The tetraspanin CD151 marks a unique population of activated human T cells

Abstract

Tetraspanins are a family of proteins with an array of functions that are well studied in cancer biology, but their importance in immunology is underappreciated. Here we establish the tetraspanin CD151 as a unique marker of T-cell activation and, in extension, an indicator of elevated, systemic T-cell activity. Baseline CD151 expression found on a subset of T-cells was indicative of increased activation of the MAPK pathway. Following TCR/CD3 activation, CD151 expression was upregulated on the overall T-cell population, a quintessential feature of an activation marker. CD151+ T-cell frequencies in the spleen, an organ with increased immune activity, were twice as high as in paired peripheral blood samples. This CD151+ T-cell frequency increase was not paralleled by an increase of CD25 or CD38, demonstrating that CD151 expression is regulated independently of other T-cell activation markers. CD151+ T-cells were also more likely to express preformed granzyme B, suggesting that CD151+ T cells are pro-inflammatory. To this end, HIV-1 patients on antiretroviral therapy who are reported to exhibit chronically elevated levels of immune activity, had significantly higher CD4+CD151+ T-cell frequencies than healthy controls, raising the possibility that proinflammatory CD151+ T cells could contribute to the premature immunological aging phenotype observed in these patients.

Combined exome and transcriptome sequencing of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer: associations between genomic changes, expression subtypes, and clinical outcomes

“…In NMIBCs with ERBB2 amplification, the most upregulated gene detected was TLK2 (limma based p.adj value = 2.67 × 10e−02) (Additional file 1 : Table S8) which has been reported to suppress the innate immune system [ 53 ]. CD151 (a marker for T-cell activation [ 54 ] and/or macrophage infiltration [ 55 ]) was also downregulated ( p -value = 3.78 × 10e−5). The ConsensusTME immune score was lower in ERBB2 -amplified NMIBCs but was not statistically significant (Mann-Whitney p -value = 0.12).…”

Possible Role of Extracellular Vesicles in Hepatotoxicity of Acetaminophen

“…Tetraspanin CD151 interacts with plasma membrane integrins and modulates their functions, e.g., in cell migration and endocytosis [ 115 ]. Tetraspanin is also an indicator of elevated T-cell activity and is an important marker of T-cell activation [ 116 ]. In the liver, CD151 is predominantly expressed in endothelial cells and supports lymphocyte adhesion mediated by the vascular cell adhesion protein 1 (VCAM-1 or CD106) in inflammation and hepatocellular carcinoma [ 86 ].…”

Tetraspanins as Potential Modulators of Glutamatergic Synaptic Function

“…Downregulation induces apoptosis in trophoblast cells in preeclampsia (Wang Z. et al, 2021). Marker for activated T cells (Perez et al, 2020) Tetraspanin25 TSPAN25, CD53, MOX44 Blood, lymphoid tissue…”