In vitro morphological profiling of T cells predicts clinical response to natalizumab therapy in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Despite the efficacy of natalizumab, which targets the integrin VLA-4, in treating multiple sclerosis (MS), approximately 35% patients with MS presente evidence of disease activity two years after treatment initiation. Individual heterogeneity of leukocyte response to VLA-4 on natalizumab-mediated blockade may underlie disparities in treatment efficacy. Here we use a high-content cell imaging (HCI) pipeline to profile the in vitro effects of natalizumab on VLA-4-stimulated PBMCs from MS patients prior to natalizumab treatment. Unsupervised clustering of image data partially discriminates non-responder MS patients based on morphology, F-actin organization and signaling-related features in CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, through a random forest approach, treatment response can be predicted with a performance of 92% for a Discovery cohort and 88% for a validation cohort. Unfavorable treatment response is associated with a distinct actin remodeling response of natalizumab-exposed CD8+ T cells and a residual ability of these cells to spread on VCAM-1. Our study thus unveils that CD8+ T cells from individual MS patients display heterogeneous susceptibility to natalizumab in vitro and highlights the potential of HCI-based pretreatment monitoring to assist individualized treatment prescription.

Authors

Chaves B, Santos E Silva JC, Nakaya H, Socquet-Juglard N, et al.

External link

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40595469/

Publication Year

2025

Publication Journal

Nature Communications

Associeted Project

Network & Precision Medicine

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