@phdthesis{Xiao2023,
  author    = {Xiao, Yin},
  title     = {Lack of NFATc1 SUMOylation prevents autoimmunity and alloreactivity},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-32105},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-321054},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {SUMOylation, as a post-translational modification, plays a crucial role in several biological processes. Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteins can be reversibly linked to the lysine residues located within specific motifs on numerous target proteins, leading to the change of stability, localization, activity of target proteins, mostly by promoting or interfering with the interaction with other molecules. Consequently, it can regulate gene transcription, migration, cell cycle progression, cellular responses to stress, and tumorigenesis. NFATc1 belongs to the Nuclear Factor of Activated T-cells (NFAT) transcription factor family, which is dephosphorylated and translocates to the nucleus upon cell stimulation, which provokes Ca2+ signalling. NFAT plays a crucial role in the development and function of the immune system. NFATc1 has three SUMOylation sites at the position of aa 349, 702, and 914. In our previous study, we demonstrated that point mutations performed on the SUMOylation sites on all three or only at the lysine residues K702 and K914 lead to enhanced expression of IL-2 in vitro. To evaluate the function of SUMOylation of NFATc1 on T cell-mediated immunity in vivo, we not only generated a transgenic mouse strain (NFATc1/ΔS+ mouse) by point mutations from Lysine to Arginine on the two SUMOylation sites within exon 10 of Nfatc1 to prevent their SUMOylation, but in combination created another mouse strain (NFATc1/ΔBC+ mouse) that is completely Nfatc1 exon 10-ablated by using the LoxP/Cre system. In NFATc1/ΔS+ T cells, we observed enhanced IL-2 production and less IL-17A and IFN-γ expression. In line with exon 10 bearing the relevant SUMO sites, NFATc1/ΔBC+ CD4+ T cells behaved similarly as NFATc1/ΔS+ ones. The mechanism is that elevated IL-2 secretion can counteract the expression of IL-17A and IFN-γ via STAT5 and Blimp-1 induction. Afterwards, Blimp-1 suppressed IL-2 itself as well as Bcl2A1. Next, we performed two disease models with our NFATc1/ΔS+ mice. In a major mismatch model for acute graft-versus-host disease, we found that the mice transplanted with NFATc1/ΔS+ CD3+ T cells developed less severe disease, and T cells proliferated less due to increased Tregs. Moreover, when transferring 2D2.NFATc1/ΔS+ Th1 plus Th17 cells to Rag1-/- mice to induce experimental autoimmune encephalitis, we also observed ameliorated disease compared to animals with transferred WT T cells as well as increased Tregs. Taking all data together, the deficiency in SUMOylation of NFATc1 leads to an elevated IL-2 secretion in T cells and subsequent activation of STAT5, which competes with STAT3 to inhibit IL-17A production and promotes Treg expansion, as well as to an enforcement of Blimp-1 expression, which suppresses IFN-γ and IL-2 expression. Consequently and despite a short phase of enhanced IL-2 secretion, the deficiency of SUMOylation on NFATc1 can protect from autoreactive and alloreactive diseases. Moreover, to further understand the function of SUMOylation of NFATc1 in humans, we started by establishing an in vitro 3D culture system for tonsil organoids, which was successful in the presence of feeder cells, along with IL-4 and IL-7 cytokines. To confirm that our 3D tonsil organoids can respond to real antigens, we used CMV peptides and peptides of spike proteins from Covid-19 as real antigens, and co-cultured with tonsil organoids, which indeed can generate memory cells and plasmablasts. In the end, we also compared 3D to 2D cultures. Although the total numbers of all B cell subsets were much less in 3D culture than that in 2D culture, still, it indicates that this in-vitro culture system has its limitation, while being usable to produce the similar results as 2D did. Therefore, this 3D culture system can be used as a platform to investigate NFATc1/ΔS+ or NFATc1/ΔBC+ TFH and TFR cells in the dynamic of human GC responses.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Giampaolo2022,
  author    = {Giampaolo, Sabrina},
