Type I interferon and mitochondrial dysfunction are associated with dysregulated cytotoxic CD8+ T cell responses in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus

Juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) is an autoimmune condition which causes significant morbidity in children and young adults and is more severe in its presentation than adult-onset SLE. While many aspects of immune dysfunction have been studied extensively in adult-onset SLE, there is limited and contradictory evidence of how cytotoxic CD8+ T cells contribute to disease pathogenesis and studies exploring cytotoxicity in JSLE are virtually non-existent. Here, we report that CD8+ T cell cytotoxic capacity is reduced in JSLE versus healthy controls, irrespective of treatment or disease activity. Transcriptomic and serum metabolomic analysis identified that this reduction in cytotoxic CD8+ T cells in JSLE was associated with upregulated type I interferon (IFN) signalling, mitochondrial dysfunction, and metabolic disturbances when compared to controls. Greater interrogation of the influence of these pathways on altered cytotoxic CD8+ T cell function demonstrated that JSLE CD8+ T cells had enlarged mitochondria and enhanced sensitivity to IFN-α leading to selective apoptosis of effector memory (EM) CD8+ T cells, which are enriched for cytotoxic mediator-expressing cells. This process ultimately contributes to the observed reduction in CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity in JSLE, reinforcing the growing evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction is a key pathogenic factor affecting multiple immune cell populations in type I IFN-driven rheumatic diseases.