Natural killer (NK) cell-derived extracellular-vesicle shuttled microRNAs control T cell responses

  1. Sara G Dosil
  2. Sheila Lopez-Cobo
  3. Ana Rodriguez-Galan
  4. Irene Fernandez-Delgado
  5. Marta Ramirez-Huesca
  6. Paula Milan-Rois
  7. Milagros Castellanos
  8. Alvaro Somoza
  9. Manuel J Gómez
  10. Hugh T Reyburn
  11. Mar Vales-Gomez
  12. Francisco Sánchez Madrid  Is a corresponding author
  13. Lola Fernandez-Messina  Is a corresponding author
  1. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
  2. INSERM U932, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, France
  3. National Center for Cardiovascular Research, Spain
  4. Unidad Asociada al Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Spain
  5. Spanish National Research Council, Spain

Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells recognise and kill target cells undergoing different types of stress. NK cells are also capable of modulating immune responses. In particular, they regulate T cell functions. Small RNA next-generation sequencing of resting and activated human NK cells and their secreted EVs led to the identification of a specific repertoire of NK-EV-associated microRNAs and their post-transcriptional modifications signature. Several microRNAs of NK-EVs, namely miR-10b-5p, miR-92a-3p and miR-155-5p, specifically target molecules involved in Th1 responses. NK-EVs promote the downregulation of GATA3 mRNA in CD4+ T cells and subsequent TBX21 de-repression that leads to Th1 polarization and IFN-γ and IL-2 production. NK-EVs also have an effect on monocyte and moDCs function, driving their activation and increased presentation and co-stimulatory functions. Nanoparticle-delivered NK-EV microRNAs partially recapitulate NK-EV effects in mice. Our results provide new insights on the immunomodulatory roles of NK-EVs that may help to improve their use as immunotherapeutic tools.

Data availability

Sequencing data have been deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus and are available to readers under record GSE185171. EV isolation procedures are available at EV‐TRACK knowledgebase (EV‐TRACK ID: EV210234.

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Sara G Dosil

    Servicio de Inmunología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Sheila Lopez-Cobo

    INSERM U932, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Ana Rodriguez-Galan

    Servicio de Inmunología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6209-782X
  4. Irene Fernandez-Delgado

    Servicio de Inmunología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Marta Ramirez-Huesca

    Vascular Pathophysiology Area, National Center for Cardiovascular Research, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Paula Milan-Rois

    Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanociencia) & Nanobiotecnología (IMDEA-Nanociencia), Unidad Asociada al Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7043-2920
  7. Milagros Castellanos

    Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanociencia) & Nanobiotecnología (IMDEA-Nanociencia), Unidad Asociada al Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Alvaro Somoza

    Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanociencia) & Nanobiotecnología (IMDEA-Nanociencia), Unidad Asociada al Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Manuel J Gómez

    Vascular Pathophysiology Area, National Center for Cardiovascular Research, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Hugh T Reyburn

    Department of Immunology and Oncology, Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Mar Vales-Gomez

    Department of Immunology and Oncology, Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Francisco Sánchez Madrid

    Servicio de Inmunología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
    For correspondence
    fsmadrid@salud.madrid.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5303-0762
  13. Lola Fernandez-Messina

    Servicio de Inmunología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
    For correspondence
    lfernandezmessina@gmail.com
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2163-8746

Funding

Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (PD1-2020-120412RB-100)

  • Francisco Sánchez Madrid

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All experimental methods and protocols were approved by the CNIC and the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid and conformed to European Commission guidelines and regulations (PROEX-206.1/20)

