scholarly journals Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs) Take the Central Stage in Driving Autoimmune Responses

Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Fousert ◽  
René Toes ◽  
Jyaysi Desai

Following fifteen years of research, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are widely reported in a large range of inflammatory infectious and non-infectious diseases. Cumulating evidences from in vitro, in vivo and clinical diagnostics suggest that NETs may play a crucial role in inflammation and autoimmunity in a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). Most likely, NETs contribute to breaking self-tolerance in autoimmune diseases in several ways. During this review, we discuss the current knowledge on how NETs could drive autoimmune responses. NETs can break self-tolerance by being a source of autoantigens for autoantibodies found in autoimmune diseases, such as anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) in RA, anti-dsDNA in SLE and anti-myeloperoxidase and anti-protein 3 in AAV. Moreover, NET components could accelerate the inflammatory response by mediating complement activation, acting as danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and inflammasome activators, for example. NETs also can activate other immune cells, such as B cells, antigen-presenting cells and T cells. Additionally, impaired clearance of NETs in autoimmune diseases prolongs the presence of active NETs and their components and, in this way, accelerate immune responses. NETs have not only been implicated as drivers of inflammation, but also are linked to resolution of inflammation. Therefore, NETs may be central regulators of inflammation and autoimmunity, serve as biomarkers, as well as promising targets for future therapeutics of inflammatory autoimmune diseases.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yilu Zhou ◽  
Weimin Tao ◽  
Fuyi Shen ◽  
Weijia Du ◽  
Zhendong Xu ◽  
...  

Neutrophils play a vital role in the formation of arterial, venous and cancer-related thrombosis. Recent studies have shown that in a process known as NETosis, neutrophils release proteins and enzymes complexed to DNA fibers, collectively called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Although NETs were originally described as a way for the host to capture and kill bacteria, current knowledge indicates that NETs also play an important role in thrombosis. According to recent studies, the destruction of vascular microenvironmental homeostasis and excessive NET formation lead to pathological thrombosis. In vitro experiments have found that NETs provide skeletal support for platelets, red blood cells and procoagulant molecules to promote thrombosis. The protein components contained in NETs activate the endogenous coagulation pathway to promote thrombosis. Therefore, NETs play an important role in the formation of arterial thrombosis, venous thrombosis and cancer-related thrombosis. This review will systematically summarize and explain the study of NETs in thrombosis in animal models and in vivo experiments to provide new targets for thrombosis prevention and treatment.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0250265
Author(s):  
Hubert Hayden ◽  
Nahla Ibrahim ◽  
Johannes Klopf ◽  
Branislav Zagrapan ◽  
Lisa-Marie Mauracher ◽  
...  

Over the past years, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) were shown to contribute to states of acute and chronic inflammatory disease. They are composed of expelled chromatin and decorated by neutrophil-derived proteins. Therefore, the analysis of DNA complexes with myeloperoxidase (MPO) by ELISA has become an attractive tool to measure NET formation in in vitro and in vivo samples. When we used a published MPO-DNA ELISA protocol and included an isotype control for the anti-MPO coating antibody, we observed high assay specificity for in vitro prepared NET samples, whereas the specificity for in vivo plasma samples was low. In addition, the assay failed to detect in vitro generated MPO-DNA complexes when spiked into plasma. Therefore, we set out to improve the specificity of the MPO-DNA ELISA for plasma samples. We found that the use of Fab fragments or immunoglobulins from different species or reversal of the antibody pair led to either a high background or a low dynamic range of detection that did not improve the specificity for plasma samples. Also, the use of higher plasma dilutions or pre-clearing of plasma immunoglobulins were ineffective. Finally, we found that a commercial reagent designed to block human anti-mouse antibodies and multivalent substances increased the detection window between the MPO antibody and isotype control for highly diluted plasma. We applied this modified ELISA protocol to analyze MPO-DNA complexes in human blood samples of acute and chronic inflammatory conditions. While markers of neutrophil activation and NET formation such as MPO, elastase and citrullinated histone H3 correlated significantly, we observed no correlation with the levels of MPO-DNA complexes. Therefore, we conclude that ELISA measurements of MPO-DNA complexes in human plasma are highly questionable regarding specificity of NET detection. In general, plasma analyses by ELISA should more frequently include isotype controls for antibodies to demonstrate target specificity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 319 (1) ◽  
pp. L137-L147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin M. Hudock ◽  
Margaret S. Collins ◽  
Michelle Imbrogno ◽  
John Snowball ◽  
Elizabeth L. Kramer ◽  
...  

