TY - JOUR A1 - Jodeleit, Henrika A1 - Palamides, Pia A1 - Beigel, Florian A1 - Mueller, Thomas A1 - Wolf, Eckhard A1 - Siebeck, Matthias A1 - Gropp, Roswitha T1 - Design and validation of a disease network of inflammatory processes in the NSG-UC mouse model JF - Journal of Translational Medicine N2 - Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a highly progressive inflammatory disease that requires the interaction of epithelial, immune, endothelial and muscle cells and fibroblasts. Previous studies suggested two inflammatory conditions in UC-patients: ‘acute’ and ‘remodeling’ and that the design of a disease network might improve the understanding of the inflammatory processes. The objective of the study was to design and validate a disease network in the NOD-SCID IL2rγ\(^{null}\) (NSG)-UC mouse model to get a better understanding of the inflammatory processes. Methods: Leukocytes were isolated from the spleen of NSG-UC mice and subjected to flow cytometric analysis. RT-PCR and RNAseq analysis were performed from distal parts of the colon. Based on these analyses and the effects of interleukins, chemokines and growth factors described in the literature, a disease network was designed. To validate the disease network the effect of infliximab and pitrakinra was tested in the NSG-UC model. A clinical- and histological score, frequencies of human leukocytes isolated from spleen and mRNA expression levels from distal parts of the colon were determined. Results: Analysis of leukocytes isolated from the spleen of challenged NSG-UC mice corroborated CD64, CD163 and CD1a expressing CD14+ monocytes, CD1a expressing CD11b+ macrophages and HGF, TARC, IFNγ and TGFß1 mRNA as inflammatory markers. The disease network suggested that a proinflammatory condition elicited by IL-17c and lipids and relayed by cytotoxic T-cells, Th17 cells and CD1a expressing macrophages and monocytes. Conversely, the remodeling condition was evoked by IL-34 and TARC and promoted by Th2 cells and M2 monocytes. Mice benefitted from treatment with infliximab as indicated by the histological- and clinical score. As predicted by the disease network infliximab reduced the proinflammatory response by suppressing M1 monocytes and CD1a expressing monocytes and macrophages and decreased levels of IFNγ, TARC and HGF mRNA. As predicted by the disease network inflammation aggravated in the presence of pitrakinra as indicated by the clinical and histological score, elevated frequencies of CD1a expressing macrophages and TNFα and IFNγ mRNA levels. Conclusions: The combination of the disease network and the NSG-UC animal model might be developed into a powerful tool to predict efficacy or in-efficacy and potential mechanistic side effects. KW - Autoimmunity KW - Disease network KW - Inflammatory bowel disease KW - NSG KW - NSG-UC KW - Ulcerative colitis Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-225516 VL - 15 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kleist, Christian A1 - Mohr, Elisabeth A1 - Gaikwad, Sadanand A1 - Dittmar, Laura A1 - Kuerten, Stefanie A1 - Platten, Michael A1 - Mier, Walter A1 - Schmitt, Michael A1 - Opelz, Gerhard A1 - Terness, Peter T1 - Autoantigen-specific immunosuppression with tolerogenic peripheral blood cells prevents relapses in a mouse model of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis JF - Journal of Translational Medicine N2 - Background: Dendritic cells (DCs) rendered suppressive by treatment with mitomycin C and loaded with the autoantigen myelin basic protein demonstrated earlier their ability to prevent experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model for multiple sclerosis (MS). This provides an approach for prophylactic vaccination against autoimmune diseases. For clinical application such DCs are difficult to generate and autoantigens hold the risk of exacerbating the disease. Methods: We replaced DCs by peripheral mononuclear cells and myelin autoantigens by glatiramer acetate (Copaxone ®), a drug approved for the treatment of MS. Spleen cells were loaded with Copaxone®, incubated with mitomycin C (MICCop) and injected into mice after the first bout of relapsing-remitting EAE. Immunosuppression mediated by MICCop was investigated in vivo by daily assessment of clinical signs of paralysis and in in vitro restimulation assays of peripheral immune cells. Cytokine profiling was performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Migration of MICCop cells after injection was examined by biodistribution analysis of 111Indium-labelled MICCop. The number and inhibitory activity of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells were analysed by histology, flow cytometry and in vitro mixed lymphocyte cultures. In order to assess the specificity of MICCop-induced suppression, treated EAE mice were challenged with the control protein ovalbumin. Humoral and cellular immune responses were then determined by ELISA and in vitro antigen restimulation assay. Results: MICCop cells were able to inhibit the harmful autoreactive T-cell response and prevented mice from further relapses without affecting general immune responses. Administered MICCop migrated to various organs leading to an increased infiltration of the spleen and the central nervous system with CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ cells displaying a suppressive cytokine profile and inhibiting T-cell responses. Conclusion: We describe a clinically applicable cell therapeutic approach for controlling relapses in autoimmune encephalomyelitis by specifically silencing the deleterious autoimmune response. KW - Autoimmunity KW - Cell therapy KW - Copaxone® KW - Immune tolerance KW - Mitomycin C KW - Relapsing-remitting MS KW - Regulatory T cells Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-165787 VL - 14 IS - 99 ER -