Two major problems contribute to the high global burden of TB: the ease of transmission of M. tuberculosis through the air, and the ability of M. tuberculosis to avoid elimination by adaptive immune responses. Therefore, the mechanisms that prevent T cells from eliminating M. tuberculosis are major roadblocks to developing efficacious TB vaccines. Since M. tuberculosis inhabits the antigen-presenting cells that are the targets for T cell recognition, the mechanisms that limit the efficacy of T cell responses in TB likely act at the level of antigen-presenting cells. For decades, it was believed that M. tuberculosis solely inhabits macrophages, but we and others have found that M. tuberculosis also resides in lung dendritic cells (DC) in mice and in humans. These findings may have a large impact on understanding TB immunity, as recent work in basic immunology has identified multiple subsets of DC with distinct properties, and our preliminary studies reveal that M. tuberculosis is found in the lungs of infected mice in alveolar macrophages (AM), neutrophils, recruited macrophages (RM), and 3 subsets of DC. Our preliminary studies also reveal that AM, RM, and DC differ markedly in their ability to activate M. tuberculosis antigen-specific CD4 T cells, suggesting that certain cell subsets contribute to protective immunity by activating CD4 effector T cells, while other subsets activate CD4 effector cells poorly and thus may be long-term reservoirs of the bacteria. We also discovered that M. tuberculosis-infected macrophages and DC release bacterial protein antigens in vivo and in vitro, and that the released antigens are processed and presented by uninfected cells to activate CD4 T cells. The overall hypothesis that drives the experiments in this application is that distinct subsets of mononuclear cells have different roles in TB pathogenesis and immunity, and that manipulating the populations or properties of mononuclear cells can improve the efficacy of T cell responses in TB.
In Aim 1, we will characterize the origins of the cells that harbor M. tuberculosis in the lungs, by characterizing their mechanisms of recruitment. We will also determine the mechanisms used by M. tuberculosis to spread from AM to RM and DCs in the lungs.
In Aim 2, we will extend our findings that AM, RM, and DC differ in their ability to activate CD4 effector T cells, to determine the mechanisms that mediate those differences and to guide therapeutic interventions to improve CD4 effector cell activation and immunological control of TB. We will also determine the importance of CD4 effector T cell activation by uninfected cells that have acquired antigens released by infected cells. Our results will guide efforts to improve the efficacy of antigen-specific T cell responses in TB: if antigen transfer from infected to uninfected cells is an immune evasion strategy, then strategies to prevent antigen transfer should be prioritized; in contrast, i antigen transfer and activation of T cells by uninfected cells contributes to control of M. tuberculosis, then efforts can be directed at optimizing the beneficial impact of this novel mechanism of T cell stimulation.

Public Health Relevance

One of the major reasons that tuberculosis remains an enormous global health problem is that it has evolved to avoid elimination by our immune responses. This accounts for the ability of TB bacteria to persist in people and in populations of people, and accounts for the poor success of the current TB vaccine. Our work provides new approaches and new insights into how TB bacteria avoid elimination by immune responses, and will provide information that will guide development of successful TB vaccines.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01AI051242-16
Application #
9792273
Study Section
Host Interactions with Bacterial Pathogens Study Section (HIBP)
Program Officer
Eichelberg, Katrin
Project Start
2002-09-01
Project End
2020-12-31
Budget Start
2019-01-01
Budget End
2020-12-31
Support Year
16
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Francisco
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
094878337
City
San Francisco
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94118
Norris, Brian A; Ernst, Joel D (2018) Mononuclear cell dynamics in M. tuberculosis infection provide opportunities for therapeutic intervention. PLoS Pathog 14:e1007154
Ernst, Joel D (2018) Mechanisms of M. tuberculosis Immune Evasion as Challenges to TB Vaccine Design. Cell Host Microbe 24:34-42
Ernst, Joel D; Cornelius, Amber; Desvignes, Ludovic et al. (2018) Limited Antimycobacterial Efficacy of Epitope Peptide Administration Despite Enhanced Antigen-Specific CD4 T-Cell Activation. J Infect Dis 218:1653-1662
Boggiano, Cesar; Eichelberg, Katrin; Ramachandra, Lakshmi et al. (2017) ""The Impact of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Immune Evasion on Protective Immunity: Implications for TB Vaccine Design"" - Meeting report. Vaccine 35:3433-3440
Bolz, Miriam; Ernst, Joel D (2017) Fishing for Answers in Human Mycobacterial Infections. Immunity 47:395-397
Ernst, Joel D (2017) Antigenic Variation and Immune Escape in the MTBC. Adv Exp Med Biol 1019:171-190
Wiens, Kirsten E; Ernst, Joel D (2016) The Mechanism for Type I Interferon Induction by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is Bacterial Strain-Dependent. PLoS Pathog 12:e1005809
Portal-Celhay, Cynthia; Tufariello, JoAnn M; Srivastava, Smita et al. (2016) Mycobacterium tuberculosis EsxH inhibits ESCRT-dependent CD4+ T-cell activation. Nat Microbiol 2:16232
Copin, Richard; Wang, Xueying; Louie, Eddie et al. (2016) Within Host Evolution Selects for a Dominant Genotype of Mycobacterium tuberculosis while T Cells Increase Pathogen Genetic Diversity. PLoS Pathog 12:e1006111
Srivastava, Smita; Grace, Patricia S; Ernst, Joel D (2016) Antigen Export Reduces Antigen Presentation and Limits T Cell Control of M. tuberculosis. Cell Host Microbe 19:44-54

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