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) provide host defense but can contribute to the pathobiology of diverse human diseases. We sought to determine the extent and mechanism by which NETs contribute to human airway cell inflammation. Primary normal human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEs) grown at air-liquid interface and wild-type (wt)CFBE41o- cells (expressing wtCFTR) were exposed to cell-free NETs from unrelated healthy volunteers for 18 h in vitro. Cytokines were measured in the apical supernatant by Luminex, and the effect on the HBE transcriptome was assessed by RNA sequencing. NETs consistently stimulated IL-8, TNF-α, and IL-1α secretion by HBEs from multiple donors, with variable effects on other cytokines (IL-6, G-CSF, and GM-CSF). Expression of HBE RNAs encoding IL-1 family cytokines, particularly IL-36 subfamily members, was increased in response to NETs. NET exposure in the presence of anakinra [recombinant human IL-1 receptor antagonist (rhIL-1RA)] dampened NET-induced changes in IL-8 and TNF-α proteins as well as IL-36α RNA. rhIL-36RA limited the increase in expression of proinflammatory cytokine RNAs in HBEs exposed to NETs. NETs selectively upregulate an IL-1 family cytokine response in HBEs, which enhances IL-8 production and is limited by rhIL-1RA. The present findings describe a unique mechanism by which NETs may contribute to inflammation in human lung disease in vivo. NET-driven IL-1 signaling may represent a novel target for modulating inflammation in diseases characterized by a substantial NET burden.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole de Buhr ◽  
Maren von Köckritz-Blickwede

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have been identified as a fundamental innate immune defense mechanism against different pathogens. NETs are characterized as released nuclear DNA associated with histones and granule proteins, which form an extracellular web-like structure that is able to entrap and occasionally kill certain microbes. Furthermore, NETs have been shown to contribute to several noninfectious disease conditions when released by activated neutrophils during inflammation. The identification of NETs has mainly been succeeded by various microscopy techniques, for example, immunofluorescence microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Since the last years the development and improvement of new immunofluorescence-based techniques enabled optimized visualization and quantification of NETs. On the one handin vitrolive-cell imaging led to profound new ideas about the mechanisms involved in the formation and functionality of NETs. On the other hand different intravital,in vivo, andin situmicroscopy techniques led to deeper insights into the role of NET formation during health and disease. This paper presents an overview of the main used microscopy techniques to visualize NETs and describes their advantages as well as disadvantages.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Giang ◽  
David A. Horwitz ◽  
Sean Bickerton ◽  
Antonio La Cava

Artificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs) are synthetic versions of naturally occurring antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that, similar to natural APCs, promote efficient T effector cell responses in vitro. This report describes a method to produce acellular tolerogenic aAPCs made of biodegradable poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) and encapsulating IL-2 and TGF-β for a paracrine release to T cells. We document that these aAPCs can induce both human CD4+ and CD8+ T cells to become FoxP3+ T regulatory cells (Tregs). The aAPC NP-expanded human Tregs are functional in vitro and can modulate systemic autoimmunity in vivo in humanized NSG mice. These findings establish a proof-of-concept to use PLGA NPs as aAPCs for the induction of human Tregs in vitro and in vivo, highlighting the immunotherapeutic potential of this targeted approach to repair IL-2 and/or TGF-β defects documented in certain autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chendi Jing ◽  
Chenghua Liu ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Ruli Feng ◽  
Run Cao ◽  
...  

Extracellular traps released by neutrophils (NETs) are essential for the clearance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Alkaline protease (AprA) secreted by P. aeruginosa negatively correlates with clinical improvement. Moreover, anti-AprA in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) can help identify patients with aggressive forms of chronic infection. However, the mechanism underlying the clinical outcomes remains unclear. We demonstrated that aprA deficiency in P. aeruginosa decreased the bacterial burden and reduced lung infection. AprA degraded NET components in vitro and in vivo but did not affect NET formation. Importantly, antibodies induced by AprA acted as an agonist and directly enhanced the degrading activities of AprA. Moreover, antisera from patients with P. aeruginosa infection exhibited antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) similar to that of the antibodies we prepared. Our further investigations showed that the interaction between AprA and the specific antibodies might make the enzyme active sites better exposed, and subsequently enhance the recognition of substrates and accelerate the degradation. Our findings revealed that AprA secreted by P. aeruginosa may aggravate infection by destroying formed NETs, an effect that was further enhanced by its antibodies.


