Anterior Chamber-Associated Immune Deviation (ACAID)
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Introduction
Anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID) is a phenomenon of active immune suppression (tolerance) that grants immune privilege to the eye's anterior chamber (AC). ACAID integrates multiple organ systems and cell populations.[1] The eye has several mechanisms to shell itself from unwarranted ocular inflammation, including the blood-ocular barrier (hemato-aqueous and hemato-retinal), soluble or membrane-bound immune inhibitors, targeting and killing an invading microorganism or cell that may be inducing inflammation, and lastly, a method by which a state of immune tolerance is induced based on anatomo-histologic characteristics and microambience properties of certain tissues and spaces in the eye, mainly, the AC and the subretinal space.[2][3] ACAID is a means to the latter.
History and Background
In the mid-1900s, it was described that both the eye and brain have a natural barrier for circulating antibodies and leukocytes. It was also thought that the eye and brain lacked a lymphatic drainage system. These two ideas were the basis of the proposition of “immune privileged sites,” in which a blood-tissue barrier and a lack of a lymphatic system together prevented the immune system from acting on these sites.[4]
It was not until the 1970s that this was challenged by the discovery of immune-privileged tissues which broke the rules of transplantation. Grafts of these tissues survived, even in the absence of exogenous immunosuppression. The passive “immune privilege” was later replaced by a more relevant explanation, as the blood-ocular barrier is neither absolute nor a passive process; and the uveoscleral pathway carries fluid to the cervical lymph nodes.
The cornea is an immunologically privileged site partly because it lacks lymphatics and blood vessels.[5] Research pioneered by Streilen[6] and Niederkorn[7] elucidated the understanding that the immune privilege that confers corneal transplantation survival for long periods under ideal conditions without being immunologically rejected is not just derived from immunological ignorance. Other important immunoregulatory microenvironmental features of the ACAID play a crucial role by conferring active immune privilege to the cornea.[8][9][10] This is also known as the active immune privilege.
By exploring local and systemic graft-versus-host responses, it was discovered that splenomegaly developed in mice that received ocular injections of allogenic parental lymphocytes into the AC of the eye. These studies confirmed that an antigen introduced into the AC of the eye (an immune-privileged site) can be detected by the systemic immune system.
Mechanism of ACAID
As shown in animal models, an antigen in the AC is processed by antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that migrate via the blood to the thymus and the spleen.[11] Any antigen can induce ACAID when placed in the AC, however, not all antigenic encounters evoke a permanent state of ACAID. These include major and minor histocompatibility gene-encoded antigens, TNP-derivatized spleen cells, tumor-specific transplantation antigens, antigens encoded by pathogens (herpes simplex virus) and molecules (such as retinal S antigen and serum albumin).[12]
The ACAID response involves the inhibition of systemic delayed-type hypersensitivity and the complement-fixing antibody response, the maintenance of the normal humoral and T-cell cytotoxic suppressive response, and the capacity to adoptively transfer ACAID through splenic suppressor T cells to immunologically naive recipients.[13]
Primarily, TGFb-2 aids APCs containing F4/80 and CD11b molecules to capture antigens and pass through the trabecular meshwork onto the bloodstream and into the thymus and spleen where they cleave into peptide fragments on class l molecules and therefore activate CD8+ T cells. These APCs secrete TGFb as well, which inhibits CD4+ T cells. (11) In addition, in the marginal zone of the spleen, APCs interact with other cells and molecules such as MZ regulatory B cells, γδ Tregs, iNKT, and NKT regulatory cells. These immunomodulatory cells migrate through the bloodstream and induce antigen-specific immune deviation.
Clinical Relevance of ACAID
ACAID provides a distinct immunological privilege to the eye. The regulation of inflammatory processes by ACAID leads to protection from potentially blinding inflammatory processes.[14] ACAID suppresses CD4, Th1/2, and B cells. Recent studies have demonstrated the clinical use of ACAID to stimulate immunization when exposed to antigens such as interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP). Via ACAID and regulatory T cells (Tregs), IRBP T cells are inhibited leading to protection from IRBP autoimmune uveitis.
While ACAID can help regulate intraocular inflammation, such mechanisms can also limit the immune response to certain other less-frequent pathologies. Impaired ocular inflammation can limit the response to microorganisms that invade the cornea such as the herpes simplex virus. One example of this is corneal infectious keratitis. Upon corneal damage, the cascade of inflammatory and healing responses is triggered. Tregs previously described can inhibit the response to these conditions worsening visual outcomes.[15] Similarly, the reduced inflammatory response would allow for the proliferation of intraocular tumors by inhibiting immunological pathways.
