Basic Science Session: Short Contributed Talks
AIRR Community Meeting VII - Learnings and Perspectives
June 3-6, 2024
University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
www.antibodysociety.org/the-a...
00:00 "MHC Heterozygosity Prunes the Numbers of Different T Cell Receptors Expressed in CD4 T Cells"
Alex Brown, Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Postdoctoral Fellow
V(D)J genes of αβ T cell receptors (TCRs) recombine, yielding billions of TCRα+TCRβ combinations for interactions with self and foreign MHC/peptide ligands. Diverse MHC alleles present a broader array of foreign peptides to T cells, hindering the escape of invading organisms. MHC and T cell diversity are vital for species fitness, but the causal link of how one or more MHC alleles control T cell diversity remains unknown. We show that the TCR repertoire in MHC heterozygotes partly overlaps with that of MHC homozygotes. However, a large proportion of TCRs present in homozygotes were absent in heterozygotes. We provide evidence that many of these missing TCRs were eliminated based on thymic deletion via reaction with the "other" parent's MHC.
11:17 "Exploring Sex Disparities in the generation and selection of T Cell Receptor repertoires"
Hélène Vantomme, Sorbonne University, PhD student
Sex differences in immune responses and disease susceptibility underscore the importance of sex as a critical factor in immune modulation. Notably, women exhibit a higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases, suggesting sex-specific mechanisms in immune regulation. One hypothesis posits that disparities in T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire generation and thymic selection may contribute to these differences. Our study aimed to evaluate sex biases in thymic T cell repertoire generation and selection by comparing TCR repertoires across thymic subpopulations in men and women.
20:42 "Unraveling the Complex T Cell Receptor-Microbiome Interaction Network in the Colon Through Advanced Computational Analysis"
Romi Vandoren, University of Antwerp, PhD student
T cells and their T cell receptors (TCR) play a crucial role in the body's immune defense against a wide variety of pathogens. However, pinpointing the specific bacteria that activate T cells in complex environments such as the colon remains challenging due to the vast TCR and gut microbiome diversity. To address this challenge, we introduce a new computational framework known as Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire-Wide Association Study (AIRRWAS). AIRRWAS uses advanced statistical analysis to link TCR sequences to their target microbial species, utilizing data from an extensive cohort of paired TCR-seq and 16S rRNA microbiome data.