Publications by authors named "Laurent Abel"

Autosomal recessive deficiency of the IFNAR1 or IFNAR2 chain of the human type I IFN receptor abolishes cellular responses to IFN-α, -β, and -ω, underlies severe viral diseases, and is globally very rare, except for IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 deficiency in Western Polynesia and the Arctic, respectively. We report 11 human IFNAR1 alleles, the products of which impair but do not abolish responses to IFN-α and -ω without affecting responses to IFN-β. Ten of these alleles are rare in all populations studied, but the remaining allele (P335del) is common in Southern China (minor allele frequency ≈2%).

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  • T follicular helper (Tfh) cells, which are important for antibody production, rely heavily on the immunoreceptor PD-1, and its deficiency leads to weakened Tfh functions and impaired immune responses in mice.
  • Individuals lacking PD-1 or PD-L1 demonstrate fewer memory B cells and diminished antibody responses, highlighting the critical role of these molecules in immune system functionality.
  • PD-1 influences both the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of B cell memory and antibody production, suggesting that disruptions in PD-1 signaling can lead to complications in immune responses, especially during anti-PD-1-PD-L1 therapies.
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Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare condition following SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with intestinal manifestations. Genetic predisposition, including inborn errors of the OAS-RNAseL pathway, has been reported. We sequenced 154 MIS-C patients and utilized a novel statistical framework of gene burden analysis, "burdenMC," which identified an enrichment for rare predicted-deleterious variants in BTNL8 (OR = 4.

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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease, the pathophysiology and genetic basis of which are incompletely understood. Using a forward genetic screen in multiplex families with SLE, we identified an association between SLE and compound heterozygous deleterious variants in the non-receptor tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) and . Experimental blockade of ACK1 or BRK increased circulating autoantibodies in vivo in mice and exacerbated glomerular IgG deposits in an SLE mouse model.

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Arboviral diseases are a growing global health concern. Pre-existing autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) can underlie encephalitis due to West Nile virus (WNV) (∼40% of patients) and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE, due to TBE virus [TBEV]) (∼10%). We report here that these auto-Abs can also underlie severe forms of rarer arboviral infections.

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Patients heterozygous for germline CBL loss-of-function (LOF) variants can develop myeloid malignancy, autoinflammation, or both, if some or all of their leukocytes become homozygous for these variants through somatic loss of heterozygosity (LOH) via uniparental isodisomy. We observed an upregulation of the inflammatory gene expression signature in whole blood from these patients, mimicking monogenic inborn errors underlying autoinflammation. Remarkably, these patients had constitutively activated monocytes that secreted 10 to 100 times more inflammatory cytokines than those of healthy individuals and CBL LOF heterozygotes without LOH.

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  • * A study examined 131 female patients with X-linked dominant incontinentia pigmenti (IP), finding that 36% produced autoantibodies against IFN-α and/or IFN-ω, significantly higher than age-matched controls.
  • * The presence of these autoantibodies is linked to an abnormally small thymus and predisposes patients to life-threatening viral infections, while those without these autoantibodies do not face the same risk.
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  • Some babies with a specific mutation in the IL7R gene have a serious immune problem called SCID, where they lack a certain type of immune cells called T cells, but still have normal B and NK cells.
  • In a study of 6 adults who have a similar genetic issue, they showed low levels of T cells but had relatively normal levels of other immune cells, indicating a more specific problem in T cell development.
  • Even though their T cells didn’t grow well in the lab, the study hints that there might be another way T cells can develop that doesn’t depend solely on the IL-7 cytokine.
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  • Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), spread through tick bites, mostly causes mild illness in over 90% of cases, but can lead to varying degrees of encephalitis in some individuals.
  • Around 10% of patients with severe TBE in Austria, Czech Republic, and France have auto-antibodies (auto-Abs) that neutralize certain types of interferon (IFN), which are important for immune response, while only about 1% of patients with milder symptoms have them.
  • The presence of these auto-Abs significantly increases the risk of severe TBE, with odds ratios indicating up to a 20.8 times higher chance of severe illness when these auto-Abs are
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  • Two unrelated adults were found to have genetic mutations causing a deficiency in a protein called RelB, leading to impaired immune responses.
  • This deficiency affects their ability to produce certain immune cells and antibodies, resulting in low levels of important T and B cells and impaired immune function.
  • As a result, the patients have an increased risk of infections due to their weakened immune system, and they produce harmful autoantibodies against type I interferons even after receiving stem cell transplants.
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Severe defects in human IFNγ immunity predispose individuals to both Bacillus Calmette-Guérin disease and tuberculosis, whereas milder defects predispose only to tuberculosis. Here we report two adults with recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis who are homozygous for a private loss-of-function TNF variant. Neither has any other clinical phenotype and both mount normal clinical and biological inflammatory responses.

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  • The study identifies two cases of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) encephalitis in children linked to rare genetic variants of the TMEFF1 gene, which plays a protective role in the brain.
  • TMEFF1 protein interacts with the HSV-1 receptor NECTIN-1, blocking the virus's ability to enter brain cells, but genetic deficiencies in TMEFF1 allow for easier viral entry and replication within neurons.
  • The research suggests that enhancing TMEFF1 levels or using type I interferon can restore resistance to HSV-1, indicating a potential therapeutic pathway for preventing HSV-1 encephalitis.
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Inherited deficiency of the RNA lariat-debranching enzyme 1 (DBR1) is a rare etiology of brainstem viral encephalitis. The cellular basis of disease and the range of viral predisposition are unclear. We report inherited DBR1 deficiency in a 14-year-old boy who suffered from isolated SARS-CoV-2 brainstem encephalitis.

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Regardless of microbial virulence (i.e., the global infection-fatality ratio), age generally drives the prevalence of death from infection in unvaccinated humans.

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  • Human infectious diseases have led to effective prevention and treatment methods largely due to the discovery of the microbes that cause them, yet this medical success has somewhat stalled deeper biological understanding of these diseases.!* -
  • The germ theory sparked hope, but it became clear that many infected individuals remain healthy, leaving the reasons for severe illness in some people unclear.!* -
  • Traditional research methods focus on microbes as disease causes, while alternative approaches investigate genetic and immune factors in diverse populations to understand why some individuals get seriously ill.!*
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Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease, the pathophysiology and genetic basis of which are incompletely understood. Using a forward genetic screen in multiplex families with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) we identified an association between SLE and compound heterozygous deleterious variants in the non-receptor tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) ACK1 and BRK. Experimental blockade of ACK1 or BRK increased circulating autoantibodies in mice and exacerbated glomerular IgG deposits in an SLE mouse model.

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  • UNC93B1 is a protein involved in signaling for Toll-like receptors, which are important for the immune response.
  • Mutations in UNC93B1 (I317M, G325C, L330R, R466S, and R525P) have been linked to conditions like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and chilblain lupus (CBL), exhibiting both autosomal dominant and recessive inheritance patterns.
  • Different mutations impact the activity of TLR7 and TLR8 differently, suggesting that specific mutations in UNC93B1 lead to varying disease mechanisms for SLE and CBL.
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FMS-related tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (FLT3L), encoded by FLT3LG, is a hematopoietic factor essential for the development of natural killer (NK) cells, B cells, and dendritic cells (DCs) in mice. We describe three humans homozygous for a loss-of-function FLT3LG variant with a history of various recurrent infections, including severe cutaneous warts. The patients' bone marrow (BM) was hypoplastic, with low levels of hematopoietic progenitors, particularly myeloid and B cell precursors.

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Human genetic studies of critical COVID-19 pneumonia have revealed the essential role of type I interferon-dependent innate immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conversely, an association between the HLA-B∗15:01 allele and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals was recently reported, suggesting a contribution of pre-existing T cell-dependent adaptive immunity. We report a lack of association of classical HLA alleles, including HLA-B∗15:01, with pre-omicron asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated participants in a prospective population-based study in the United States (191 asymptomatic vs.

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  • CD4+ T cells are crucial for the immune system, but their exact function is not fully understood, particularly the role of the CD4 protein itself.
  • Researchers studied seven patients with a rare genetic condition causing CD4 deficiency, leading to various infections, and found that these individuals lacked CD4+ T cells but had alternative T cell populations that could still mount immune responses.
  • While the patients showed compensatory immune responses against many pathogens, CD4 remains essential for protection against specific infections like human papillomavirus and Whipple's disease.
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BACKGROUNDWeakly virulent environmental mycobacteria (EM) can cause severe disease in HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 adults harboring neutralizing anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (nAIGAs). The overall prevalence of nAIGAs in the general population is unknown, as are the penetrance of nAIGAs in HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 individuals and the proportion of patients with unexplained, adult-onset EM infections carrying nAIGAs.METHODSThis study analyzed the detection and neutralization of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (auto-Abs) from 8,430 healthy individuals of the general population, 257 HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 carriers, 1,063 patients with autoimmune disease, and 497 patients with unexplained severe disease due to EM.

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We describe humans with rare biallelic loss-of-function variants impairing pre-α T cell receptor (pre-TCRα) expression. Low circulating naive αβ T cell counts at birth persisted over time, with normal memory αβ and high γδ T cell counts. Their TCRα repertoire was biased, which suggests that noncanonical thymic differentiation pathways can rescue αβ T cell development.

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To understand natural resistance to ( ) infection, we studied people living with HIV (PLWH) in an area of high transmission. Given that alveolar leukocytes may contribute to this resistance, we performed single cell RNA-sequencing of bronchoalveolar lavage cells, unstimulated or stimulated with . We obtained high quality cells for 7 participants who were TST & IGRA positive (called LTBI) and 6 who were persistently TST & IGRA negative (called resisters).

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  • The COVID-19 pandemic spurred significant research into how human genetics affects the severity of the disease, revealing key genetic factors that influence outcomes.
  • Brazilian studies have specifically highlighted rare genetic variants related to Inborn Errors of Immunity that can lead to severe reactions in COVID-19, as well as other health issues.
  • A recent GWAS study identified a new genetic locus linked to COVID-19 severity in Brazilian patients, emphasizing the need for further research into Brazil's genetic diversity to understand COVID-19 and other health conditions better.
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