2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 431-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Juneau ◽  
Bing Pang ◽  
Kristin E. D. Weimer ◽  
Chelsie E. Armbruster ◽  
W. Edward Swords

ABSTRACTNontypeableHaemophilus influenzae(NTHI) is a leading cause of otitis media infections, which are often chronic and/or recurrent in nature. NTHI and other bacterial species persistin vivowithin biofilms during otitis media and other persistent infections. These biofilms have a significant host component that includes neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). These NETs do not mediate clearance of NTHI, which survives within NET structures by means of specific subpopulations of lipooligosaccharides on the bacterial surface that are determinants of biofilm formationin vitro. In this study, the ability of NTHI and NTHI components to initiate NET formation was examined using anin vitromodel system. Both viable and nonviable NTHI strains were shown to promote NET formation, as did preparations of bacterial DNA, outer membrane proteins, and lipooligosaccharide (endotoxin). However, only endotoxin from a parental strain of NTHI exhibited equivalent potency in NET formation to that of NTHI. Additional studies showed that NTHI entrapped within NET structures is resistant to both extracellular killing within NETs and phagocytic killing by incoming neutrophils, due to oligosaccharide moieties within the lipooligosaccharides. Thus, we concluded that NTHI elicits NET formation by means of multiple pathogen-associated molecular patterns (most notably endotoxin) and is highly resistant to killing within NET structures. These data support the conclusion that, for NTHI, formation of NET structures may be a persistence determinant by providing a niche within the middle-ear chamber.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Shi-Lin Qiu ◽  
Qi-Ya Tang ◽  
Xiu Zhou ◽  
Jian-Quan Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) may play a critical role in smoking-related chronic airway inflammation. However, the mechanism by which NETs induced by cigarette smoke initiate the adaptive immunity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is not fully understood. In this study, we explored the effects of NETs induced by cigarette smoke on the myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and Th1 and Th17 cells. Additionally, we observed the inhibitory effect of erythromycin on NETs induced by cigarette smoke. We found that elevated NET levels in the sputum of COPD patients were correlated with the circulating Th1 response, mDC activation and airflow limitation. NETs induced by cigarette smoke extract (CSE) could activate monocyte-derived mDCs and promote Th1 and Th17 differentiation in vitro. Erythromycin effectively inhibited NET formation induced by CSE. In vivo, erythromycin decreased NETs in the airway and ameliorated emphysema with Th1 and Th17 cell down-regulation and CD40+ and CD86+ mDCs suppression in mice chronically exposed to cigarette smoke. These findings provide direct evidence that NETs promote the differentiation of Th1 and Th17 and play a role in the adaptive immunity of smoking-related chronic lung inflammation. Erythromycin is a potential therapeutic strategy for NETs inhibition in COPD.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 625-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Filio-Rodríguez ◽  
Iris Estrada-García ◽  
Patricia Arce-Paredes ◽  
María M Moreno-Altamirano ◽  
Sergio Islas-Trujillo ◽  
...  

In 2004, a novel mechanism of cellular death, called ‘NETosis’, was described in neutrophils. This mechanism, different from necrosis and apoptosis, is characterized by the release of chromatin webs admixed with microbicidal granular proteins and peptides (NETs). NETs trap and kill a variety of microorganisms. Diverse microorganisms, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, are NET inducers in vitro. The aim of this study was to examine whether M. tuberculosis can also induce NETs in vivo and if the NETs are bactericidal to the microorganism. Guinea pigs were intradermally inoculated with M. tuberculosis H37Rv, and the production of NETs was investigated at several time points thereafter. NETs were detected as early as 30 min post-inoculation and were clearly evident by 4 h post-inoculation. NETs produced in vivo contained DNA, myeloperoxidase, elastase, histones, ROS and acid-fast bacilli. Viable and heat-killed M. tuberculosis, as well as Mycobacterium bovis BCG were efficient NET inducers, as were unilamellar liposomes prepared with lipids from M. tuberculosis. In vitro, guinea pig neutrophils also produced NETs in response to M. tuberculosis. However, neither the in vivo nor the in vitro-produced NETs were able to kill M. tuberculosis. Nevertheless, in vivo, neutrophils might propitiate recruitment and activation of more efficient microbicidal cells.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (06) ◽  
pp. 553-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Jiménez-Alcázar ◽  
Natalie Kim ◽  
Tobias Fuchs

AbstractThrombosis leads to ischemic organ damage in cardiovascular and thromboembolic diseases. Neutrophils promote thrombosis in vitro and in vivo by releasing neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NETs are composed of DNA filaments coated with histones and neutrophil enzymes such as myeloperoxidase (MPO). Circulating extracellular DNA (ceDNA) is widely used as a surrogate marker to monitor NET formation in thrombosis. This narrative review summarizes the association of ceDNA with human thrombosis. Levels of ceDNA indicate the extent and outcome of several cardiovascular and thromboembolic diseases, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and venous thromboembolism. ceDNA correlates with markers of coagulation and platelet consumption, thus supporting the hypothesis that ceDNA may be a surrogate marker of thrombus formation. In addition, ceDNA levels correlate with markers of cell injury and size of ischemic lesions, suggesting that ceDNA does not derive from NETs but is probably released from damaged organs. Few studies identified NET-specific biomarkers such as DNA–MPO complexes in the blood of patients with thrombosis. In conclusion, it remains to be established whether ceDNA in patients derives from NETs and is a cause or consequence of thrombosis.


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