0000000000598931

AUTHOR

Nadine Prinz

A role for Toll-like receptor mediated signals in neutrophils in the pathogenesis of the anti-phospholipid syndrome.

The anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS) is characterized by recurrent thrombosis and occurrence of anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL). aPL are necessary, but not sufficient for the clinical manifestations of APS. Growing evidence suggests a role of innate immune cells, in particular polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and Toll-like receptors (TLR) to be additionally involved. aPL activate endothelial cells and monocytes through a TLR4-dependent signalling pathway. Whether this is also relevant for PMN in a similar way is currently not known. To address this issue, we used purified PMN from healthy donors and stimulated them in the presence or absence of human monoclonal aPL and the TLR4 agonis…

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Human antiphospholipid antibodies induce TNFα in monocytes via Toll-like receptor 8

The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is characterized by recurrent arterial and/or venous thromboses, pregnancy loss and the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). One of the discussed mechanisms of this thrombotic activity in APS patients is attributed to TNFalpha secretion in monocytes after aPL stimulation. To investigate this mechanism in detail, we employed a monoclonal aPL and IgG fractions of APS patients for stimulation of human peripheral monocytes. Stimulation with this monoclonal aPL resulted in an increased expression and secretion of TNFalpha, caused by specific upregulation of TLR8 mRNA and protein expression levels. To confirm the specificity of this finding we could d…

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Structural and functional characterization of a human IgG monoclonal antiphospholipid antibody

Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) are likely involved in the pathogenesis of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). This study analyzes the structural and functional characteristics of a human monoclonal aPL (HL7G) from the IgG2 subtype with λ light chains generated from a patient with primary APS and recurrent cerebral microemboli. DNA encoding the variable region of heavy and light chains of the antibody was sequenced, analyzed, and compared to HL5B a previously described monoclonal aPL from the same patient. Both antibodies are derived from the same germline genes. HL7G had similar but more extensive somatic mutations in the CDR1 and 2 regions than HL5B, indicating that both antibodies are…

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TLR7 and TLR8 ligands and antiphospholipid antibodies show synergistic effects on the induction of IL-1beta and caspase-1 in monocytes and dendritic cells.

TLRs represent the first line of defense against invading pathogens in the innate immune system. Certain cytokines are important mediators and essentially necessary to assure an appropriately regulated immune response. Recent data gave initial evidence that IL-1beta is one of the most relevant members of these regulating cytokines. We investigated the induction of IL-1beta production in monocytes and pDCs stimulated with ligands for TLR7 and TLR8 and with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). Using human monocytes and pDCs for stimulation with specific TLR7 and TLR8 ligands such as resiquimod (R848) and single stranded RNA (RNA42) as well as with a human monoclonal aPL HL5B resulted in a speci…

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