Call for immunology to return to the wild

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A multidisciplinary research team from more than 10 universities and research institutes has outlined how integrating a more diverse set of species and environments could enhance the biomedical research cycle.

The viruses that cause COVID-19, AIDS, Ebola, and rabies – among others – all made the lethal jump from wildlife into humans.

In an article published in Science, the researchers argue that understanding how the immune system works in animals that live with coronaviruses in a natural environment, such as bats, can give us direction for developing treatments and vaccines to protect humans from viruses.

Lead author Dr Andrew Flies from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania, says this is not a new concept.

“The very first vaccine arose from observing people interacting with animals in a real-world environment. Specifically, milkmaids who acquired a mild cowpox infection from cows were protected from the deadly smallpox. That observation led to the idea of inoculating people with non-lethal viruses to protect them from deadly viruses. This type of discovery can only be made by studying new species in variable environments.”

Modern research relies heavily on mouse experiments in laboratory settings, which limits the scope for this type of ground-breaking discovery.

An example of a long-term payoff from stepping out of the lab is the discovery of a new class of antibodies, often referred to as nanobodies, in camels. Easier and faster to make than traditional antibodies used in biomedicine, camel-derived nanobodies are playing an important role in biomedical research, including the global COVID-19 response.

“We are really excited to see how our initial group discussions held at the first Australian Wild and Comparative Immunology (WACI) workshop led to publishing a Perspective article in a world leading journal,” said co-author Dr Jérôme Le Nours, from the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University, who was co-organiser of the WACI meeting.

Associate Professor Anne Peters, Monash University, co-author and consortium collaborator, added: “There are many excellent wildlife and disease ecologists, veterinarian scientists and immunologists in Australia, and beyond. We hope that our contribution will inspire them to seek mutually beneficial, inter-disciplinary collaboration”.

WACI Consortium collaborator and co-author Associate Professor Julie Old from Western Sydney University said it’s important for immunology research to include more diverse species.

“If we want to evolve our understanding of the immune system, and potentially get ahead of any future pandemics, the research community needs to expand. We need to broaden our scope, and bring new species and new environments into the research paradigm.”

Associate Professor Michelle Power from Macquarie University said: ‘‘Realising wild immunology needs initiatives like the WACI Consortium that harness the wide expertise of scientists and diverse technologies within individual. The risks of emerging infectious diseases are not going away. We need new ideas, new tools and dynamic collaboration to address them”.

The Director of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, Distinguished Professor Alison Venn, said new technology has broken down research barriers to integrating new species and environments into the research cycle.

“Proactive investment in wild immunology can stimulate discoveries with real-world applications for human and veterinary medicine and conservation. It could help us prepare for the next pandemic.”

Read the Rewilding immunology article published in Science.

Learn more about how integrating a more diverse set of species and environments could enhance the biomedical research cycle by watching the video below.

Original article

Our new research collaboration with Janssen to tackle coeliac disease

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Monash University has signed a multi-year research collaboration with Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to advance the understanding of the immune mechanisms underpinning Coeliac Disease and inform the development of new methods of diagnosis and treatment. The research will be led by Professor Jamie Rossjohn from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. The collaboration was facilitated by Monash Innovation, part of the Enterprise portfolio at Monash University, and by Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC.

Coeliac Disease is a serious health condition affecting approximately 1 percent of the world’s population. It occurs when dietary gluten (a food protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats) triggers a damaging immune response that attacks the body. Coeliac disease is associated with a range of health problems and often causes digestive symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. It can also cause anaemia, low iron levels and excessive tiredness and is associated with osteoporosis, other autoimmune disease, infection and some types of cancer.

Providing a definitive diagnosis to Coeliac Disease currently entails invasive biopsy and improved diagnostics and better treatments are urgently needed. Presently, the only approved treatment is a gluten-free diet; there is no known cure. With the disease affecting on average approximately 1 in 70 Australians with around 80 percent of this number undiagnosed, the vast majority of Australians who have coeliac disease are unaware they have it.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise), Professor Ken Sloan, said the research agreement with Janssen is another example of Monash actively engaging with industry to explore new avenues: “Monash University remains committed to moving research forward for the betterment of human health, creating new avenues and opportunities that may lead to tangible benefits for the broader community”, Professor Sloan said.

Director of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Professor John Carroll, said the collaboration brings together leading researchers and industry partners to tackle this major health issue that affects so many individuals around the world.

“This collaboration is another example of how Monash BDI’s strong clinical relationships and industry engagement aim to accelerate the development of diagnostic and preventative treatments,” Professor Carroll said.

Professor Rossjohn stated: “The team at Monash, including Dr. Hugh Reid, Prof Nicole La Gruta and Prof. Tony Purcell, look forward to working alongside Janssen colleagues to develop innovative immunotherapeutics to prevent and treat Coeliac Disease.”

Original article

Mapping the Structure of a Covid-19 Protein, NSP9

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A team of researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging at Monash University, using the Australian Synchrotron, have determined the 3D-structure of a SARS-CoV-2 protein at atomic resolution. Determining the shape of a protein is a key step in understanding its function and role in viral replication.

The COVID 19 virus only produces 27 or so proteins, and scientists across the world are currently trying to understand the structure and function of these 27 proteins. Dr Dene Littler, within the laboratory of ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor Jamie Rossjohn from the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Faculty of Medicine at Monash University, have been examining some of the lesser-understood proteins produced by SARS-CoV-2. One of these, the non-structural protein 9 (Nsp9)  is thought to have a role in RNA replication and the related version of the protein in SARS-CoV is known to be important in viral replication.

