PROJECT PERIODIC REPORT Grant Agreement number: PIIF-GA-2012-329741 Project acronym: 3W-RGB Project title: Identification of whether, in which aspects and by which function, a RNA binding protein, KH-type splicing regulatory protein governs development and function of B cell, a type of white blood cell Funding Scheme: Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship Date of latest version of Annex I against which the assessment will be made: 30/06/2015 ■ Periodic report: 1st Period covered: from 2nd □ 3rd 01/07/2013 □ 4th □ to 30/06/2015 Name, title and organisation of the scientific representative of the project's coordinator1: Dr. Elena Vigorito, The Babraham Institute Tel: +44 1223 496545 Fax: N.A. E-mail: ev250@medschl.cam.ac.uk Project website2 address: N.A. 1 Usually the contact person of the coordinator as specified in Art. 8.1. of the Grant Agreement. The home page of the website should contain the generic European flag and the FP7 logo which are available in electronic format at the Europa website (logo of the European flag: http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/emblem/index_en.htm logo of the 7th FP: http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/index_en.cfm?pg=logos). The area of activity of the project should also be mentioned. 2 Declaration by the scientific representative of the project coordinator I, as scientific representative of the coordinator of this project and in line with the obligations as stated in Article II.2.3 of the Grant Agreement declare that: The attached periodic report represents an accurate description of the work carried out in this project for this reporting period; The project (tick as appropriate) 3: ■ □ has fully achieved its objectives and technical goals for the period; has achieved most of its objectives and technical goals for the period with relatively minor deviations. □ has failed to achieve critical objectives and/or is not at all on schedule. The public website, if applicable □ is up to date □ is not up to date To my best knowledge, the financial statements which are being submitted as part of this report are in line with the actual work carried out and are consistent with the report on the resources used for the project (section 3.4) and if applicable with the certificate on financial statement. All beneficiaries, in particular non-profit public bodies, secondary and higher education establishments, research organisations and SMEs, have declared to have verified their legal status. Any changes have been reported under section 3.2.3 (Project Management) in accordance with Article II.3.f of the Grant Agreement. Name of scientific representative of the Coordinator: .......Elena Vigorito............................ Date: .......28...../ ......08....../ .....2015... For most of the projects, the signature of this declaration could be done directly via the IT reporting tool through an adapted IT mechanism and in that case, no signed paper form needs to be sent 3 If either of these boxes below is ticked, the report should reflect these and any remedial actions taken. 2 3.1 Publishable summary This section must be of suitable quality to enable direct publication by the Commission and should preferably not exceed four pages. The production of high-affinity antibodies by B cells is essential for the clearance of pathogens. Increased antibody affinity for antigen is achieved by the process of affinity maturation in germinal centres (GCs). This is an iterative process in which B cells re-cycle between proliferation and the acquisition of mutations and antigen-based positive selection of the highest-affinity B cell clones. The post-transcriptional regulator microRNA (miR)-155 is critical for efficient affinity maturation and the maintenance of the GCs. We first focused on the function of the miR processing protein KSRP in the regulation of B cell function via its effect on miR-155. However we concluded that KSRP does not play a major role in GC-B cells based on experiments using KSRP-deficient mice and therefore shifted the miR-155 itself rather than the miR-155 processing protein. The alternative project then was aimed at understanding the cellular and molecular basis of miR-155 roles in germinal centre (GC) B cells. Here we reformulated our research objectives as follows: a) Identify the subset of miR-155 expressing GC-B cells; b) Functionally characterise the miR-155+ subset; c) Identify underlying mechanism how miR-155 regulates GC responses. In order to understand the cellular and molecular mechanism by which miR-155 regulates GC responses, we utilised a miR-155 reporter mouse strain and showed that miR-155 is co-expressed with the proto-oncogene c-Myc in positively-selected B cells. Functionally, miR-155 protects c-Myc+ positively-selected B cells from apoptosis allowing their clonal expansion, which explains why deletion of miR-155 results in impaired affinity maturation and the premature collapse of GCs. Molecularly, miR-155 directly inhibits the Jumonji family member Jarid2, which we identify here as a novel component in the GC response, to promote GC-B cell survival. Our findings also suggest a basis for cooperation between c-Myc and miR-155 during the normal GC response, which may explain a longstanding enigma of how c-Myc and miR-155 can collaboratively function as oncogenes. Details in experimental approach were described in the section 3.2.2. 