TY  - JOUR
AU  - Maia, Ana
AU  - Cardona Gloria, Yamel
AU  - Fuchs, Katharina
AU  - Chang, Tzu-Hsuan
AU  - Engels, Pujan
AU  - Zhou, Min
AU  - Hinnenthal, Timo
AU  - Rusch, Elisa
AU  - Gouttefangeas, Cécile
AU  - Weber, Alexander
TI  - Chitin oligomers promote lymphoid innate and adaptive immune cell activation.
JO  - Journal of leukocyte biology
VL  - 114
IS  - 2
SN  - 0741-5400
CY  - Hoboken, NJ
PB  - Wiley
M1  - DKFZ-2023-00786
SP  - 180-186
PY  - 2023
N1  - 2023 Jul 27;114(2):180-186
AB  - Chitin is a highly abundant N-acetyl-glucosamine (GlcNAc) polysaccharide which has been linked to immune responses in the context of fungal infections and allergic asthma, especially to T helper 2 (Th2) immune responses. Unfortunately, due to the frequent use of crude chitin preparations of unknown purity and degree of polymerization, there is still great uncertainty how chitin activates different parts of the human immune system. We recently identified chitin oligomers of six GlcNAc units as the smallest immunologically active chitin motif and the innate immune receptor TLR2 as a primary chitin sensor on human and murine myeloid cells, but the response of further immune cells, e.g. lymphoid cells, to oligomeric chitin has not been investigated. Our analysis of primary human immune cells now shows that chitin oligomers activate immune responses of both innate and adaptive lymphocytes: Notably, chitin oligomers activated Natural Killer (NK) cells but not B lymphocytes. Moreover, chitin oligomers induced maturation of dendritic cells and enabled potent CD8+ T cell recall responses. Our results suggest that chitin oligomers not only trigger immediate innate responses in a limited range of myeloid cells, but also exert critical activities across the entire human immune system. This highlights chitin oligomer immune activation as an interesting and broadly applicable potential target for both adjuvant development and therapeutic interference in chitin-mediated pathologies.
KW  - B cell (Other)
KW  - Chitin (Other)
KW  - N-acetyl-glucosamine (Other)
KW  - Natural killer (NK) cell (Other)
KW  - T cell (Other)
KW  - Toll-like receptor (TLR) (Other)
KW  - antigen-presenting cell (Other)
KW  - lymphoid cell (Other)
KW  - myeloid cell (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:37075217
DO  - DOI:10.1093/jleuko/qiad044
UR  - https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/275479
ER  -