Disarming FcγRIIA: Separating Immunothrombosis From Protective Immunity.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Elizabeth E Gardiner.
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Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by platelet destruction and dysfunction associated with anti-platelet antibodies. This study evaluated the relationship between total anti-platelet antibody burden, measured using a modified platelet immunofluorescence test (PIFT), platelet functional responses and clinical features in chronic ITP. Thirty-one patients with chronic ITP and 20 healthy controls were included. Bleeding severity was assessed, and platelet function was analysed in peripheral blood by measuring P-selectin expression, PAC-1 binding (antibody against active conformation of GPIIb/IIIa) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation at baseline and following agonist stimulation. Relative platelet-reactive antibody burden was assessed using a ratio-based PIFT assay. ITP patients demonstrated significantly higher antibody burden compared with controls. Increased platelet-reactive immunoglobulin G (IgG) signals were associated with reduced platelet responsiveness to agonist stimulation. Antibody burden correlated with bleeding severity (p < 0.01) but not with platelet count. Non-responders exhibited significantly higher antibody levels than responders. receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated discrimination between responder groups at a PIFT cut-off ≥3.85 (area under the curve [AUC] 0.877, sensitivity 80%; specificity 87%). Patients above this threshold showed attenuated platelet functional responses. Taken together, this study concluded that quantitative assessment of total antibody burden against platelets using modified PIFT is associated with platelet dysfunction, bleeding severity and treatment response status in chronic ITP.
BACKGROUND: Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-like transcript 1 (TLT-1), a platelet-specific α-granule protein, is implicated in hemostasis, but its regulation remains unclear. Platelet dysfunction contributes to trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) and thrombotic complications in trauma or mechanical circulatory support (MCS); however, underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying soluble TLT (sTLT)-1 release and its role as a biomarker of platelet dysfunction in patients with severe trauma or receiving MCS. METHODS: TLT-1 dynamics on platelets exposed to glycoprotein (GP)VI ligand, coagulation, or shear stress in vitro were evaluated by ELISA and immunoblotting. sTLT-1 was measured in plasma from trauma or MCS-treated patients and healthy donors. Associations with TIC, injury severity, and mortality were assessed. RESULTS: Proteolysis of TLT-1 to release a 10- to 17-kDa fragment was metalloproteinase dependent and blocked by ADAM10 and ADAM17 inhibition. Unlike GPVI, platelet TLT-1 exposure increased following PAR-1 activation. sTLT-1 was elevated in trauma patients compared with controls and correlated with TIC (P < .05) and injury severity (P < .01). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis demonstrated discriminatory performance for TIC (area under the curve, 0.78; P = .011), with a Youden cutoff of 1.180 ng/mL yielding 89% sensitivity and 73% specificity. Platelet TLT-1 was basally expressed, mobilized 2.5-fold with activation, and shed in response to GPVI ligation and plasma recalcification. Shear-exposed platelets and plasma from MCS-treated patients exhibited elevated sTLT-1 levels. CONCLUSION: Unlike GPVI, TLT-1 increased on activated platelets and was regulated by ADAM10 and ADAM17. TLT-1 release is triggered by shear stress, GPVI ligands or activated factor X. Plasma sTLT-1 was associated with trauma severity and TIC.
SUMMARY: Complex tabular datasets comprising many diverse features can require specific expertise to interpret, posing a barrier to researchers with minimal data science experience. EDAmame is an interactive tool that simplifies initial analysis and visualization of these datasets, providing insights into data quality and feature relationships. By leveraging open-source machine learning frameworks in R, EDAmame allows researchers to perform effective exploratory data analysis without command-line or coding requirements. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: A limited online version can be accessed at https://edamame.org.au/ or can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15356492. The app is developed in R Shiny and implements tidyverse and tidymodels packages.
