{"doi":"10.1084/jem.20210785","title":"CD4+ T cells in the lungs of acute sarcoidosis patients recognize an <i>Aspergillus nidulans</i> epitope","abstract":"Löfgren's syndrome (LS) is an acute form of sarcoidosis characterized by a genetic association with HLA-DRB1*03 (HLA-DR3) and an accumulation of CD4+ T cells of unknown specificity in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Here, we screened related LS-specific TCRs for antigen specificity and identified a peptide derived from NAD-dependent histone deacetylase hst4 (NDPD) of Aspergillus nidulans that stimulated these CD4+ T cells in an HLA-DR3-restricted manner. Using ELISPOT analysis, a greater number of IFN-γ- and IL-2-secreting T cells in the BAL of DR3+ LS subjects compared with DR3+ control subjects was observed in response to the NDPD peptide. Finally, increased IgG antibody responses to A. nidulans NDPD were detected in the serum of DR3+ LS subjects. Thus, our findings identify a ligand for CD4+ T cells derived from the lungs of LS patients and suggest a role of A. nidulans in the etiology of LS.","journal":"The Journal of Experimental Medicine","year":2021,"id":156539,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":54,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9624,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":661578,"name":"Avinash Ravindran","orcid":"0000-0002-1599-1658","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661579,"name":"Radleigh G. Santos","orcid":"0000-0002-8194-5502","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661580,"name":"Lan Chen","orcid":"0000-0003-1481-8535","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661581,"name":"Michael T. Falta","orcid":"0000-0002-0835-6904","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661582,"name":"Yang Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-6510-6653","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":502917,"name":"Angela M. Mitchell","orcid":"0000-0003-1955-5850","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":303831,"name":"Shaikh M. Atif","orcid":"0000-0002-7928-5365","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661583,"name":"Douglas G. Mack","orcid":"0000-0001-8318-747X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661584,"name":"Alex N. Tinega","orcid":"0000-0001-7234-3115","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":530647,"name":"Lisa A. Maier","orcid":"0000-0001-6872-1769","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":455530,"name":"Shaodong Dai","orcid":"0000-0003-4760-2773","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106918,"name":"Clemencia Pinilla","orcid":"0000-0002-6174-8114","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":661585,"name":"Johan Grünewald","orcid":"0000-0003-0473-3984","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":459147,"name":"Andrew P. Fontenot","orcid":"0000-0003-4095-512X","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":459146,"name":"Sarah A. Greaves","orcid":"0000-0002-2316-5081","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":66,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:44:13.017332Z","pmid":"34410304","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}