF-kappaB activation. Here we demonstrate that the TCR-indepenclent CD28 signal leads to the selective transcription of survival (Bd-xL) and inflammatory IL-8 and B cell activation factor, but not proliferative (IL-2), genes, in a NF-kappaB-dependent manner. CD28-stimulated T cells actively secrete IL-8, and Bcl-xL up-regulation protects T cells from radiation-induced apoptosis. The transcription of CD28-induced genes is mediated by the specific recruitment of ReIA and p52 NF-kappaB subunits to target promoters. In contrast, p50 and c-Rel, which preferentially bind NF-kappaB sites on the IL-2 gene promoter after anti-CD3 stimulation, are not involved. Thus, we identify CD28 as a key regulator of genes important for both survival and inflammation
p95vav associates with tyrosine-phosphorylated SLP-76 in antigen-stimulated T cells.
p95vav, the product of the vav protooncogene, has been implicated in the T cell receptor (TCR)-mediated signaling cascade p95vav is phosphorylated on tyrosine residues after TCR stimulation by anti-TCR/CD3 antibodies and possesses a number of landmark features of signaling molecules such as a putative guanine nucleotide exchange factor domain, a pleckstrin homology domain, and an Sre homology (SH) 2 and two SH3 domains, which provide the capacity to form multimeric signaling complexes. However, the precise role of p95vav in TCR signaling remains unclear. In this work we show that physiological stimulation of T cell hybridomas with antigen presented by major histocompatibility complex class II molecules leads to a strong tyrosine phosphorylation of p95vav and its association with tyrosine-phosphorylated SLP-76. SLP-76 is a newly described SH2-containing protein that has been previously found to bind to the adapter molecule Grb2. Moreover, we provide evidence that p95vav-SI P-76 association is SH2-mediated by demonstrating that this interaction can be inhibited by a phosphopeptide containing a putative p95vav-SH2-binding motif (pYESP) present in SLP-76. Furthermore, in vitro experiments show that after antigen stimulation, phosphorylated p95vav-SLP-76 can bind to Grb2 in a complex that contains pp36/38 and pp116 proteins. Our data provide a clue to explain recent independent observations that overexpression of p95vav or SLP-76 enhances TCR-mediated gene activation
The activation of Csk by CD4 interferes with TCR-mediated activatory signaling
CD4-Lck recruitment to TCR/CD3, as well as Lck activation is essential for T cell activation. Indeed, the blockage of CD4-Lck recruitment to TCR during antigen recognition exerts a drastic inhibitory effect on T cell activation by interfering with both early and late phases of T cell signaling. In the present work, we report a novel inhibitory mechanism by which CD4 can shut down proximal T cell-activating signals. Indeed, we show that upon ligation of CD4 by antibodies the inhibitory kinase, p50csk, is strongly induced and prolonged during the time. In contrast, p50csk was not activated when TCR and CD4 were properly engaged by their ligands. We also demonstrate that anti-CD4 treatment stimulated Csk kinase associated to the membrane adapter, PAG/Cbp, without affecting the total amount of Csk bound to PAG/Cbp. As a consequence, early tyrosine phosphorylation events as well as downstream signaling pathways leading to IL-2 gene expression induced by TCR were inhibited in anti-CD4 pretreated cells. We suggest a new model to explain the activation of negative signals by CD4 molecule
Apoptosis: prospects for pharmacological manipulation of activated programmed cell death in immunological disease.
Apoptosis of lymphoid cells is an important process in regulating the development and maintenance of the immune system. In addition, apoptosis can be considered as the primary cause of a variety of diseases. The decision of a cell to undergo apoptosis or to proliferate can be influenced by several activating stimuli, as well as by the phenotype of the cell and its stage of activation. Consequently, apoptosis represents one feature of the multiple events that regulate a correct immune response. Here, we discuss the regulatory pathways responsible for the induction of apoptosis in normal and pathological conditions, and analyse the possible substances interfering with these pathways with particular attention to the levels at which these substances act
Analysis of susceptibility of mature human T lymphocytes to dexamethasone-induced apoptosis.
We present evidence that dexamethasone (Dex), a synthetic glucocorticosteroid, causes apoptosis in mature human T cells, similarly to what has been reported for murine T lymphocytes. Human T cell clones and short-term activated T lymphocytes treated with Dex show the characteristic pattern of apoptotic cells, such as hypodiploid nuclei, chromatin condensation and DNA fragmentation into oligonucleosomal fragments. However, Dex susceptibility of T cells to apoptosis is cell cycle-dependent. The progression in the proliferative cell cycle (G1 versus S) rescues Dex-treated T cells from apoptosis. Moreover, occupancy of the T cell receptor reverses Dex-induced apoptotic phenomena. These observations suggest that glucocorticoids contribute to the regulation of the proliferative or the suicidal response of antigen-activated human T cells
Design-By-Contract for Flexible Multiparty Session Protocols
Choreographic models support a correctness-by-construction principle in distributed programming. Also, they enable the automatic generation of correct message-based communication patterns from a global specification of the desired system behaviour. In this paper we extend the theory of choreography automata, a choreographic model based on finite-state automata, with two key features. First, we allow participants to act only in some of the scenarios described by the choreography automaton. While this seems natural, many choreographic approaches in the literature, and choreography automata in particular, forbid this behaviour. Second, we equip communications with assertions constraining the values that can be communicated, enabling a design-by-contract approach. We provide a toolchain allowing to exploit the theory above to generate APIs for TypeScript web programming. Programs communicating via the generated APIs follow, by construction, the prescribed communication pattern and are free from communication errors such as deadlocks
Transglutaminase type II is involved in the pathogenesis of endotoxic shock
The pathogenesis of sepsis is characterized by the inability of the host to regulate the inflammatory response, and as a consequence, dysregulated inflammatory processes induce organ dysfunctions and death. Altered transglutaminase type II (TG2) expression is associated with the development of many inflammatory diseases. Therefore, in this study, we questioned whether TG2 could also contribute to the pathological inflammatory dysregulation occurring in septic shock in vivo. To this aim, we used as an experimental model the TG2 knockout mice, in which the process of septic shock was elicited by treatment with LPS. Interestingly, our results demonstrated that TG2 ablation leads to partial resistance to experimental sepsis. The increased survival of TG2(-/-) mice was reflected in a drastic reduction of organ injury, highlighted by a limited infiltration of neutrophils in kidney and peritoneum and by a better homeostasis of the proinflammatory mediators as well as mitochondrial function. We also showed that in wild-type mice, the TG2 expression is increased during endotoxemia and, being directly involved in the mechanisms of NF-kappa B activation, it may cause a continuous activation cycle in the inflammatory process, thus contributing to development of sepsis pathogenesis. We propose that the inhibition of TG2 could represent a novel approach in the treatment of inflammatory processes associated with sepsis
Quantitative contribution of CD4 and CD8 to T cell antigen receptor serial triggering.
CD4 and CD8 are thought to function as coreceptors by binding to the cognate major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules recognized by the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) and initiating the signal transduction cascade. We report that during T cell-antigen-presenting cell interaction, triggered TCRs and coreceptors are downregulated and degraded with identical kinetics. This coordinated disappearance takes place whenever the TCR is triggered, even when the coreceptor does not engage the cognate MHC molecule and is the consequence of binding of the coreceptor-associated Lck to ZAP-70. The interaction of coreceptor and cognate MHC molecules is dispensable when T cells are stimulated by optimal ligands, but becomes crucial when suboptimal ligands are used. In the latter case the coreceptor increases the efficiency of TCR triggering without changing the activation threshold or the quality of the T cell response
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