CBirTox is a selective antigen-specific agonist of the Treg-IgA-microbiota homeostatic pathway

PLoS One. 2017 Jul 27;12(7):e0181866. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181866. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Cultivating an environment of mutualism between host cells and the microbiota is vital, and dysregulation of this relationship is associated with multiple immune disorders including metabolic and skin diseases, asthma, allergy, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). One prominent mechanism for maintaining homeostasis is the protective regulatory T cell (Treg)- Immunoglobulin A (IgA) pathway toward microbiota antigens, in which Tregs maintain homeostasis and provide critical survival factors to IgA+ B cells. In order to amplify the Treg-IgA pathway, we have generated a fusion protein, CBirTox, comprised of a portion of the carboxy terminus of CBir1, a microbiota flagellin, genetically coupled to Cholera Toxin B subunit (CTB) via the A2 linker of CT. Both dendritic cells (DCs) and B cells pulsed with CBirTox selectively induced functional CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs in vitro, and CBirTox augmented CD4+Foxp3+ cell numbers in vivo. The induced Foxp3 expression was independent of retinoic acid (RA) signaling but was inhibited by neutralization of TGF-β. CBirTox treatment of B cells downregulated mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling. Furthermore, CBirTox-pulsed DCs induced substantial production of IgA from naïve B cells. Collectively these data demonstrate that CBirTox represents a novel approach to bolstering the Treg-IgA pathway at the host-microbiota interface.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antigen-Presenting Cells / metabolism
  • B-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • Cell Line
  • Cholera Toxin / metabolism
  • Dendritic Cells / immunology
  • Epitopes / immunology*
  • Flagellin / agonists*
  • Forkhead Transcription Factors / metabolism
  • Genomics
  • Homeostasis*
  • Immunoglobulin A / immunology*
  • Intestines
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Microbiota*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction
  • T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / immunology*
  • TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta / metabolism
  • Tretinoin / metabolism

Substances

  • CBir1 flagellin
  • Epitopes
  • Forkhead Transcription Factors
  • Foxp3 protein, mouse
  • Immunoglobulin A
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta
  • Flagellin
  • Tretinoin
  • Cholera Toxin
  • TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases