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How human dendritic cells respond to the vaccine vector MVA: elucidating mechanisms at the intersection of viral replication and innate immune sensing

Subject Area Immunology
Term from 2017 to 2020
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390979210
 
Final Report Year 2021

Final Report Abstract

Modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is a live attenuated human smallpox vaccine and a vector for the development of new vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer. Efficient activation of the immune system by MVA relies in part on its encounter with dendritic cells (DCs). MVA infection of DCs leads to multiple outcomes including cytokine production, activation of co-stimulatory molecules for T cell stimulation, and cell death. How these diverse responses are orchestrated in human DCs has not been resolved at the single-cell level. Here, we characterize the distinct DC fates in response to MVA infection using single-cell analyses. We show that, in DCs, MVA infection is limited to early gene expression, because the restriction factor SAMHD1 prevents DNA replication. In response to the early events in the viral cycle, we find that DCs group in three distinct clusters. A cluster of infected cells senses the incoming MVA genome by the cGAS-STING-TBK1-IRF3 pathway of intracellular innate immunity and produces inflammatory cytokines. In response to these cytokines, a cluster of non-infected bystander cells upregulates co-stimulatory molecules. A separate cluster of infected cells undergoes apoptosis. Unexpectedly, induction of apoptosis remains intact following inhibition of the cGAS-STING-TBK1- IRF3 pathway. Instead, it is a response to early MVA gene expression. Thus, apoptosis induction by human DCs in response to MVA infection is distinct from previously described IRF-dependent or replication-dependent pathways. Altogether, our study identifies distinct mechanisms that underlie the complex interactions of MVA with human dendritic cells.

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