The platelet collagen receptor, glycoprotein (GP)VI, initiates platelet aggregation at low shear stress while GPIb-IX-V, which binds von Willebrand factor, elicits platelet aggregation under high shear conditions. To investigate the possibility that GPIb-IX-V and GPVI are associated on the platelet surface, we first ascertained that aggregation induced by a GPVI-specific agonist, collagen-related peptide, like collagen, is markedly cross-blocked by a GPIb alpha-specific monoclonal antibody, SZ2. Immunoprecipitation of GPIb-IX with anti-GPIb alpha from the 1% (v/v) Triton-soluble fraction of unstimulated platelets and immunoblotting with anti-GPVI demonstrated association between GPIb-IX and GPVI. This association was maintained when platelets were activated by thrombin. Pre-treatment of platelets with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin to disrupt lipid rafts did not affect association in resting platelets under these conditions of detergent lysis. The association is also independent of cytoskeletal attachment, since it was unaffected by treatment with N-ethylmaleimide or DNaseI, which dissociate GPIb-IX from filamin and the actin-containing cytoskeleton, respectively. Finally, the association involves an interaction between the ectodomains of GPIb alpha and GPVI, since soluble fragments of GPIb alpha (glycocalicin) and GPVI are co-precipitated from the platelet supernatant under conditions where GPVI is shed. A contribution of GPIb-IX-V to GPVI-induced platelet responses, and vice versa, therefore warrants further investigation.
Platelet glycoprotein (GP)Ib-IX-V and GPVI are unique platelet receptors that bind von Willebrand factor or collagen, respectively, and control the initial interaction of circulating platelets with the blood vessel wall in physiology (hemostasis) or pathology (heart attack or stroke). Engagement of GPIbalpha (the major ligand-binding subunit of GPIb-IX-V) by von Willebrand factor or GPVI by collagen, leads to mobilization of cytosolic Ca2+, secretion of platelet agonists such as ADP, cytoskeletal changes, and activation of the platelet integrin alphaIIbbeta3 that mediates von Willebrand factor- or fibrinogen-dependent platelet aggregation. Recent evidence suggests the cytosolic regulatory protein, calmodulin, plays a central role in regulating GPVI or GPIb-IX-V: first, calmodulin directly binds to conserved, juxtamembrane motifs within cytoplasmic domains of both GPVI and GPIb-IX-V (GPIbbeta and GPV subunits) on resting platelets, interactions that dissociate upon platelet activation; second, an intact calmodulin-binding site within GPVI in transfected cells is required for CaCa2+ signaling, but not for GPVI-dependent pathways involving Src family kinases or co-associated FcRgamma-chain; and third, calmodulin regulates metalloproteinase-dependent ectodomain shedding of GPVI and GPV from human platelets. Other vascular cell adhesion receptors, i.e. leukocyte L-selectin, or PECAM-1 (platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1), also bind calmodulin within the juxtamembrane region of their cytoplasmic tails, an interaction involved in their proteolytic regulation. Further studies should define the precise functional role of calmodulin in thrombus formation initiated by GPIb-IX-V or GPVI.
Thrombosis can be initiated when activated platelets adhere to injured blood vessels via the interaction of subendothelial collagen with its platelet receptor, glycoprotein (GP) VI. Here we observed that incubation of platelets with convulxin, collagen, or collagen-related peptide (CRP) resulted in GPVI signaling-dependent loss of surface GPVI and the appearance of an approximately 55-kDa soluble fragment of GPVI as revealed by immunoblotting. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or GM6001 (a metalloproteinase inhibitor with broad specificity) prevented this loss. In other receptor systems, calmodulin binding to membrane-proximal cytoplasmic sequences regulates metalloproteinase-mediated ectodomain shedding. In this regard, we have previously shown that calmodulin binds to a positively charged, membrane-proximal sequence within the cytoplasmic tail of GPVI. Incubation of platelets with calmodulin inhibitor W7 (150 microM) resulted in a time-dependent loss of GPVI from the platelet surface. Both EDTA and GM6001 prevented this loss. Surface plasmon resonance demonstrated that W7 specifically blocked the association of calmodulin with an immobilized synthetic peptide corresponding to the calmodulin-binding sequence of GPVI. These findings suggest that disruption of calmodulin binding to receptor cytoplasmic tails by agonist binding to the receptor triggers metalloproteinase-mediated loss of GPVI from the platelet surface. This process may represent a potential mechanism to regulate GPVI-dependent platelet adhesion.
