Intercellular Interactomics of Human Brain Endothelial Cells and Th17 Lymphocytes: A Novel Strategy for Identifying Therapeutic Targets of CNS Inflammation

Figure 3

Shown is a visual depiction of the intercellular interaction network between proteins identified in Th17 lymphocytes and hCMEC/D3 brain endothelial cells using approach described in Figure 2. Each identified protein is represented by an oval; noninteracting proteins are shown in white, membrane proteins identified in Th17 lymphocytes that can interact with luminal membrane proteins of brain endothelial cells (BEC) are shown in blue, BEC luminal membrane- and tight junction proteins that can interact with Th17 membrane proteins are shown in red, and BEC abluminal proteins that can interact with Th17 membrane proteins are shown in green. Proteins were identified using membrane and subcellular proteomics and glycoproteomics and their interactions were catalogued using protein-protein databases as described in the text (each interaction is shown as a line connecting interacting proteins). Insert: the table shows a list of known proteins identified from the interactome network. Nodes represent the proteins or connection points in the membranes of Th17 and BEC in the network, and degree is the number of intercellular connections per node. Examples of these intercellular interactions are shown in the Table.