3 3.2 Core of the report for the period: Project objectives, work progress and achievements, project management 3.2.1 Project objectives for the period Please provide an overview of the project objectives for the reporting period in question, as included in Annex I to the Grant Agreement. These objectives are required so that this report is a stand-alone document. The aim of this project was to study the function of the microRNA (miR) processing protein KSRP in the regulation of B cell function via its effect on miR-155. We proposed the following 3 objectives: a) to address the function of the RNA-binding protein, KSRP, in B cell development; b) to address the function of KSRP in antigen driven B cell responses; c) to elucidate the regulatory mechanism of KSRP over microRNA (miR)-155. Although we established a colony of KSRP deficient mice in the lab, detailed analyses of B cell development and functions showed that KSRP did not play a major role in B cells. Due to this reason, we decided to change the direction of the project slightly and focused the microRNA itself rather than the miR-155 processing protein, KSRP. Solid data proving that miR-155 has roles in activated B cells in a B cell intrinsic manner. The alternative project then was aimed at understanding the cellular and molecular basis of miR155 roles in germinal centre (GC) B cells. Here we reformulated our research objectives as follows: a) Identify the subset of miR-155 expressing GC-B cells; b) Functionally characterise the miR-155+ subset; c) Identify underlying mechanism how miR-155 regulates GC responses. 3.2.2 Work progress and achievements during the period Please provide a concise overview of the progress of the work in line with the structure of Annex I to the Grant Agreement. In order to complete objective a): Identify the subset of miR-155 expressing GC-B cells, a methodology coupling flow cytometric cell sorting with q-PCR was optimised. In detail, a mouse model system with a targeted insertion of the Ig heavy chain V-region carrying specificity for Hen Egg Lysozyme (HEL), SWHEL mouse (J Exp Med, 2003; 197, 845) was used to characterise antigen specific GC-B cells. These mice were crossed with mir-155-lacZ (-galactosidase)-reporter (mir155-LacZ) mice that allow to detect transcriptional activity of the miR-155 primary transcripts, mir-155, by measuring lacZ activity. Although lacZ activity is a good indicator of mir-155 transcription, it may not accurately report mature miR-155 expression. This is due to the several post-transcriptional steps involved in miR processing. To identify the subset of GC-B cells that express mature miR-155, I sorted antigen (HEL) specific GC cells 4 on the basis of expressing the reporter LacZ in combination with additional surface markers that allows delineation of GC subsets and then measured miR-155 expression by q-PCR. GC-B cells were divided in two zones: dark zone (DZ) containing proliferative cells and light zone (LZ) consisting of less proliferative cells. Each of these zones was further divided on the basis of lacZ-derived fluorescence into lacZ positive and negative cells. Thus, four subsets, lacZ- DZ, lacZ+ DZ, lacZ- LZ and lacZ+ LZ were dealt in the hereafter experiments. I discovered that mature miR-155 is only expressed in the subset of lacZ+ LZ cells, but not that of lacZ+ DZ. Within our knowledge, this is the first report that has defined the subset of GC-B cells expresses miR-155. In order to complete objective b): Functionally characterise the miR-155+ subset, HEL-specific GC-B cells were sorted with the markers described above and their cell cycle status was analysed by staining DNAbinding fluorescent dye, DAPI. Of interest, although it has been known that LZ cells are quiescent apart from a small subset of c-Myc+ cells (Nat Immunol, 2012: 13, 1083; Nat Immunol, 2012: 13, 1092), lacZ+ LZ subset contained more cycling cells in the S-phase, compared to lacZ- LZ subset. Furthermore, this lacZ+ LZ subset expressed the highest level of c-Myc