Patho/physiological platelet aggregate (thrombus) formation is initiated by engagement of platelet surface receptors, glycoprotein (GP)Ib-IX-V and GPVI that bind von Willebrand factor or collagen. Although beneficial in response to vascular injury by preventing blood loss (haemostasis), platelet aggregation in a sclerotic coronary artery or other diseased blood vessel (thrombosis) can cause thrombotic diseases like heart attack and stroke. At the molecular level, ligand interactions with GPIb-IX-V or GPVI trigger signalling responses, including elevation of cytosolic Ca2+, dissociation of calmodulin from their cytoplasmic domains, cytoskeletal actin-filament rearrangements, activation of src-family kinases or PI 3-kinase, and 'inside-out' activation of the integrin, alphaIIbbeta3 (GPIIb-llla), that binds von Willebrand factor or fibrinogen and mediates platelet aggregation. Furthermore, emerging evidence supports a topographical co-association of these receptors of the leucine-rich repeat family (GPIb-IX-V) and immunoglobulin superfamily (GPVI) in an adhesive cluster or 'adhesosome'. This arrangement may underlie common mechanisms of initiating thrombus formation in haemostasis or thrombotic disease.
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Initiation of thrombus formation involves the platelet adhesion receptors, glycoprotein (GP)Ib-IX-V and GPVI, that bind von Willebrand factor (vWF) and collagen, respectively. These interactions trigger intracellular signals leading to degranulation, elevation of cytosolic Ca2+, cytoskeletal rearrangements, and "inside-out" activation of the integrin, GPIIb-IIIa (alphaIIbbeta3) that binds von Willebrand Factor (vWF) or fibrinogen and mediates platelet aggregation. GPIbalpha (the vWF-binding subunit of GPIb-IX-V) of the leucine-rich repeat protein family and GPVI of the immunoglobulin superfamily not only have a parallel physiological function, but recent studies of these receptors have revealed structure-activity relationships amongst snake venom toxins which target them. Two families of venom proteins, the C-type lectin-like proteins and metalloproteinase-disintegrins, target GPIbalpha, GPVI and/or the collagen-binding integrin, GPIa-IIa (alpha2beta1). Members of the C-type lectin family interact specifically with GPIbalpha (echicetin, alboaggregin-B, agglucetin), GPVI (convulxin, ophioluxin) or GPIa-IIa (rhodocetin), whereas related proteins accomplish dual receptor occupancy and bind GPVI and GPIbalpha (alboaggregin-A, alboluxin), or GPIbalpha and GPIa-IIa (aggretin). These latter venom proteins mimic physiological ligands, vWF or collagen, which also recognize more than one receptor. Similarly, metalloproteinase-disintegrin family proteins target GPlbalpha (mocarhagin, crotalin), GPVI (alborhagin) or GPIa-IIa (jararhagin), resulting in inhibition or induction of platelet aggregation by proteolytically dependent or independent mechanisms. Anti-thrombotics based on snake venom GPIIb-IIIa inhibitors have been investigated clinically, however analogous proteins recognizing GPIb-IX-V or GPVI are yet to be therapeutically exploited.
Platelet glycoprotein Ib-IX-V (GPIb-IX-V) mediates adhesion to von Willebrand factor (vWF) in (patho)physiological thrombus formation. vWF binds the N-terminal 282 residues of GPIb alpha, consisting of an N-terminal flank (His1-Ile35), 7 leucine-rich repeats (Leu36-Ala200), a C-terminal flank (Phe201-Gly268), and a sulfated tyrosine sequence (Asp269-Glu282). By expressing canine-human chimeras of GPIb alpha on Chinese hamster ovary cells, binding sites for functional anti-GPIb alpha antibodies to individual domains were previously mapped, and it was shown that leucine-rich repeats 2 to 4 were required for optimal vWF recognition under static or flow conditions. Using novel canine-human chimeras dissecting the C-terminal flank, it is now demonstrated that (1) Phe201-Glu225 contains the epitope for AP1, an anti-GPIb alpha monoclonal antibody that inhibits both ristocetin- and botrocetin-dependent vWF binding; (2) VM16d, an antibody that preferentially inhibits botrocetin-dependent vWF binding, recognizes the sequence Val226-Gly268, surrounding Cys248, which forms a disulfide-bond with Cys209; (3) vWF binding to chimeric GPIb alpha is comparable to wild-type in 2 chimeras in which the sixth leucine-rich repeat was of the same species as the first disulfide loop (Phe201-Cys248) of the C-terminal flank, suggesting an interaction between these domains may be important for optimal vWF binding; and (4) replacing the C-terminal flank second disulfide loop (Asp249-Gly268) in human GPIb alpha with the corresponding canine sequence enhanced vWF binding under static and flow conditions, providing the first evidence for a gain-of-function phenotype associated with the second loop of the C-terminal flank.