Type 1-2 immune cross-regulation in the lung

NIH RePORTER · NIH · F31 · $45,909 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Project Summary Respiratory viral infections are a prevalent and ongoing threat to global health, as evidenced by seasonal Influenza A infections and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Notably, the association between allergy and asthma and the severity of respiratory viral illness has been long observed but poorly understood. Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) and the adaptive counterpart Type 2 CD4 helper cells (Th2) have been extensively investigated for their role in allergic inflammation. Our group has described the localization of these type 2 lymphocytes (T2L) in non-lymphoid tissues, such as the lung, at rest and under allergic and mixed type 1-2 inflammation, observing localization near large airways and vessels at rest and expansion to the tissue parenchyma with allergic inflammation. Interestingly, in mixed type 1-2 inflammation, T2L parenchymal distribution is restricted due to Interferon gamma (IFNγ) signaling on T2L. My preliminary data demonstrates that IFNγ-mediated restriction also occurs following viral respiratory infection with Influenza A virus (IAV, PR8) and impacts mouse body weight and lung function. In parallel, I have demonstrated that loss IFNα/β signaling on T2Ls increases body weight loss and impairs lung function in IAV, potentially through a distinct mechanism. These data suggest that IFN-mediated restriction of T2L and T2L topography is critical for appropriate viral clearance and/or tissue repair in viral respiratory infection. Mechanisms of IFN-mediated restriction of T2L have been explored by many groups, including ours, however how this restriction of topography and counter-regulation of T1 immunity by T2L dictate the immune response to viral infection remains elusive. I hypothesize that IFN signaling regulates the topography and function of lung T2Ls in pulmonary viral infections. This proposal will define the topography of T1-T2 cross-regulation in the setting of pulmonary viral infection (Aim 1) and evaluate mechanism of interferon mediated restriction of type 2 lymphocytes (Aim 2). Completion of these aims will elucidate the role of canonical type 1 and type 2 cytokines in mediating tissue resident lymphocyte function in complex inflammation, providing novel mechanistic insight into how topography dictates immunity. Completion of this study provides a foundation for the development of precision therapeutics to selectively regulate lung resident lymphocytes subsets to impact the outcome of diverse lung diseases.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10996003
Project number
1F31HL172636-01A1
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
Principal Investigator
Sofia Caryotakis
Activity code
F31
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$45,909
Award type
1
Project period
2024-09-13 → 2026-09-12