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Cutting Edge |
Department of Immunology, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, 38105
| Abstract |
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following
short-term stimulation with 1 µM peptide. This response is
H-2Kb restricted, epitope specific, and requires the
continuing presence of peptide. The same effect was found for known
H-2Db-restricted peptides from two influenza virus
proteins. The great majority of these influenza-specific
CD8+IFN-
+ T cells neither stained with the
cognate tetramer nor expressed the TCR V
bias that is characteristic
of the CD8+ set expanded in vivo during an infection. Thus,
multipoint binding of low affinity TCRs on naive CD8+ T
cells can drive peptide-specific cytokine production. However, at least
for two influenza-derived epitopes, the avidity of the TCR-MHC peptide
interaction appears to be insufficient to stabilize a tetrameric
complex of MHC class I glycoprotein plus peptide on the lymphocyte
surface. | Introduction |
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production, the flow cytometric peptide/IFN-
(Pep
)3 assay
generally gives results that are comparable to those found by tetramer
staining (2, 3).
Intracellular cytokine staining has been successfully used by our
laboratory to identify five epitopes in H-2b mice
infected with the murine gammaherpesvirus 68 and two novel epitopes
derived from influenza A viruses
(DbPA224233 and
KbPB1703711; Refs.
4, 5, 6). The present experiments started with efforts to
define the CD8+ T cell response in
H-2b mice primed and boosted with HIV-1 envelope
glycoproteins in the form of a DNA vaccine, followed by infection with
a recombinant vaccinia virus (Vacc) (7, 8). To identify
candidate epitopes, we used a 6-day in vitro culture system that was
intended to expand any epitope-specific CD8+ T
cells before screening our panel of HIV-1 envelope peptides with the
Pep
assay. Two peptides from different regions of the HIV-1 envelope
molecule elicited substantial IFN-
production. The surprising
finding was that these HIV-1 envelope peptides were equally effective
at stimulating CD8+ T cells from mice that had
not previously been exposed to the HIV envelope glycoprotein. The
effect was analyzed further with known influenza virus peptides. The
experiments provide insight into the nature of the naive
CD8+ T cell repertoire and provide a cautionary
note for using the Pep
assay with cultured cells to identify novel
immunogenic epitopes.
| Materials and Methods |
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Female C57BL/6 (B6) mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and maintained under specific pathogen-free conditions. Experiments were done with mice that were first "rested" under specific pathogen-free conditions for at least 1 mo before being used as "naive" lymphocyte donors at 1012 wk of age. Some mice were primed with DNA encoding sequences of the HIV-1 envelope gp140 molecule by immunizing i.m. with 100 µg DNA. Primed mice were boosted i.p. 3060 days later with 107 PFU of a Vacc construct (Vacc-gp140) encoding the same HIV gp140 (7, 8). Influenza memory mice had been infected intranasally (i.n.) 16 mo previously with 106.8 egg infectious doses of the A/HKx31 influenza A virus (referred to hereafter as HKx31) (3).
Cultures
The responder lymphocyte populations were derived from single-cell suspensions of spleen that were treated with Geys solution to lyse RBCs and were then incubated for 1 h at 37°C on flasks that had been precoated with goat anti-mouse Ig to remove B cells and adhere macrophages. The APCs were prepared by incubating naive, RBC-depleted splenocytes with a mAb to Thy 1.2 (AT83) for 30 min on ice, followed by washing and a 1-h incubation at 37°C in a mix of rabbit and guinea pig complement (Cedarlane Laboratories, Hornby, Ontario, Canada) diluted in HBSS (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY). A total of 1 ml rabbit and 5 ml guinea pig complement was added to a final volume of 40 ml in HBSS, and <0.1% CD3+ T cells remained after this treatment. The APCs were irradiated with 2500 rad, then 0.51 x 106 responders and 1 x 106 APCs were cultured for 6 days (unless otherwise noted) in 2 ml complete S-MEM (Life Technologies) incorporating 10 U/ml recombinant human IL-2 (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) and graded doses (500.0005 µM) of peptide. All peptides were synthesized at the Hartwell Center for Biotechnology (St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, Memphis, TN). Although the initial screening was done with unpurified mimotope peptide preparations, all experiments shown here used peptides purified by HPLC (70% purity). The HIV-1 envelope peptide sequences are LPCRIKQIINMWQEV for the 208 epitope and REKRAIGLGALFLGF for the 388 epitope. The full-length envelope sequences have been previously described (8). Control experiments were done using the influenza A virus nucleoprotein366374 peptide (ASNENMETM; NP366) (9) and the influenza acid polymerase PA224233 peptide (SSLENFRAYV; PA224) (5).
