Sjögren's disease & overlap diseases
TOX promotes follicular helper T cell differentiation in patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome
Authors' conclusion
Our data suggest that TOX in pSS naive CD4+ T cells is upregulated, which facilitates Tfh cell differentiation. Mechanistically, IFN-α induces TOX overexpression in naive CD4+ T cells through JAK-STAT1 signalling and TOX regulates BCL6 expression.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with pSS and healthy controls
- Comparison
- Naive CD4+ T cells from pSS patients vs healthy controls
Methodological detailsRNA sequencing, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq
- RNA sequencing
- ATAC-seq
- ChIP-seq
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- pSS naive CD4+ T cells had higher potentials of activation, proliferation and differentiation towards Tfh cells
- TOX upregulated in pSS naive CD4+ T cells; promoted T cell activation and Tfh cell polarization
- TOX silencing in pSS naive CD4+ T cells downregulated BCL6 expression and altered multiple Tfh-associated genes
- ChIP-seq implied TOX bound to the BCL6 locus, at accessible regions found by ATAC-seq
- IFN-α induced TOX overexpression, attenuated by Janus kinase (JAK) and STAT1 inhibitors
Original publication
TOX promotes follicular helper T cell differentiation in patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 17 June 2022. doi:10.
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