CD4+FOXP3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells are essential for maintaining immunological self-tolerance. Treg cell development and function depend on the transcription factor FOXP3, which is present in several distinct isoforms due to alternative splicing. Despite the importance of FOXP3 in the proper maintenance of Treg cells, the regulation and functional consequences of FOXP3 isoform expression remains poorly understood. Here, we show that in human Treg cells IL-1β promotes excision of FOXP3 exon 7. FOXP3 is not only expressed by Treg cells but is also transiently expressed when naïve T cells differentiate into Th17 cells. Forced splicing of FOXP3 into FOXP3Δ2Δ7 strongly favored Th17 differentiation in vitro. We also found that patients with Crohn’s disease express increased levels of FOXP3 transcripts lacking exon 7, which correlate with disease severity and IL-17 production. Our results demonstrate that alternative splicing of FOXP3 modulates T cell differentiation. These results highlight the importance of characterizing FOXP3 expression on an isoform basis and suggest that immune responses may be manipulated by modulating the expression of FOXP3 isoforms, which has broad implications for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

By studying hypercholesterolaemic mice with defects in TLR-signalling adaptors, we demonstrated that deleting either TRAM or TRIF in immune cells is sufficient to attenuate vessel inflammation and protect against atherosclerosis. In addition, these adaptors elicit partly different sets of inflammatory mediators and can independently inhibit the disease process. Furthermore, we identify TLR3 as a pro-atherogenic receptor in haematopoietic immune cells. The identification of these pro-atherogenic pathways downstream of TLR3 and TLR4 contributes to a better understanding of TLRs and their signalling pathways in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

Current procedures for diagnosis and biomarker examination of colorectal cancer (CRC) are invasive and unpleasant. There is a great need to identify sensitive and specific biomarkers for early diagnosis of CRC. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are promising molecular markers for CRC prediction. We performed a comprehensive meta-analysis to integrate an evaluation index for diagnostic accuracy of circulating miRNAs in diagnosing CRC patients. Furthermore, we conducted an independent validation set of 49 CRC patients and 49 healthy controls. In our meta-analysis, we found that miR-21 yielded a pooled area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.867 (sensitivity: 76%, specificity: 82%) in discriminating CRC from controls, and miR-92a yielded a summary AUC of 0.803 (sensitivity: 77%, specificity: 68%); miR-21 had a higher diagnostic efficiency than miR-92a. In the further validation, plasma miR-21 levels in CRC patients were significantly higher than levels observed in healthy subjects. A ROC curve analysis showed a consistent result. However, this phenotype was not present in miR-92a. Moreover, the expression trend of miR-21 in plasma samples was in line with that of tissue samples, along with the cellular level. Current evidences suggest that plasma miR-21 could be a reliable and non-invasive biomarker for CRC diagnosis. Studies with larger cohorts that include the diagnostic value of plasma miR-21 for CRC are warranted.

These results suggest that activated Treg cells suppress the atherosclerotic disease process and that FOXP3Δ2 controls a transcriptional program that acts protectively in human atherosclerotic plaques.

BackgroundPulmonary sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease characterised by granuloma formation and heterogeneous clinical outcome. TNF is a proinflammatory cytokine contributing to granuloma formation and high levels of TNF have been shown to associate with progressive disease. Mononuclear phagocytes (MNPs) are potent producers of TNF and highly responsive to inflammation. In sarcoidosis, alveolar macrophages (AMs) have been well studied. However, MNPs also include monocytes/monocyte-derived cells and dendritic cells (DCs) that despite their central role in inflammation are poorly studied in sarcoidosis.ObjectiveTo determine the role of pulmonary monocyte-derived cells and DCs during sarcoidosis.MethodsWe performed in-depth phenotypic, functional and transcriptomic analysis of MNPs subsets from blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from 108 sarcoidosis patients and 30 healthy controls. We followed the clinical development of patients and assessed how the repertoire and function of MNP subsets at diagnosis correlated with 2-year disease outcome.ResultsMonocytes/monocyte-derived cells were increased in blood and BAL of sarcoidosis patients compared to healthy controls. Interestingly, high frequencies of blood intermediate monocytes at time of diagnosis associated with chronic disease development. RNAseq analysis showed highly inflammatory MNPs in BAL of sarcoidosis patients. Furthermore, frequencies of BAL monocytes/monocyte-derived cells producing TNF without exogenous stimulation at time of diagnosis increased in patients that were followed longitudinally. In contrast to AMs, the frequency of TNF producing BAL monocytes/monocyte-derived cells at time of diagnosis was highest in sarcoidosis patients that developed progressive disease.ConclusionOur data show that pulmonary monocytes/monocyte-derived cells are highly inflammatory and can be used as a predictor of disease outcome in sarcoidosis patients.

These findings supported miR-26a and miR-148a could serve as potential prognostic biomarkers for GC.

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BackgroundIn the past decades, a good deal of studies has provided the possibility of the circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as noninvasive biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. The aim of our study was to detect the levels of circulating miRNAs in tissues and plasmas of gastric cancer (GC) patients and evaluate their diagnostic value.MethodsTissue samples were collected from 85 GC patients. Plasma samples were collected from 285 GC patients and 285 matched controls. Differentially expressed miRNAs were filtered with by Agilent Human miRNA Microarray and TaqMan low density array (TLDA) with pooled samples, followed by the quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) validation. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were structured to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the miRNAs. The plasma level of miR-26a in GC patients of different clinical stages was compared.ResultsFour miRNAs (miR-26a, miR-142-3p, miR-148a, and miR-195) revealed coincidentally decreased levels in tissue and plasma of the GC patients compared with controls, and ROC curves were constructed to demonstrate that miR-26a had a highest area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.882. Furthermore, miR-26a was stably detected in the plasma of GC patients with different clinical characteristics.ConclusionPlasma miR-26a may provide a novel and stable marker of gastric cancer.