Dendritic cell biology

Research themes

The laboratory of dendritic cell biology, which is coordinated by Dr. Philippe PIERRE (DR1 CNRS) and Evelina GATTI (DR2 CNRS), focuses on gaining fundamental knowledge of the biology of dendritic cells (DC) in normal and pathogenic conditions. DCs have the unique capacity to initiate primary immune responses by stimulating naive T cells. We are interested in the biochemical changes occurring during DC activation by microbial products and pathogens focusing on protein synthesis regulation an autophagy. Our team carries-out the functional dissection of these various processes, providing new insights to how a complex immune response could be potentially modulated for therapeutic purposes. Our laboratory has accumulated an extensive scientific know-how in the study of DCs, and repetitively proven using multidisciplinary approaches that it is able to transform innovative concepts in coherent projects. We mostly focus on how protein synthesis regulation and autophagy impact antigen presentation and cytokines production, as well as, coordinate through stress pathways induction, the expression of given proteins (e.g. RUFY4) capable of regulating key biological functions, like membrane traffic or endocytosis during the immune response. Our strong interest in protein synthesis regulation and misfolded proteins has led to the invention of a non-radioactive method to monitor protein synthesis. This technique has been diffused world-wide leading to important breakthroughs for protein synthesis research, including the description of nuclear translation.

Publications

– Protein synthesis inhibition and GADD34 control IFN-beta heterogeneous expression in response to dsRNA. Dalet A., Argüello R.J., Combes L., Spinelli L., Jaeger S., Fallet M., Vu Manh T-P, Andreia Mendes A., Perego J., Reverendo M., Camosseto V., Dalod M., Weil T., Santos M. A. S. Gatti E. and Pierre P. EMBO J. 2017 e201695000. doi: 10.15252/embj.201695000
– Regulation of protein synthesis and autophagy in activated dendritic cells: implications for antigen processing and presentation. Argüello RJ, Reverendo M, Gatti E, Pierre P. Immunol Rev. 2016 Jul;272(1):28-38. doi: 10.1111/imr.12427
– Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition). Klionsky DJ, et al. Autophagy. 2016 Jan 2;12(1):1-222. PMID: 26799652
– RUFY4: Immunity piggybacking on autophagy? Terawaki S, Camosseto V, Pierre P, Gatti E. Autophagy. 2016 Jan 13:0. PMID: 26760128
– RUN and FYVE domain-containing protein 4 enhances autophagy and lysosome tethering in response to Interleukin-4. Terawaki S, Camosseto V, Prete F, Wenger T, Papadopoulos A, Rondeau C, Combes A, Rodriguez Rodrigues C, Vu Manh TP, Fallet M, English L, Santamaria R, Soares AR, Weil T, Hammad H, Desjardins M, Gorvel JP, Santos MA, Gatti E, Pierre P. J. Cell Biol. 2015 Sep 28;210(7):1133-52. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201501059.
– Autophagy inhibition promotes defective neosynthesized proteins storage in ALIS, and induces redirection toward proteasome processing and MHCI-restricted presentation. Wenger T., Terawaki, S., Camosseto V., Abdelrassoul R., Mies A., Catalan N., Claudio N., Clavarino G., de Gassart A., Angelis Rigotti F., Gatti E., Pierre P. (2012). Autophagy 8-3.
– Dendritic cells, DRiPs and DALIS in the control of antigen processing. Pierre P. (2005). Immunological reviews 207:184-90.