Corneal transplantation is another example of the clinical application of ACAID. Keratoplasty is usually exempt from HLA-matching because of ACAID. While major histocompatibility complex (MHC) mismatch results in a 100% allogenic graft rejection in bodily tissues, it only results in around 20% of corneal graft rejection because of immune privilege,. The low percentage of graft rejection is a reflection of AC immune privilege abolishing the late cellular and TH1 response when induced to the new antigens presented by the donor graft.[16] ACAID abolishes inflammatory response in exemption of trauma, infection, and neovascularization. Hence, ACAID is an immune mechanism through which corneal transplantation may require temporary immunosuppression in comparison to lifetime requirements in solid organ transplantation.[17]
Human cultured endothelial cells therapy (hCEC) is an emerging alternative to conventional corneal transplantation. Studies have shown that cultures of corneal endothelium (CE) cells inhibit the immune response by blocking IL-2 and IL-4 production.[18] Similarly, in vitro studies have shown a capacity of blocking T-cell activation by providing a strong inhibitor response.[19] Thus, hCEC transplantation is partially possible due to the immunological suppression of ACAID and the unique environment it provides.[20]
References
- ↑ Katagiri K, Zhang-Hoover J, Mo JS, Stein-Streilein J, Wayne Streilein J. Using Tolerance Induced Via the Anterior Chamber of the Eye to Inhibit Th2-Dependent Pulmonary Pathology [Internet]. Vol. 169, The Journal of Immunology. 2002. p. 84–9. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.169.1.84
- ↑ Ferguson TA, Green DR, Griffith TS. Cell death and immune privilege. Int Rev Immunol [Internet]. 2002 Mar [cited 2022 Nov 18];21(2-3). Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12424841/
- ↑ Nussenblatt RB, Whitcup SM. Uveitis E-Book: Fundamentals and Clinical Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2010. 448 p.
- ↑ Stein-Streilein J, Streilein JW. Anterior chamber associated immune deviation (ACAID): regulation, biological relevance, and implications for therapy. Int Rev Immunol. 2002 Mar-Jun;21(2-3):123–52.
- ↑ Jin Y, Shen L, Chong EM, et al. The chemokine receptor CCR7 mediates corneal antigen-presenting cell trafficking. Mol Vis. 2007;13:626-34
- ↑ Streilein JW. Ocular immune privilege: therapeutic opportunities from an experiment of nature. Nat Rev Immunol. 2003;3(11):879-89
- ↑ Niederkorn JY. See no evil, hear no evil, do no evil: the lessons of immune privilege. Nat Immunol. 2006;7(4):354-9
- ↑ Hori J, Yamaguchi T, Keino H, et al. Immune privilege in corneal transplantation. Prog Retina Eye Res. 2019;72:100758
- ↑ Stein-Streilein J, Streilein JW. Anterior chamber associated immune deviation (ACAID): regulation, biological relevance, and implications for therapy. Int Rev Immunol. 2002;21(2-3):123-52
- ↑ Streilein JW, Niederkorn JY. Induction of anterior chamber-associated immune deviation requires an intact, functional spleen. J Exp Med. 1981;153(5):1058-67
- ↑ Vendomèle J, Khebizi Q, Fisson S. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Anterior Chamber-Associated Immune Deviation (ACAID): What We Have Learned from Knockout Mice. Front Immunol. 2017 Nov 30;8:1686.
- ↑ Streilein JW. Anterior chamber associated immune deviation: The privilege of immunity in the eye [Internet]. Vol. 35, Survey of Ophthalmology. 1990. p. 67–73. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0039-6257(90)90048-z
- ↑ Streilein JW. Molecular basis of ACAID. Ocul Immunol Inflamm. 1997 Sep;5(3):217–8.
- ↑ Keino H, Horie S, Sugita S. Immune Privilege and Eye-Derived T-Regulatory Cells [Internet]. Vol. 2018, Journal of Immunology Research. 2018. p. 1–12. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/1679197
- ↑ Stepp MA, Menko AS. Immune responses to injury and their links to eye disease. Transl Res. 2021 Oct;236:52–71.
- ↑ Niederkorn JY, Mayhew E, Mellon J, Hegde S. Role of tumor necrosis factor receptor expression in anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID) and corneal allograft survival. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2004 Aug;45(8):2674–81.
- ↑ Niederkorn JY. Immune mechanisms of corneal allograft rejection. Curr Eye Res. 2007 Dec;32(12):1005–16.
- ↑ Mi P, Gregerson DS, Kawashima H. Local regulation of immune responses: corneal endothelial cells alter t cell activation and cytokine production. Cytokine [Internet]. 2000 Mar [cited 2022 Dec 13];12(3). Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10704253/
- ↑ Obritsch WF, Kawashima H, Evangelista A, Ketcham JM, Holland EJ, Gregerson DS. Inhibition of in vitro T cell activation by corneal endothelial cells [Internet]. Vol. 144, Cellular Immunology. 1992. p. 80–94. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0008-8749(92)90227-g
- ↑ Toda M, Ueno M, Yamada J, Hiraga A, Asada K, Hamuro J, et al. Quiescent innate and adaptive immune responses maintain the long-term integrity of corneal endothelium reconstituted through allogeneic cell injection therapy. Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 27;12(1):18072.