transcript, which indicates that miR-155+ subset co-expresses cMyc. This is important as c-Myc+ cells are considered as positively selected population in the LZ and proceeding to further proliferation in the DZ (Nat Immunol, 2012: 13, 1083). LacZ+ DZ subset consisted of most proliferative cells in agreement with literature and thus contained highest proportion for S- and G2Mphases among the four subsets. GC-B cell are required to shuttle between LZ and DZ bidirectionally to increase their affinity to antigen. Considered percentage of cells in G2M-phase between lacZ+ DZ and lacZ+ LZ, 5.0 0.82 % and 1.5 0.39 % respectively, it appeared that lacZ activity reports the direction of migration, from LZ to DZ; LacZ+ LZ started cell division, migrated to DZ and proliferate the most by becoming lacZ+ DZ subset. Thus the lacZ activity in the DZ appears to indicate the cells that have just migrated from the LZ and lost the expression of miR-155. To characterise further the expression pattern of miR-155 and c-Myc in LZ B cells, we made use of c-MycGFP reporter mice (Eur J Immunol, 2008: 38, 342). After immunisation with HEL antigen, we sorted 4 populations: c-Myc+ LZ, c-Myc- LZ, c-Myc+ DZ and c-Myc- DZ B cells from these mice and measured the expression of miR-155 by q-PCR. We confirmed that c-Myc+ LZ cells expressed higher levels of miR-155 and thus established that c-Myc and miR-155 are mainly co-expressed in a subset of LZ B cells. We then assessed whether the two molecules are functionally linked. We split GC-B cells on the basis of c-Myc expression in combination with DZ and LZ delineation. Apoptosis was measured in miR-155-sufficient and -deficient subsets by AnnexinV staining, in combination with DAPI. Early apoptotis was determined by detecting AnnexinV+ DAPI- cells. We observed that c-Myc+ cells are more prone to apoptosis in the absence of miR-155 particularly in the LZ whereas c-Myc- miR-155/- cells were similar to their miR-155+/+ counterparts. To further validate these results, we also measured apoptosis after delineating DZ and LZ B-cells on the basis of LacZ expression in the presence or absence of miR-155. Annexin V+ population in lacZ+ LZ subset increased in the absence of miR-155 compared to an 5 equivalent cohort of the control, suggesting that miR-155 is important for survival of lacZ+ LZ subset that contains substantial population of positively selected c-Myc+ cells. It was previously reported that miR-155 affects optimal GC selection to acquire higher affinity without failure of somatic hyper mutation machinery (Science, 2007: 316, 604; Immunity, 2007: 27, 847). In agreement with this, decreased affinity was observed in these HEL-specific GC-B cells. Taken together, our results suggest that miR-155 expression is required for the survival of c-Myc+ LZ B cells and that failure of c-Myc+ LZ B cells to receive miR-155-dependent survival signals leads to decreased GC cellularity with concomitant impaired affinity maturation. To achieve the final object c): Identify underlying mechanism how miR-155 regulates GC responses, we utilised the miR-155 target list gained in the previous publication of Dr. Vigorito (Immunity, 2007: 27, 847; J Exp Med, 2014: 211, 2183). A key miR-155 target candidate in GC responses was selected from genes that are sufficiently meet two categories; 1) have roles in apoptosis regulations and 2) have specific expression pattern: in the miR-155-sufficient background, decreased expression in the lacZ+ LZ subset where miR-155 is expressed, but not in the lacZ- LZ whereas no such reduction in the lacZ+ LZ subset in the miR-155deficient backgound. We successfully identified one of such miR-155 targets: Jarid2, a DNA-binding protein and functionality of the gene in GC responses was confirmed by retroviral gene modification; ectopic expression of Jarid2 in miR-155+/+ GC-B-cells significantly increased the percentage of LZ B-cells that undergo apoptosis. In summary, we uncover a dynamic regulation of miR-155, which is expressed in a small subset of LZ B cells. The miR-155+ subset is enriched in cycling cells and co-expresses c-Myc, demonstrating that miR-155 expression is linked to positively-selected B cells. Functionally, we observed that expression of miR-155 protects c-Myc+ LZ B cells from apoptosis and thus plays a critical role in the maintenance of the GC response and in affinity maturation. One of the molecular targets that miR-155 directly inhibits is Jarid2, whose over-expression promotes apoptosis of LZ B cells. Overall, our results reveal a mechanism of affinity selection by functionally linking c-Myc and miR-155. 