Journal: Research
Article Title: Inverse Vaccine Nanomimics: In situ Antigen-Specific Immune Tolerance Induction for Durable Cardiac Repair Post-Myocardial Infarction
doi: 10.34133/research.1464
Figure Lengend Snippet: Phenotypic changes and inflammatory factor secretion of T cells stimulated by cardiac lysate antigens (CLAs). (A) Coculture protocol for dendritic cells (DCs) and T cells. The tolerogenic DCs (tDCs) present antigens to T cells; meanwhile, programmed death ligand 1 binds to programmed cell death protein 1 on T cells and inhibits T cell activation, promoting the phenotypic conversion of T cells to regulatory T cells (Tregs). Furthermore, due to the lack of activation signals such as CD80 and CD86, some T cells exhibit a weak activation state after receiving antigen presentation, and under the regulation of key factors such as interleukin-10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), they undergo phenotypic transition to Tregs. Under restimulation, tDCs phagocytose antigens and present them to Tregs. Tregs are rapidly activated, express high levels of Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3), and directly inhibit T cell activation, while secreting large amounts of anti-inflammatory factors. (B) Flow cytometry (FC) results for T cell phenotype. (C) Quantification of T cell phenotypes by FC. (D) T cell phenotype immunofluorescence staining results, where blue represents cell nuclei, red represents CD127, and green represents CD4. (E) Expression of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), IL-2, IL-10, and TGF-β after coculture of DCs and T cells. (F) Western blot analysis of the activation status of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)-p70S6K-S6 pathway after treatment with Gel@PPM, Rapa, inverse vaccine nanomimics (IVNMs), and Gel@IVNMs under CLA stimulation. (G) The percentage of phosphorylation of mTOR, p70S6K, and S6 was statistically analyzed based on the gray values of the western blot results (compared to the unphosphorylated proteins). Data are presented as means ± SD, with individual points representing biological replicates. Statistical significance is indicated as ns, not significant; * P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001; **** P < 0.0001.
Article Snippet: For T cell immunofluorescence labeling, nuclei were labeled with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) (E-CK-A163, Elabscience, China), CD4 with FITC (E-AB-F1097C, Elabscience, China), and CD127 with Alexa Fluor 555 (16-1271-85, eBioscience, USA).
Techniques: Activation Assay, Immunopeptidomics, Flow Cytometry, Immunofluorescence, Staining, Expressing, Western Blot, Analysis, Phospho-proteomics