Flow cytometry
Cultured cells were harvested from the plates, washed, and
incubated for another 5 h in the presence of brefeldin A plus
peptide (2). The lymphocytes were then washed, blocked for
10 min on ice with purified anti-mouse CD16/CD32 (Fc
RIII/II; BD
PharMingen, San Diego, CA), and stained for 20 min on ice with
anti-CD8-tricolor (Caltag Laboratories, Burlingame, CA). Some were
also stained with a FITC-conjugated mAb to the TCR
-chain (H57-597;
BD PharMingen). The T cells that were analyzed by the Pep
assay were
then fixed in 1% paraformaldehyde, permeabilized in saponin, and
stained with PE-conjugated anti-IFN-
(XMG1.2; BD PharMingen).
Tetramer staining was performed by treating cultured cells with
anti-CD16/CD32 for 10 min on ice, staining with
anti-CD8-tricolor for 20 min on ice, washing, and incubating for
1 h at room temperature with either the PE-conjugated tetrameric
complex of H-2Db and NP366
or the PE-conjugated tetrameric complex of H-2Db
and PA224 (3, 5). All tetramers were
made at the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital Tetramer Facility.
To test for TCR V
gene usage, viable IFN-
+
cells were isolated from the cultures (see following section for
purification) and were stained for 20 min on ice with CD8-tricolor and
either V
8.3-FITC or V
7.1-FITC (BD PharMingen).
Separation of IFN-
-producing cells
IFN-
-producing CD8+ T cells were
recovered from 6-day cultures using a mouse IFN-
cell enrichment and
detection kit (Miltenyi Biotec, Auburn, CA). Briefly, live cells were
purified on a gradient and then labeled with a chimeric capture Ab that
binds to a cell surface protein and captures IFN-
secreted during a
45-min incubation at 37°C. The cells were then washed and coated with
a PE-conjugated mAb to IFN-
. Finally, cells were incubated with
anti-PE microbeads and enriched magnetically.
| Results and Discussion |
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More than 400 overlapping 15-mers (10) spanning four
different HIV-1 envelope sequences were tested by culturing lymphocytes
from DNA/Vacc-gp140-primed mice with pools of 10 peptides at 50 µM.
The final concentration for each 15-mer was 5 µM, a level that (under
these conditions) effectively stimulates immune T cells specific for
known peptides. This led to the identification of nine candidates (data
not shown) that stimulated optimally at 550 µM as individual
peptides. The surprise came when, as a control, lymphocytes from naive
mice were also cultured with two peptides that elicited the strongest
responses, 208 (LPCRIKQIINMWQEV) and 388 (REKRAIGLGALFLGF). The levels
of IFN-
staining for naive T cells cultured with the 208 and 388
peptides were equivalent to those found for the populations from
vaccinated mice (Fig. 1
).
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production by
CD8+ T cells in the naive T cell cultures was
peptide specific. Thus, lymphocytes were cultured for 6 days with 50
µM of 208 or 388 and then stimulated for 5 h with 1 µM of
either peptide. The percentage of
CD8+IFN-
+ T cells
detected in the gated CD8+ set was 7.4% (for 208
cultures) and 2.6% (for 388 cultures) following exposure to the
homologous peptide and 0.9% in each case after the heterologous
stimulation. Repeat experiments with 208, 388, and other candidate
peptides showed comparable specificity for a variety of peptide
combinations. The responding IFN-
+ cells were
also shown to be reproducibly TCR
+ (data
not shown).
When single residue truncations were made from either the amino or
carboxyl termini of the original 15-mers, maximum IFN-
production by
naive CD8+ T cells was found for the
IKQIINMWQEV and RAIGLGALFLGF peptides (208D and 388C, respectively;
data not shown). Neither 208 nor 388 perfectly match the MHC class I
binding motifs (11) for H-2Kb,
XXXXF(Y)XXL(M)(I)(V), or H-2Db,
XXXXNXXX(M)(I)(V). To map the MHC restriction element, truncated
versions of 208 (IKQIINMWQEV) and 388 (RAIGLGALFLGF) were used to
stimulate naive T cells from B10
(KbDb)-, B10.A(5R)
(KbDd)-, and B10.A(4R)
(KkDb)-congenic mice.
Cultures with 388C clearly mapped to Kb (data not
shown). Lymphocytes cultured with the truncated 208D peptide showed a
Kb restriction in that the
CD8+IFN-
+ response with
5R CD8+ T cells (4.6%) was greater than that for
the 4R population (1.6%, data not shown). However, 1.6%
CD8+IFN-
+ cells is
slightly higher than our average background (generally <1%) and may
suggest a small portion of Db reactivity.
