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GPR15-mediated T cell recruitment during acute viral myocarditis facilitated virus elimination and improved outcome

Nature Cardiovascular Research volume 3, pages 76–93 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Viral myocarditis is characterized by infiltration of mononuclear cells essential for virus elimination. GPR15 has been identified as a homing receptor for regulatory T cells in inflammatory intestine diseases, but its role in inflammatory heart diseases is still elusive. Here we show that GPR15 deficiency impairs coxsackievirus B3 elimination, leading to adverse cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. Delayed recruitment of regulatory T cells in GPR15-deficient mice was accompanied by prolonged persistence of cytotoxic and regulatory T cells. In addition, RNA sequencing revealed prolonged inflammatory response and altered chemotaxis in knockout mice. In line, we identified GPR15 and its ligand GPR15L as an important chemokine receptor–ligand pair for the recruitment of regulatory and cytotoxic T cells. In summary, the insufficient virus elimination might be caused by a delayed recruitment of T cells as well as delayed interferon-γ expression, resulting in a prolonged inflammatory response and an adverse outcome in GPR15-deficient mice.

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Fig. 1: Impact of GPR15 deficiency during the subacute phase of CVB3-induced myocarditis 16 days p.i.
Fig. 2: Impact of GPR15 deficiency during acute phase of CVB3-induced myocarditis 5 days, 6 days and 7 days p.i.
Fig. 3: Analysis of immune cell infiltration in LV tissue during the acute phase 5 days, 6 days and 7 days after CVB3 infection.
Fig. 4: Identification of DEGs comparing cardiac tissue samples from Gpr15gfp/gfp and WT mice at 6 days and 7 days after CVB3 infection.
Fig. 5: Upregulated GO terms related to T-cell-mediated immune response and chemotaxis in infected Gpr15gfp/gfp mice on day 7 p.i.
Fig. 6: GPR15-expressing splenocytes and their interactions with the ligand GPR15L.
Fig. 7: IFNγ in different T cell subtypes and its influence on virus load and replication in HL1 cells.

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Data availability

RNA sequencing data are available under GSE248521. Source data of all main figures are provided.

Code availability

The code used for processing of RNA sequencing data (poly(A) tail clipping) is available at https://github.com/AGLindner/GPR15-RNA-Sequencing.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the core unit for cytometry and cell sorting; the UKE Microscopy Imaging Facility at the University Hospital Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf for providing flow cytometers, microscopes and support; and GenXPro for performing MACE analyses and bioinformatics. Furthermore, the authors thank O. E. Meyfarth and R. Scholz for technical assistance. We greatly appreciate the assistance of K. Hartmann and S. Krasemann (HEXT Mouse Pathology Core Facility, UKE Hamburg) in processing histological samples. We thank the Lighthouse Core Facility (LCF) for support with cell sorting and flow cytometry. LCF is funded, in part, by the Medical Faculty, University of Freiburg (project nos. 2021/A2-Fol and 2021/B3-Fol) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) (project no. 450392965). The transgenic DsRed mice were kindly provided by R. Kesselring (Department of General and Visceral Surgery, Medical Center, University of Freiburg). H.W., T.V., T.M., D. Wolf, I.H., D. Westermann and D.L. are members of SFB1425, funded by the DFG (project no. 422681845). This work was supported by the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) (FKZ 81Z0710108 to D. Westermann and D.L.).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Bastian Stoffers, Hanna Wolf.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology and Angiology, University Heart Center Freiburg-Bad Krozingen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Bastian Stoffers, Hanna Wolf, Lucas Bacmeister, Svenja Kupsch, Tamara Vico, Timoteo Marchini, Armin Ardeshirdavani, Dennis Wolf, Ingo Hilgendorf, Dirk Westermann & Diana Lindner

  2. DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Hamburg/Kiel/Lübeck, Hamburg, Germany

    Bastian Stoffers, Hanna Wolf, Isabell Yan, P. Moritz Becher, Paulus Kirchhof, Stefan Blankenberg, Tanja Zeller, Dirk Westermann & Diana Lindner

  3. Department Digital Health Sciences and Biomedicine, School of Life Sciences, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany

    Maria A. Brehm

  4. Department of Cardiology, University Heart & Vascular Centre Hamburg, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Isabell Yan, P. Moritz Becher, Paulus Kirchhof, Stefan Blankenberg & Tanja Zeller

  5. DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Felicitas Escher

  6. Institute for Cardiac Diagnostics and Therapy, Berlin, Germany

    Felicitas Escher

  7. Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité, Department of Cardiology, Angiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Berlin, Germany

    Felicitas Escher

  8. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Sangwon V. Kim

  9. Cardiopathology, Institute of Pathology and Neuropathology, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Karin Klingel

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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: B.S., H.W., D. Wolf, I.H., D. Westermann and D.L. Performed the experiments: B.S., H.W., L.B., S.K., T.V., T.M., I.Y., A.A. and D.L. Analyzed the data: B.S., H.W., L.B., T.V., T.M., F.E. and D.L. Contributed materials/analysis tools: B.S., H.W., L.B., T.V., T.M., M.A.B., P.M.B., F.E., S.V.K., K.K., P.K., S.B., T.Z., D. Wolf, I.H., D. Westermann and D.L. Wrote the manuscript: B.S., H.W., L.B., D. Westermann and D.L.

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Correspondence to Diana Lindner.

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Extended Data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Analysis of immune cells in blood, lymph nodes and LV tissue sections.