This will be part of a broad strategy by the world’s scientists to develop entirely new drugs that are specifically targeted at the coronaviral proteins, blocking its ability to reproduce and infect. Technological developments such as these spurred the first forays into rational drug design, in which scientists study the structure and function of molecules in order to work out what drugs might bind to them—and in the case of viruses, preventing them from replicating.

Professor Rossjohn says that this represents the start of an accelerated program of research within Monash that is aimed at developing new anti-viral treatments as well as understanding how the immune system combats this virus.

Original article: Melbourne Researchers Map the Structure of a Covid-19 Protein—Aiding The Global Research Effort

Image: The crystal structure of Nsp9

Full publication in bioRxiv or iScience

Calling all MAITs: teaming up to solve the intricacies of the immune system

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Specialised immune cells, called MAIT cells, receive activation signals from the immune system to fight bacteria. Without the right signals and guidance, they can contribute to cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Little was known about how signals were provided to MAIT cells, until now. Australian-based researchers have zoomed in on the molecular intricacies of the ‘go’ signal to learn how it is initiated and how we can boost it for therapeutic purposes.

MAIT cells sit in common sites of infection, primed to rapidly combat invading bacteria and yeast by recognising the presence of products made along the way when bacteria produce vitamin B.

Humans are not able to produce vitamin B, instead sourcing it from our diet. The presence of the building blocks of vitamin B in the body therefore signify the presence of bacteria and/or yeast as they must be coming from them rather than our own cells.

A protein called MR1 captures molecules that are building blocks for vitamin B2 (riboflavin) or B9 (folic acid), and other small molecules to hold them up as beacons for MAIT cells to detect – MAIT cells would not interact with them otherwise.

If a MAIT cell interacts with MR1 and riboflavin compound, it becomes an activated fighter for the immune system, but if a folic acid compound is captured by MR1 instead, most MAIT cells will not see it and do nothing (as though it were covered in an invisibility cloak).

It was this fine-line between whether or not a MAIT cell can see particular small compounds, thereby driving MAIT cell activation, that the researchers wanted to investigate.

Previous work by a research collaboration spanning the Doherty Institute, Monash University and University of Queensland revealed vitamin B as the trigger for MAIT cell activation.

Building on this foundation, the same research groups aimed to determine the rules that govern this activation process. They developed a suite of riboflavin derivatives to find one that provides the best response, potentially for use in therapy, in a study published today in Nature Immunology.

“Our aim was to learn how much the components of the antigen move around in solution and which ones are critical for sandwiching between the two target proteins to bind then activate the MAIT immune cell,” says Professor David Fairlie, a senior researcher on the study.

Miss Geraldine Ler, Dr Weijun Xu and colleagues in Professor David Fairlie’s research group at the University of Queensland synthesised and characterised a suite of small molecules as chemical variants of the riboflavin-based molecules that activate MAIT cells. Dr Alexandra Corbett and colleagues at the Doherty Institute then tested their ability to bind MR1 and activate MAIT cells. Dr Wael Awad and Professor Jamie Rossjohn at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute zoomed in on the molecular interactions between MAIT cells, MR1 and the vitamin B derivatives.

“When MR1 captures vitamin B derivatives, they are mostly buried so that MAIT cells can only see a minute section that pokes out. It is therefore surprising that such a small part can drive either activation or inhibition, so we wanted to look a little closer,” says Dr Corbett, another senior researcher on the study.

“We investigated three essential properties of each compound: how long they last before breaking down, their ability to coax cells to put more MR1 on their surface so that they can call on more MAIT cells, and how the MAIT cells can see these MR1-‘go’ signals, resulting in their activation. We were able to discover the rules that govern MAIT cell activation, how MAIT cells discriminate between different vitamin B derivatives, and how we can better design potent targets,” she said.

“Using advanced imaging tools, we unearthed the molecular principles underpinning how MR1 captures and presents these small molecules to MAIT receptors triggering the ‘go’ signals,” Dr Awad, first author on the study, said.

“Here, a focused network of nano-connections termed ‘MAIT Interaction Triad’ fine-tunes this process between MR1, metabolite, and MAIT receptor. These discoveries could pave the way for development of novel T cell therapy,” he said.

“This study demonstrates the power of collaboration and the insights we can gain with inter-disciplinary science,” Dr Corbett said.

The more that is understood about MAIT cells and the nuances that boost or prevent their activation, the better they can be manipulated in the context of disease.

Amplifying MAIT cell responses to invading bacteria may help to control infections. In other contexts, however, MAIT cells can be destructive, such as in chronic infections and cancer. Being able to enhance or block them by controlling the visibility of riboflavin compounds and the “go” signals may therefore be highly beneficial for infection, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and a range of other diseases.

With this new insight, the teams of Doherty Institute, Monash University and University of Queensland researchers can now design drugs that either activate or block MAIT cells as new immunotherapy targets; potentially for a multitude of diseases.

Read the full paper in Nature Immunology titled The molecular basis underpinning the potency and specificity of MAIT cell antigens.

Nature Immunology cover image 

Original article

Vision Australia Radio interview – Erica on accessibility in the arts

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Kenneth Phua recently invited Dr Erica Tandori of Monash University onto his program ‘Seeing Without Eyes’ to discuss accessibility in the arts. Art can be and should be accessible to the total population and not just a select few. If you love the arts, this is an interview highlight from Vision Australia Radio in Perth that you shouldn’t miss.

Original article