  title     = {Role of the transcription factor NFATc1 during the early stages of thymocyte development},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-24639},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246394},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {T lymphocytes (T cells) represent one of the major cell populations of the immune system. Named by the place of their development, the thymus, several types can be distinguished as the αβ T cells, the γδ T cells, the mucosa-associated invariant T cells (MAIT), and the natural killer T (NKT) cells. The αβ lineages of CD4+ THelper and the CD8+ T cytotoxic cells with the T cell receptor (TCR) composed of α- and β-chain are major players of the adaptive immune system. In the thymus, CD4+ and CD8+ single positive (SP) αβ cells represent the ultimate result of positive and negative selection of CD4+CD8+ double positive (DP) thymocytes. The DP population derives from the double negative (DN) thymocytes that develop from bone marrow-derived progenitors through different stages (DN1-DN4) that are characterized by CD25 and CD44 surface expression. NFATc1, a member of the Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells (NFAT) transcription factors family, is critically involved in the differentiation and function of T cells. During thymocyte development, the nuclear expression of NFATc1 reaches the highest level at the DN3 (CD44-CD25+) stage. The hematopoietic cell-specific ablation of NFATc1 activity results in an arrest of thymocyte differentiation at the DN1 (CD44+CD25-) stage. On the other hand, over-expression of a constitutively active version of NFATc1 results in an impaired transition of DN3 cells to the DN4 (CD44-CD25-) stage, suggesting that a certain threshold level of NFATc1 activity is critical at this point. ChIP-seq and RNA-seq analysis allowed us the identification of NFATc1/A target genes involved in lineage development as the Tcra and Tcrb gene loci. Furthermore, we identified multiple NFATc1-regulated genes that are involved in γδ T cell development. In the mouse models, Rag1Cre-Nfatc1fl/fl and Rag1Cre-E2fl/fl, in which the activity of NFATc1 or inducible NFATc1 in the latter is impaired during the early stages of thymocyte development, we observed increased numbers of γδ T cells. These γδ T cells showed an unusual overexpression of CD4, a lack of CD24 expression, and overexpression of the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl2a1a. We hypothesize that during the DN stages NFATc1 plays an important role in regulating crucial steps of αβ thymocyte development and when NFATc1 activity is missing this may disturb αβ development resulting in alternative cell fates like γδ T cells.},
  subject      = {Thymocytes},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Koenig2022,
  author    = {K{\"o}nig, Anika},
  title     = {The role of the transcriptional regulators NFATc1 and Blimp-1 in follicular T-cells},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-20972},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-209727},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {The defense against invading pathogens is, amongst other things, mediated via the action of antibodies. Class-switched antibodies and antibodies of high affinity are produced by plasma cells descending from germinal center B (GCB) cells. GCB cells develop in the germinal center (GC), a specialized microstructure found in the B-cell follicle of secondary lymphoid organs. GCB-cell maturation and proliferation are supported by follicular T- helper (Tfh) cells. On the other hand, follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells control this process in quantity and quality preventing, for instance, the formation of autoantibodies directed against endogenous structures. The development of GCB, Tfh and Tfr cells essentially depends on the migration into the GC, which is mediated via the expression of the chemokine receptor CXCR5. One transcription factor highly expressed in follicular T cells, comprising Tfh and Tfr cells, is NFATc1. Tfr cells additionally express the transcriptional repressor Blimp-1, which is not expressed in Tfh cells. We found that NFATc1 is transactivating Cxcr5 via response elements in the promoter and enhancer in vitro. Blimp-1 binds to the same elements, transactivating Cxcr5 expression in cooperation with NFATc1, whilst mediating Cxcr5- repression on its own. In Tfr cells Blimp-1 suppresses CXCR5 expression in the absence of NFATc1. Blimp-1 itself is necessary to restrict Tfr-cell frequencies and to