The innate immune system in drosophila and mammals senses the invasion of microorganisms using the family of Toll receptors, stimulation of which initiates a range of host defense mechanisms. In drosophila antimicrobial responses rely on two signaling pathways: the Toll pathway and the IMD pathway. In mammals there are at least 10 members of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family that recognize specific components conserved among microorganisms. Activation of the TLRs leads not only to the induction of inflammatory responses but also to the development of antigen-specific adaptive immunity. The TLR-induced inflammatory response is dependent on a common signaling pathway that is mediated by the adaptor molecule MyD88. However, there is evidence for additional pathways that mediate TLR ligand-specific biological responses.

Toll-like receptors.

The mammalian immune system has innate and adaptive components, which cooperate to protect the host against microbial infections. The innate immune system consists of functionally distinct 'modules' that evolved to provide different forms of protection against pathogens. It senses pathogens through pattern-recognition receptors, which trigger the activation of antimicrobial defences and stimulate the adaptive immune response. The adaptive immune system, in turn, activates innate effector mechanisms in an antigen-specific manner. The connections between the various immune components are not fully understood, but recent progress brings us closer to an integrated view of the immune system and its function in host defence.

/pdf/recognition-of-microorganisms-and-activation-of-the-immune-2rn20cp4ns.pdf

Recognition of microorganisms and activation of the immune response.

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the histopathologic, serologic, lymphocytic, virological, hormonal, and genetic characteristics of murine models of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The pathogenetic mechanisms underlying murine SLE are highly complex, apparently well-programmed genetically, but still diverse and their bases not as yet well defined. Significant serologic and cellular experimental data support the statement that the final immunopathologic perturbation in murine (and human) SLE is a B lymphocyte hyperactivity with corresponding enhancement of serum antibodies and autoantibodies, particularly IgG, and consequent formation of pathogenic antigen–antibody ICs. On the basis of the available data, it appears that this B cell hyperactivity is polyclonal but not necessarily panclonal in nature, because not only antibodies against a wide array of autoantigens but also antibodies against incidental antigens, such as haptens, can be detected. The presence of autoantibodies and of their idiotypes in some recombinant lupus x normal murine lines expressing the normal partner's V genes, normal mice in which an exogenous or endogenous (Ipr gene) immunostimulator has been introduced, and unmanipulated normal mice indicate that lupus mice are not unique in their structural genetic Ig elements, whose presence determines the development of their autoimmune disease. The cause of B cell hyperactivity in lupus has not yet been fully elucidated. Autonomous B cell maturation does not appear likely, because B cell proliferation and differentiation in lupus mice was found to be dependent on the same number of accessory signals as in normal mice.

Murine models of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Three novel nonoclonal antibodies (designed OKT1, OKT3, and OKT4) were generated against surface determinants of human peripheral T cells. Both OKT1 and OKT3 reacted with all human peripheral T cells and 5 to 10 percent of thymocytes but differed in their reactivities with T cel- lines. By contrast, OKT4 reacted with 55 percent of human peripheral T cells and 80 percent of thymocyted in that they did not react with normal B cells, null cells, monocytes, or granulocytes.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/206/4416/347.full.pdf

Monoclonal antibodies defining distinctive human T cell surface antigens

With the detailed description and analysis of several inhibitory receptor systems on lymphoid and myeloid cells, a central paradigm has emerged in which the pairing of activation and inhibition is necessary to initiate, amplify, and then terminate immune responses. In some cases, the activating and inhibitory receptors recognize similar ligands, and the net outcome is determined by the relative strength of these opposing signals. The importance of this modulation is demonstrated by the sometimes fatal autoimmune disorders observed in mice with targeted disruption of inhibitory receptors. The significance of these receptors is further evidenced by the conservation of immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs during their evolution.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/290/5489/84.full.pdf

Immune inhibitory receptors.