Comparing naive and memory responses
An obvious question was whether these in vitro
CD8+ T cell responses from naive mice (Fig. 1
and
data not shown) reflect some special property of MHC class I-peptide
complexes when selected HIV-1 envelope peptides bind to
H-2Kb. Thus, the analysis was repeated with the
H-2Db-restricted NP366 and
PA224 influenza peptides (5, 9)
using lymphocytes from uninfected and virus-primed mice. Again, it was
demonstrated that naive CD8+ T cells could be
specifically stimulated to produce substantial amounts of IFN-
(Fig. 2
). As expected, memory
CD8+ T cells needed much less Ag. The
concentration required for optimal stimulation of the naive set was 50
µM compared with 0.05 µM for the immune population (Fig. 2
). A
further difference between naive and immune T cells was the requirement
for soluble peptide throughout the incubation period. When peptide was
present continuously during the 6-day culture period, both naive and
immune cultures exhibited a vigorous IFN-
response to
PA224 and 208. In contrast, peptide-pulsed
stimulators failed to induce an IFN-
response, except for the
influenza-derived epitope PA224, in cultures
using T cells from an influenza-immune mouse (Fig. 3
). Thus, a much greater and sustained Ag
dose is clearly required to drive these naive responses.
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-producing cells in the naive cultures reflect the
properties of the virus-specific CD8+ set that
would normally be induced by in vivo priming with respect to TCR
affinity/avidity and V
gene usage? This was found not to be the
case. Although the percentage of
CD8+IFN-
+ T cells was
generally comparable to the percentage of
CD8+tetramer+ cells in the
immune cultures, the naive cultures did not show any staining with
cognate tetramer above background, even though a substantial
IFN-
response was clearly detected (Expt. 1, Table I
8.3+ and V
7.1+ TCRs,
respectively, with bias toward V
7.1 in the
PA224-specific population being much stronger
than that seen for V
8.3 in the NP366 response
(5, 12). Whereas the
CD8+IFN-
+ set from the
immune cultures showed the appropriate V
bias, this skewing of TCR
usage was not found in the naive cultures (Expt. 2, Table I
mAbs (purchased from BD PharMingen) did not
indicate any obvious bias in the naive in vitro response (data not
shown).
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phenotypes or bind the tetramers that
define the Ag-specific CD8+ set in adaptive
immunity (3, 5, 9, 12). Clearly, other defined CTL
epitopes need to be examined to ascertain whether or not any peptide
can elicit such broad low affinity responses from naive
CD8+ T cells. How this in vitro response to high
doses of peptide relates to the in vivo situation is remains open to
question. One intriguing possibility is that although these low
affinity populations can produce ample amounts of IFN-
to specific
stimuli, their ability to mediate other functions such as cytotoxicity
may be influenced by a variety of parameters such as antigenic dose
during the initial encounter with Ag, costimulation by the APC, and an
ability to interact effectively with a target cell. Preliminary
experiments (data not shown) have shown potent CTL activity when cells
from influenza-immune mice were cultured with influenza-specific
peptides and assayed on peptide-pulsed EL4 (H-2b)
targets. In contrast, the comparable cultures from naive mice caused
little, if any, 51Cr release in a 6-h assay.
However, both naive and immune cell cultures showed potent cytoxicity
when tested by the redirected CTL assay (13) using
FcR+ P815 (H-2d)
targets coated with an Ab to CD3
(data not shown). Lastly, there is
evidence that memory CD8+ T cells may show
unpredicted cross-reactivity patterns (14). However, it is
unlikely that the IFN-
production seen in the naive cell cultures is
due to cross-reactive memory T cells, because
CD8+ T cells sorted for the
CD44low naive phenotype show the same pattern of
reactivity under those culture conditions (data not shown). Immune responses develop in defined microenvironments in which it is difficult to measure local Ag concentrations. Depending on the dose in a particular anatomical niche, a much broader spectrum of naive CD8+ T cells may be involved than those that ultimately emerge as the virus-specific effector/memory populations (3, 15). The phenotype of CD8+ T cells that respond during the initial phases of infection has generally been impossible to study because the frequency of such cells is too low to detect with current methodology. The in vitro culture system described here should allow us to further analyze both the plasticity of the naive T cell repertoire and the possible consequences of inducing such low affinity/avidity peptide-specific effector T cells.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint request to Dr. Janice M. Riberdy, Department of Immunology, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale, Memphis TN 38105. E-mail address: janice.riberdy{at}stjude.org ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: Pep
, peptide stimulation/IFN-
; Vacc, vaccinia virus; NP366, influenza nucleoprotein366374 peptide; PA224, influenza acid polymerase PA224233 peptide; i.n., intranasally. ![]()
Received for publication April 17, 2001. Accepted for publication July 10, 2001.
| References |
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8.3 T cells in the H-2Db-restricted response to an influenza A virus nucleoprotein epitope. J. Immunol. 151:2658.[Abstract]

+ intraepithelial lymphocytes. Science 243:1716.This article has been cited by other articles:
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K. Kuzushima, N. Hayashi, A. Kudoh, Y. Akatsuka, K. Tsujimura, Y. Morishima, and T. Tsurumi Tetramer-assisted identification and characterization of epitopes recognized by HLA A*2402-restricted Epstein-Barr virus-specific CD8+ T cells Blood, February 15, 2003; 101(4): 1460 - 1468. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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