Author(s): Sophie Daines
Mentor(s): K. Scott Weber, Miranda Sharp
Institution BYU
CD5 is a transmembrane coreceptor found in conventional T cell membranes that associates with the antigen receptor complex. It plays a role in inhibiting T cell activation during development in the thymus. When a T cell is activated, a metabolic shift happens and it begins to rely on different pathways. Naive T cells rely on mitochondrial respiration for maximized ATP production whereas activated T cells rely on glycolysis to produce intermediate molecules that are used for cell growth to support proliferation. When CD5 is removed from T cell membranes and no longer exerts this inhibitory role, activation goes up and by consequence so does the rate of glycolysis. Our lab has shown previously that this change in glycolysis rate impacts metabolite levels, resulting in lower levels of key metabolites in serum. During that research, anxiety type behaviors were noted in the subject mice and preliminary data suggests that CD5 knock out (CD5KO) mice have higher anxiety. We hypothesize that decreased levels of metabolites in serum connected to a lack of CD5 cause an increase in anxiety-type behaviors and that supplementing the metabolites can reverse the effects and reduce anxiety. Understanding this correlation can expand knowledge of the impact of CD5 on metabolism as well as lead to treatments for anxious behaviors using the immune system.