Whether B-1a (CD5+) cells are a distinct lineage derived from committed fetal/neonatal precursors or arise from follicular B-2 cells in response to BCR ligation and other, unknown signals remains controversial. Recent evidence indicates that B-1a cells can derive from adult precursors expressing an appropriate specificity when the (self-) antigen is present. Antibody specificity determines whether a B cell expressing immunoglobulin transgenes has a B-2, B-1a or marginal zone (MZ) phenotype. MZ cells share many phenotypic characteristics of B-1 cells and, like them, appear to develop in response to T independent type 2 antigens. Because fetal-derived B cell progenitors fail to express terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) and for other reasons, they are likely to express a repertoire that allows selection into the B-1a population. As it is selected by self-antigen, the B-1 repertoire tends to be autoreactive. This potentially dangerous repertoire is also useful, as B-1 cells are essential for resistance to several pathogens and they play an important role in mucosal immunity. The CD5 molecule can function as a negative regulator of BCR signaling that may help prevent inappropriate activation of autoreactive B-1a cells.

Origins and functions of B-1 cells with notes on the role of CD5.

Anti-Ig stimulated murine B cells express high levels of surface CD5 (ly-1) and increased CD44 while maintaining surface IgD, CD23 and J11d. Sorting of CD5- and CD5+ cells demonstrates that anti-Ig induces CD5 expression rather than the selective expansion of CD5+ cells. Anti Ig plus interleukin-6 (IL-6) induces the CD23, IgD, low ly-5 (B220) (CD45low), J11dhigh phenotype of typical CD5+ peritoneal B cells. In contrast, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated B cells have high levels of CD44 but decreased surface IgD, CD23 and J11d and no CD5. Thus LPS and anti-Ig generate activated cells with differing phenotypes. Induced CD5+ cells have increased viability, even in the absence of added exogenous factors, while the viability of CD5- B cells is dependent on factors such as IL-4. We conclude that conventional CD5- B cells can be activated by either of two pathways: one generating CD5+ B cells; the other yielding conventional activated cells. We hypothesize that the first path requires slg cross-linking and corresponds to T-independent (type 2) stimulation, while cognate interaction with helper T cells in the absence of slg cross-linking induces B cells to enter the second path.

Treatment of murine CD5- B cells with anti-Ig, but not LPS, induces surface CD5: two B-cell activation pathways

In mice thymectomized as newborns, thymectomized as adults and irradiated, and in nude mice with congenital absence of the thymus, there is a marked reduction in the number of θ-bearing lymphocytes in the lymph nodes and spleen. This suggests that θ is present on those lymphocytes which are thymus-derived. Using 51Cr and dye exclusion cytotoxic testing, approximately 65–85 per cent of lymph node and thoracic duct lymphocytes and 30–50 per cent of spleen lymphocytes were found to have θ on their surface.

Thymus dependence of theta-bearing cells in the peripheral lymphoid tissues of mice.

Toll-like Receptor 7-Dependent Loss of B Cell Tolerance in Pathogenic Autoantibody Knockin Mice

The recognition of antigen by membrane immunoglobulin M (mIgM) results in a complex series of signaling events in the cytoplasm leading to gene activation. Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a member of the Tec family of tyrosine kinases, is essential for the full repertoire of IgM signals to be transduced. We examined the ability of BTK to regulate the nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB/Rel family of transcription factors, as the activation of these factors is required for a B cell response to mIgM. We found greatly diminished IgM- but not CD40-mediated NF-kappaB/Rel nuclear translocation and DNA binding in B cells from X-linked immunodeficient (xid) mice that harbor an R28C mutation in btk, a mutation that produces a functionally inactive kinase. The defect was due, in part, to a failure to fully degrade the inhibitory protein of NF-kappaB, IkappaBalpha. Using a BTK-deficient variant of DT40 chicken B cells, we found that expression of wild-type or gain-of-function mutant BTK, but not the R28C mutant, reconstituted NF-kappaB activity. Thus, BTK is essential for activation of NF-kappaB via the B cell receptor.

/pdf/bruton-s-tyrosine-kinase-links-the-b-cell-receptor-to-2noi47ni6b.pdf

Henry H. Wortis

Papers

Origins and functions of B-1 cells with notes on the role of CD5.

Treatment of murine CD5- B cells with anti-Ig, but not LPS, induces surface CD5: two B-cell activation pathways

Thymus dependence of theta-bearing cells in the peripheral lymphoid tissues of mice.

Toll-like Receptor 7-Dependent Loss of B Cell Tolerance in Pathogenic Autoantibody Knockin Mice

Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase Links the B Cell Receptor to Nuclear Factor κb Activation