3.2.3 Project management during the period Please use this section to summarise management of the consortium activities during the period. Management tasks are indicated in Articles II.2.3 and Article II.16.5 of the Grant Agreement. Project planning and management have been carried out with regular meetings (once a week) between Dr. 6 Nakagawa and Dr. Vigorito. Any raised problem in the project has been discussed in these meetings and has been successfully solved so far. In addition, there are opportunities for discussions with Dr. Turner and departmental colleagues regarding progress of this and others’ projects during regular lab meetings; Lab meeting, every Tuesday at the Babraham Institute, Departmental meeting, every Monday at the Babraham Institute. The timely change on the original project objectives had a strong impact on the advancement of the work, which worked out excellently without any delay on the schedule. All resources and techniques needed to perform the project are maintained in the good standard. Thus, Dr. Nakagawa’s progress of both the project and training has been fruitful from a management point of view. Although objectives have been changed from the originally planned ones, the planned milestones have not been impacted. Dr. Nakagawa has been able to expand scientific network in the field successfully via attending seminars that were organised by internal and external immunological societies, and thus started new collaborative research with Prof. Michael Meyer-Hermann (Helmholtz centre for infection research, Germany) and Dr. Michelle Linterman (The Babraham Institute). Hence this project has aided Dr. Nakagawa to have established a longterm research position in Europe and to provide the opportunity to study in depth how miR-155 functions in GCs. 7 3.3 Deliverables and milestones tables Deliverables The deliverables due in this reporting period, as indicated in Annex I to the Grant Agreement have to be uploaded by the responsible participants (as indicated in Annex I), and then approved and submitted by the Coordinator. Deliverables are of a nature other than periodic or final reports (ex: "prototypes", "demonstrators" or "others"). The periodic reports and the final report have NOT to be considered as deliverables. If the deliverables are not well explained in the periodic and/or final reports, then, a short descriptive report should be submitted, so that the Commission has a record of their existence. If a deliverable has been cancelled or regrouped with another one, please indicate this in the column "Comments". If a new deliverable is proposed, please indicate this in the column "Comments". The number of persons/month for each deliverable has been defined in Annex I of the Grant Agreement and cannot be changed. In SESAM, this number is automatically transferred from NEF and is not editable. If there is a deviation from the Annex I, then this should be clearly explained in the comments column. This table is cumulative, that is, it should always show all deliverables from the beginning of the project. 8 TABLE 1. DELIVERABLES Del. no. Deliverable name Version WP no. Lead beneficiary Nature Dissemination level4 Delivery date from Annex I (proj month) Actual / Forecast delivery date Dd/mm/ yyyy 4 Status Comments No submitted/ Submitted PU = Public PP = Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services). RE = Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services). CO = Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services). Make sure that you are using the correct following label when your project has classified deliverables. EU restricted = Classified with the mention of the classification level restricted "EU Restricted" EU confidential = Classified with the mention of the classification level confidential " EU Confidential " EU secret = Classified with the mention of the classification level secret "EU Secret " 9 Milestones Please complete this table if milestones are specified in Annex I to the Grant Agreement. Milestones will be assessed against the specific criteria and performance indicators as defined in Annex I. This table is cumulative, which means that it should always show all milestones from the beginning of the project. TABLE 2. MILESTONES Milestone no. Milestone name Work package no Lead beneficiary Delivery date from Annex I dd/mm/yyyy Achieved Yes/No Actual / Forecast achievement date dd/mm/yyyy Comments 10 3.4 Explanation of the use of the resources and financial statements The financial statements have to be provided within the Forms C for each beneficiary (if Special Clause 10 applies to your Grant Agreement, a separate financial statement is provided for each third party as well) together with a summary financial report which consolidates the claimed Community contribution