(a) Representative staining of CD3 (left panel) or CD8 (right panel) in immune cell infiltrates during the acute phase of myocarditis in heart tissue of infected WT and GPR15−deficient mice. Only infected mice were stained, n numbers are shown in Fig. 2a. (b) Gene expression of Gpr15 was determined in blood of WT mice. N numbers stated in Fig. 2a. Gene expression of specific immune cell markers for T cells (Cd3) and T cell sub-populations TH (Cd4), TC (Cd8) and Treg cells (Foxp3) was determined in blood of WT and GPR15-deficient mice. Ct-values were normalised to 18 S and the corresponding sham (sh) controls (ΔΔCt). 2¬ ΔΔCt values were plotted (geo-mean ± 95% CI). Significance was tested using an unpaired two-tailed t-test with Bonferroni correction. (c) Gene expression of Gpr15 was determined in lymph nodes of WT mice. N numbers stated in Fig. 2a. Gene expression of specific immune cell markers for T cells (Cd3) and T cell sub-populations TH (Cd4), TC (Cd8) and Treg cells (Foxp3) was determined in lymph nodes of WT and GPR15-deficient mice. Ct-values were normalised to Cdkn1b and the corresponding sham (sh) controls (ΔΔCt). 2¬ ΔΔCt values were plotted (geo-mean ± 95% CI). Unpaired two-tailed t-test with Bonferroni correction. Significant, compared * to sh of the same genotype, # between similarly treated groups of different genotypes. (*, **, ***, ****; p < 0.05, 0.01, 0.001, 0.0001)

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 Volcano plots to visualise DEGs assigned to the GO term GO:0006915 “response to virus”.

(a) Myocarditis – 6 days: CVB3-infected WT (left) and Gpr15gfp/gfp (right) mice compared to their sham (sh) control 6 days p.i. (b) Myocarditis – 7 days: CVB3-infected WT (left) and Gpr15gfp/gfp (right) mice compared to their sh control 7 days p.i. (c) Comparison of sh WT and sh Gpr15gfp/gfp mice. Transcriptome analysis was performed by MACE-RNA seq of LV tissue. Fold change (FC) and p-value are displayed in the Volcano plot to visualise significant differences in gene expression. Genes assigned to the GO term GO:0006915 “response to virus” were highlighted as follows: (i) Not significantly regulated (black), (ii) significantly upregulated (FC > 1.5 & p-value < 0.05 (light red), p-value < 0.001 (dark red)) or (iii) significantly downregulated (FC < -1.5 & p-value < 0.05 (light blue), p-value < 0.001 (dark blue)). Genes labelled with their symbol are part of this GO term and were quantified by TaqMan analyses and plotted in Fig. 3. Genes not assigned to the GO term GO:0006915 are displayed in grey. DEGs were calculated with DESeq2 using Wald test.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 69 similar regulated DEGs found by comparing DEGs from day 6 and day 7.

Heat maps of the 69 DEGs (58 up- and 11 downregulated in GPR15-deficient mice, FC + /-1.5 and a p-value < 0.001) that were similar regulated on day 6 (left) and 7 (right) p.i. Gene expression is normalized to the mean of the respective CVB3-infected WT group and plotted as fold change (FC, log2) for each sample separately. DEGs were calculated with DESeq2 using Wald test.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Similarity matrix of significant GO terms of the domain biological process.

957 GO terms that were significantly different on day 6 and, or on day 7 between both infected genotypes were clustered based on semantic similarity using the R package simplify enrichment. “Lin” method was used to calculate the similarity matrix for these GO terms. 15 semantic similarity clusters were determined (right) and were further summarized into 8 main clusters due to strong similarities (left, C1-C8).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 5 Adhesion assay and analysis of GPR15-mediated T cell functionality.

(a) Gpr15l gene expression in HL1 cardiomyocytes after TNFα stimulation (10 ng/ml, 6 h, n = 4 biological replicates). Ct-values were normalised to Cdnk1b and the corresponding untreated control (ΔΔCt). Unpaired two-tailed t-test. (b) Quiescent or activated T cells were incubated in the presence or absence of the receptor agonist GPR15L (500 nM). Percentage of positive cells for the intracellular markers (GranzymeB (GrB), IL10, IL17, IFNγ, TNF-α) was quantified for three different T cell populations: CD4+CD25-: T helper cells (TH); CD4+CD25+: regulatory T cells (Treg); CD8+: cytotoxic T cells (TC). (c) Thrombomodulin (Thbd) expression after TNFα stimulation in MHEC‐5 T (25 ng/mL, 5 h, n = 4 biological replicates). Ct‐values were normalised to 18 S and the untreated control (ΔΔCt). Gene expression data were plotted as 2-ΔΔCt (geo-mean ± 95% CI). Unpaired two‐tailed t‐test. (d) MHEC‐5 T monolayer were either cultured with growth medium alone or supplemented with 25 ng/mL TNFα for 24 h. Adhesion of primary splenocytes to MHEC‐5 T monolayer (n = 6-13 biological replicates in 3 independent experiments) was investigated during constant flow for 20 min. The adhesion strength of primary splenocytes was analysed after 5 min of flow pause to allow cells to adhere before flow was turned on to remove nonadherent splenocytes. Adherent splenocytes were counted via FIJI (mean ± 95% CI). Unpaired two‐tailed t‐test. Significant, compared * to control or control of the same genotype (*, **,****; p < 0.05, 0.01, 0.0001).

Source data

Supplementary Information

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Source Data Fig. 1–7 and Extended Data Fig. 1–5

Source data and exact P value for comparisons

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Stoffers, B., Wolf, H., Bacmeister, L. et al. GPR15-mediated T cell recruitment during acute viral myocarditis facilitated virus elimination and improved outcome. Nat Cardiovasc Res 3, 76–93 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-023-00401-z

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