mediate Tfr- cell function as in mice with Blimp-1-ablated Tregs high frequencies of Tfr cells do not reduce GCB- or Tfh cell frequencies. NFATc1 and Blimp-1 double deficient Tfr cells show additional loss of function, which becomes visible in clearly expanded antibody titers. To evaluate the function of NFATc1 in Tfr cells, we not only deleted it, but also overexpressed a constitutive active form of NFATc1/aA (caNFATc1/aA) in regulatory T cells (Tregs). The latter is leading to an upregulation of CXCR5 per cell, without changing Tfh or Tfr-cell frequencies. However, the high density of surface CXCR5 enhances the migration of Tfr cells deep into the GC, which results in a tighter control of the antigen- specific humoral immune response. Additionally, caNFATc1/aA increases the expression of genes coding for Tfr effector molecules like Il1rn, Il10, Tigit and Ctla4. Interestingly, this part of the transcriptional change is dependent on the presence of Blimp-1. Furthermore, Blimp-1 regulates the expression of multiple chemokine receptor genes on the background of caNFATc1/aA. In contrast, when caNFATc1/aA is overexpressed in all T cells, the frequencies of Tfh- and GCB cells are dominantly reduced. This effect seems to stem from the conventional T- cell (Tcon) side, most probably originating from increased secretion of interleukin-2 (IL- 2) via the caNFATc1/aA overexpressing Tcons. IL-2 is known to hinder the germinal center reaction (GCR) and it might in its abundance not be neutralizable by Tfr cells. Taken together, NFATc1 and Blimp-1 cooperate to control the migration of Tfr cells into the GC. Tfr cells in the GC depend on NFATc1 and Blimp-1 to perform their proper function. Overexpression of caNFATc1 in Tregs strengthens Tfr function in a Blimp-1-dependent manner, whilst overexpression of caNFATc1 in all T cells dominantly diminishes the GCR.},
  subject      = {Signaltransduktion},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Murti2014,
  author    = {Murti, Krisna},
  title     = {The Role of NFATc1 in Burkitt Lymphoma and in Eµ-Myc induced B cell Lymphoma},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-106448},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a highly aggressive B cell malignancy. Rituximab, a humanized antibody against CD20, in a combination with chemotherapy is a current treatment of choice for B-cell lymphomas including BL. However, certain group of BL patients are resistant to Rituximab therapy. Therefore, alternative treatments targeting survival pathways of BL are needed. In BL deregulation of MYC expression, together with additional mutations, inhibits differentiation of germinal centre (GC) B cells and drives proliferation of tumor cells. Pro-apoptotic properties of MYC are counteracted through the B-cell receptor (BCR) and phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway to ensure survival of BL cells. In normal B-cells BCR triggering activates both NF-κB and NFAT-dependent survival signals. Since BL cells do not exhibit constitutive NF-κB activity, we hypothesized that anti-apoptotic NFATc1A isoform might provide a major survival signal for BL cells. We show that NFATc1 is constitutively expressed in nuclei of BL, in BL cell lines and in Eµ-Myc-induced B cell lymphoma (BCL) cells. Nuclear residence of NFATc1 in these entities depends on intracellular Ca2+ levels but is largely insensitive to cyclosporine A (CsA) treatment and therefore independent from calcineurine (CN) activity. The protein/protein interaction between the regulatory domain of NFATc1 and DNA binding domain of BCL6 likely contributes to sustained nuclear residence of NFATc1 and to the regulation of proposed NFATc1-MYC-BCL6-PRDM1 network in B-cell lymphomas. Our data revealed lack of strict correlation between the expression of six NFATc1 isoforms in different BL-related entities suggesting that both NFATc1/alphaA and -betaA isoforms provide survival functions and that NFATc1alpha/betaB and -alpha/betaC isoforms either do not possess pro-apoptotic properties in BL cells or these properties are counterbalanced. In addition, we show that in BL entities expression of NFATc1 protein is largely regulated at post-transcriptional level, including MYC dependent increase of protein stability. Functionally we show that conditional inactivation of Nfatc1 gene in Eµ-Myc mice prevents development of BCL tumors with mature B cell immunophenotype (IgD+). Loss of NFATc1 expression in BCL cells ex vivo results in apoptosis of tumor cells. Together our results identify NFATc1 as an important survival factor in BL cells and, hence, as a promising target for alternative therapeutic strategies for BL.},