of all the beneficiaries in an aggregate form, based on the information provided in Form C (Annex VI of the Grant Agreement) by each beneficiary. The "Explanation of use of resources" requested in the Grant Agreement for personnel costs, subcontracting, any major costs (ex: purchase of important equipment, travel costs, large consumable items) and indirect costs, have now to be done within the Forms (user guides are accessible within the Participant Portal)5. When applicable, certificates on financial statements shall be submitted by the concerned beneficiaries according to Article II.4.4 of the Grant Agreement. Besides the electronic submission, Forms C as well as certificates (if applicable), have to be signed and sent in parallel by post. 5 In the past, the explanation of use of resources requested in the Grant Agreement was done within a table in this section. The merge of this table within the Forms C was a measure of simplification aimed at avoiding duplication and/or potential discrepancies between the data provided in the table 'Explanation of use of resources' and the data provided in the Forms C. 11 The following table is required only for the funding schemes for Research for the benefit of SMEs THE TRANSACTION Please provide a list of the actual cost incurred by the RTD performers during the performance of the work subcontracted to them. These costs refer only to the agreed 'Transaction'. Name of RTD Performer Number of person months Personnel Costs (€) Durable equipment Consumables Computing Overhead Costs (€) Other Costs (€) Total by RTD performer TOTAL 12 IMPORTANT: Form C varies with the funding scheme used. Please make sure that you use the correct form corresponding to your project (Templates for Forms C are provided in Annex VI to the Grant Agreement). An example for collaborative projects is enclosed hereafter. A Web-based online tool for completing and submitting forms C is accessible via the Participant Portal: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal, (except for projects managed by DG MOVE and ENER). If some beneficiaries in security research have two different rates of funding (part of the funding may reach 75% 6 ) then two separate financial statements should be filled by the concerned beneficiaries and two lines should be entered for these beneficiaries in the summary financial report. 6 Article 33.1 of the EC FP7 rules for participation - REGULATION (EC) No 1906/2006. 13 FP7 - Grant Agreement - Annex VI - Collaborative Project Form C - Financial Statement (to be filled in by each beneficiary ) Project nr nnnnnn Project Acronym xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Period from To dd/mm/aa dd/mm/aa Funding scheme Collaborative Project Is this an adjustment to a previous statement ? Legal Name Organisation short Name Funding % for RTD activities (A) Yes/No Participant Identity Code Beneficiary nr nn nn If flat rate for indirect costs, specify % % 1- Declaration of eligible costs/lump sum/flate-rate/scale of unit (in €) RTD (A) Type of Activity Demonstration Management (B) (C) Other (D) TOTAL (A+B+C+D) Personnel costs Subcontracting Other direct costs Indirect costs Lump sums/flat-rate/scale of unit declared Total Maximum EC contribution Requested EC contribution 2- Declaration of receipts Did you receive any financial transfers or contributions in kind, free of charge from third parties or did the project generate any income which could be considered a receipt according to Art.II.17 of the grant agreement ? If yes, please mention the amount (in €) Yes/No 3- Declaration of interest yielded by the pre-financing (to be completed only by the coordinator ) Did the pre-financing you received generate any interest according to Art. II.19 ? If yes, please mention the amount (in €) Yes/No 4. Certificate on the methodology Do you declare average personnel costs according to Art. II.14.1 ? Yes/No Is there a certificate on the methodology provided by an independent auditor and accepted by the Commission according to Art. II.4.4 ? Cost of the certificate (in €), if charged Name of the auditor under this project 5- Certificate on the financial statements Is there a certificate on the financial statements provided by an independent auditor attached to this financial statement according to Art.II.4.4 ? Name of the auditor Yes/No Yes/No Cost of the certificate (in €) 6- Beneficiary’s declaration on its honour We declare on our honour that: - the costs declared above are directly related to the resources used to attain the objectives of the project and fall within the definition of eligible costs specified in Articles II.14 and II.15 of the grant agreement, and, if relevant, Annex III and Article 7 (special