Copyright

© 2022, Dosil et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 2,178
    views
  • 516
    downloads
  • 38
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Sara G Dosil
  2. Sheila Lopez-Cobo
  3. Ana Rodriguez-Galan
  4. Irene Fernandez-Delgado
  5. Marta Ramirez-Huesca
  6. Paula Milan-Rois
  7. Milagros Castellanos
  8. Alvaro Somoza
  9. Manuel J Gómez
  10. Hugh T Reyburn
  11. Mar Vales-Gomez
  12. Francisco Sánchez Madrid
  13. Lola Fernandez-Messina
(2022)
Natural killer (NK) cell-derived extracellular-vesicle shuttled microRNAs control T cell responses
eLife 11:e76319.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76319

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76319

Further reading

    1. Immunology and Inflammation
    Javier Ruiz-Navarro, Sara Fernández-Hermira ... Manuel Izquierdo Pastor
    Research Article

    We analyzed here how formin-like 1 β (FMNL1β), an actin cytoskeleton-regulatory protein, regulates microtubule-organizing center (MTOC) and multivesicular bodies (MVB) polarization and exosome secretion at an immune synapse (IS) model in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. IS formation was associated with transient recruitment of FMNL1β to the IS, which was independent of protein kinase C δ (PKCδ). Simultaneous RNA interference of all FMNL1 isoforms prevented MTOC/MVB polarization and exosome secretion, which were restored by FMNL1βWT expression. However, expression of the non-phosphorylatable mutant FMNL1βS1086A did not restore neither MTOC/MVB polarization nor exosome secretion to control levels, supporting the crucial role of S1086 phosphorylation in MTOC/MVB polarization and exosome secretion. In contrast, the phosphomimetic mutant, FMNL1βS1086D, restored MTOC/MVB polarization and exosome secretion. Conversely, FMNL1βS1086D mutant did not recover the deficient MTOC/MVB polarization occurring in PKCδ-interfered clones, indicating that S1086 FMNL1β phosphorylation alone is not sufficient for MTOC/MVB polarization and exosome secretion. FMNL1 interference inhibited the depletion of F-actin at the central region of the immune synapse (cIS), which is necessary for MTOC/MVB polarization. FMNL1βWT and FMNL1βS1086D, but not FMNL1βS1086A expression, restored F-actin depletion at the cIS. Thus, actin cytoskeleton reorganization at the IS underlies the effects of all these FMNL1β variants on polarized secretory traffic. FMNL1 was found in the IS made by primary T lymphocytes, both in T cell receptor (TCR) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-evoked synapses. Taken together, these results point out a crucial role of S1086 phosphorylation in FMNL1β activation, leading to cortical actin reorganization and subsequent control of MTOC/MVB polarization and exosome secretion.

    1. Immunology and Inflammation
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    Bin Li, Jin Zhang ... Chao Wu
    Research Article

    Adjuvants can affect APCs function and boost adaptive immune responses post-vaccination. However, whether they modulate the specificity of immune responses, particularly immunodominant epitope responses, and the mechanisms of regulating antigen processing and presentation remain poorly defined. Here, using overlapping synthetic peptides, we screened the dominant epitopes of Th1 responses in mice post-vaccination with different adjuvants and found that the adjuvants altered the antigen-specific CD4+ T-cell immunodominant epitope hierarchy. MHC-II immunopeptidomes demonstrated that the peptide repertoires presented by APCs were significantly altered by the adjuvants. Unexpectedly, no novel peptide presentation was detected after adjuvant treatment, whereas peptides with high binding stability for MHC-II presented in the control group were missing after adjuvant stimulation, particularly in the MPLA- and CpG-stimulated groups. The low-stability peptide present in the adjuvant groups effectively elicited robust T-cell responses and formed immune memory. Collectively, our results suggest that adjuvants (MPLA and CpG) inhibit high-stability peptide presentation instead of revealing cryptic epitopes, which may alter the specificity of CD4+ T-cell-dominant epitope responses. The capacity of adjuvants to modify peptide–MHC (pMHC) stability and antigen-specific T-cell immunodominant epitope responses has fundamental implications for the selection of suitable adjuvants in the vaccine design process and epitope vaccine development.