  subject      = {Transkriptionsfaktor},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Deb2011,
  author    = {Deb, Jolly},
  title     = {Role of Transcription Factor NFATc1 in Development, Survival and Function of B Lymphocytes},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-57050},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Die Transkriptionsfaktoren der NFAT-Proteinfamilie (Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells, NFATc1-4) sind an entscheidender Stelle in die Regulation des Zellzyklus, des programmierten Zelltodes und der Kanzerogenese involviert. NFATc1 nimmt innerhalb dieser Familie eine Sonderrolle ein, da dessen Aktivit{\"a}t auch durch eine stark induzierbare Expression gesteigert werden kann. Dies ist insbesondere f{\"u}r die Differenzierung und Funktion von T- und B-Lymphozyten von Bedeutung. Weiterhin ist NFATc1 f{\"u}r die Muskel- oder Herzentwicklung notwendig. Eine Reihe von Arbeiten belegen dar{\"u}ber hinaus eine Beteiligung dieses Transkriptionsfaktors an der Entstehung von Leuk{\"a}mien und Lymphomen. W{\"a}hrend klassische Hodgkin-Lymphome allerdings durch eine abgeschaltete NFATc1-Expression gekennzeichnet sind, wird f{\"u}r T-ALL (Akute Lymphatische Leuk{\"a}mie der T-Zelle) eine {\"U}berexpression beschrieben. Die Kernlokalisation dieses Transkriptionsfaktors erfolgt nach Dephosphorylierung des zytoplasmatischen Proteins durch die Phosphatase Calcineurin. Deren Phosphataseaktivit{\"a}t wird durch einen Anstieg des intrazellul{\"a}ren Ca++-Spiegels aktiviert. Inwiefern die Calcineurin-abh{\"a}ngige Kerntranslokalisation den einzigen Aktivierungsmechanismus f{\"u}r NFAT-Faktoren darstellt, ist noch nicht eindeutig gekl{\"a}rt. Nach optimaler Aktivierung von T- bzw. B-Zellen ist die kurze, induzierbare Isoform NFATc1/A das Hauptprodukt des NFATc1-Gens. In dieser Arbeit wurden f{\"u}r die gezielte Deletion des NFATc1-Gens in der Maus zwei verschiedene konditionelle Systeme verwandt. Hierzu wurden Tiere, die ein mit „flox"-Sequenzen versehenes drittes Exon des NFATc1-Gens in der Keimbahn tragen, mit verschiedenen Cre-Rekombinase expremierenden Linien verkreuzt. Der Verlust funktionellen NFATc1-Proteins erfolgt dann fr{\"u}h in der B-Zell-Differenzierung im Knochenmark (Cd79a/mb-1-cre x Nfatc1flx/fl) bzw. in reifen B-Zellen (Cd23-cre x Nfatc1flx/flx). W{\"a}hrend in keiner dieser Linien signifikante Defekte in der Differenzierung "konventioneller B2" B-Lymphozyten beobachtet wurden, hatte die fr{\"u}he Inaktivierung des NFATc1-Gens im Knochenmark den Verlust der B1a-Zell-Population im Peritoneum zur Folge. In vitro zeigten NFATc1-/--B-Zellen aus der Milz nach Aktivierung {\"u}ber den B-Zell-Rezeptor deutliche Defekte in der Zellteilung bei einer gleichzeitigen Zunahme des aktivierungsinduzierten Zelltodes (AICD, activation induced cell death). Die vergleichende Transkriptomanalyse identifizierte wichtige Gene des Ca++/Calcineurin-Signalweges als NFATc1-Zielgene und mitverantwortlich f{\"u}r die Proliferationsdefekte. In NFATc1-defizienten B-Zellen konnte Re-Expression von NFATc1 in geringer Konzentration den aktivierten Zelltod inhibieren, wohingegen hohe Konzentrationen diesen noch weiter f{\"o}rderten. Zusammengenommen l{\"a}sst sich daher schließen, dass NFATc1 entscheidend an der Kontrolle von Proliferation und Zelltod peripherer B-Lymphozyten beteiligt ist. Eine weitere wichtige Funktion kommt NFATc1 beim Klassenwechsel im Immunglobulin-Lokus zu. In den untersuchten M{\"a}usen war die IgG3-Produktion nach Immunisierung mit NP-Ficoll (einem T-Zell-unabh{\"a}ngigen Antigen des Typs II) deutlich reduziert, wenn das NFATc1-Gen in den B-Lymphozyten funktionslos war. Auch die Bildung von IgG3+-Plasmablasten war gehemmt. Zu {\"a}hnlichen Ergebnissen f{\"u}hrten Untersuchungen an isolierten B-Lymphozyten in einem in vitro Klassenwechsel-Modell. Demgegen{\"u}ber zeigten Immunisierungen der Tiere mit NP-KLH (einem T-Zell-abh{\"a}ngigen Antigen) keine signifikanten Abweichungen im Klassenwechsel. Zusammengefasst zeigen diese Daten die große Bedeutung des Transkriptionsfaktors NFATc1 f{\"u}r das {\"U}berleben und die Funktion peripherer B-Lymphozyten.},
  subject      = {NFATc1},
  language  = {en}
}