clauses) of the grant agreement; - the receipts declared above are the only financial transfers or contributions in kind, free of charge, from third parties and the only income generated by the project which could be considered as receipts according to Art. II.17 of the grant agreement; - the interest declared above is the only interest yielded by the pre-financing which falls within the definition of Art. II.19 of the grant agreement ; - there is full supporting documentation to justify the information hereby declared. It will be made available at the request of the Commission and in the event of an audit by the Commission and/or by the Court of Auditors and/or their authorised representatives. Beneficiary’s Stamp Name of the Person(s) Authorised to sign this Financial Statement Date & signature 14 FP7 - Grant Agreement - Annex VI - Collaborative Project Form C - Financial Statement (to be filled in by Third Party ) Only applicable if special clause nr 10 is used Project nr nnnnnn Project Acronym xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Period from To dd/mm/aa dd/mm/aa Funding scheme Collaborative Project Is this an adjustment to a previous statement ? 3rd party legal Name 3rd party Organisation short Name Funding % for RTD activities (A) Yes/No Working for beneficiary nr nn If flat rate for indirect costs, specify % % 1- Declaration of eligible costs/lump sum/flate-rate/scale of unit (in €) RTD (A) Type of Activity Demonstration Management (B) (C) Other (D) TOTAL (A+B+C+D) Personnel costs Subcontracting Other direct costs Indirect costs Lump sums/flat-rate/scale of unit declared Total Maximum EC contribution Requested EC contribution 2- Declaration of receipts Did you receive any financial transfers or contributions in kind, free of charge from third parties or did the project generate any income which could be considered a receipt according to Art.II.17 of the grant agreement ? If yes, please mention the amount (in €) 3- Declaration of interest yielded by the pre-financing (to be completed only by the coordinator ) Did the pre-financing you received generate any interest according to Art. II.19 ? If yes, please mention the amount (in €) 4. Certificate on the methodology Do you declare average personnel costs according to Art. II.14.1 ? Yes/No Yes/No Is there a certificate on the methodology provided by an independent auditor and accepted by the Commission according to Art. II.4.4 ? Cost of the certificate (in €), if charged Name of the auditor under this project 5- Certificate on the financial statements Is there a certificate on the financial statements provided by an independent auditor attached to this financial statement according to Art.II.4.4 ? Name of the auditor Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Cost of the certificate (in €) 6- Beneficiary’s declaration on its honour We declare on our honour that: - the costs declared above are directly related to the resources used to attain the objectives of the project and fall within the definition of eligible costs specified in Articles II.14 and II.15 of the grant agreement, and, if relevant, Annex III and Article 7 (special clauses) of the grant agreement; - the receipts declared above are the only financial transfers or contributions in kind, free of charge, from third parties and the only income generated by the project which could be considered as receipts according to Art. II.17 of the grant agreement; - the interest declared above is the only interest yielded by the pre-financing which falls within the definition of Art. II.19 of the grant agreement ; - there is full supporting documentation to justify the information hereby declared. It will be made available at the request of the Commission and in the event of an audit by the Commission and/or by the Court of Auditors and/or their authorised representatives. Beneficiary’s Stamp Name of the Person(s) Authorised to sign this Financial Statement Date & signature 15 FP7 - Grant Agreement - Annex VI - Collaborative Project Summary Financial Report - Collaborative Project- to be filled in by the coordinator Project acronym Funding scheme Beneficiar If 3rd Party, linked y n° to beneficiary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Project nr dd/mm/aa to: dd/mm/aa Page 1/1 Receipts Interest Type of activity CP Adjustment (Yes/No) Reporting period from nnnnnn Organisation Short Name RTD Total (A) Max EC Contribution Demonstration (B) Max EC Total Contribution Management (C) Max EC Total Contribution Other (D) Total Max EC Contribution Total (A)+(B)+(C)+(D) Total Max EC Contribution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 TOTAL Requested EC contribution for the reporting period (in €) 16 17