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Cutting Edge |
Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110
| Abstract |
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2-microglobulin-spacer H chain.
Our results indicate that these single-chain constructs assemble
efficiently, maintain their covalent structure, and are unusually
stable at the cell surface. Consequently, these constructs are at least
1000-fold less accessible to exogenous peptide than class I molecules
loaded with endogenous peptides, and they are potent simulators of
peptide-specific CTL and Abs. Our combined findings suggest that
single-chain trimers may have applications as DNA vaccines against
virus infection or tumors. | Introduction |
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2-microglobulin
(
2m)3
and peptide to be stably expressed at the cell surface at levels
sufficient to induce optimal T cell immunity (1, 2, 3, 4). Class
I molecules that fail to complete assembly accumulate in the
endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and are targeted for degradation
(5). There have been two seminal findings regarding class
I assembly in recent years. First, assembly in the ER involves complex
interactions with ER proteins that facilitate full class I assembly
(6). Second, pathogens and tumors evolve diverse
mechanisms to block class I assembly as a means of evading immune
detection (7, 8).
As a novel approach to make class I molecules less dependent on
chaperone assistance and more resistant to down-regulating mechanisms
of viruses, we have produced single-chain class I molecules. There have
been two reports of successfully engineering class I molecules by
directly linking a peptide ligand to the H chain via a short linker
(9, 10), an approach not applicable to most class
I/peptide complexes (our unpublished data). Others have reported
coupling
2m to the N terminus of class I
molecules with a spacer (11, 12, 13, 14), or covalent linkage of
the specific peptide to free
2m which can then
associate with H chains to generate functional trimers
(15, 16, 17). Nonetheless, it remains unclear the extent to
which the covalent attachment of peptides to
2m excludes the binding of competing free
peptide ligands. We report in this work the first demonstration of
linking all three components of class I as a single-chain trimer (SCT),
using an approach applicable to all mouse and human class I/peptide
complexes tested thus far. Furthermore these SCT efficiently exclude
competing peptides and are potent stimulators of Ag-specific T and B
cells.
| Materials and Methods |
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B6 (H-2b), BALB/c (H-2d), and (C3H x B6)F1 (H-2kxb) mice were purchased from Charles River Breeding Laboratories (Wilmington, MA). OT-1 transgenic mice (18) were kindly provided by R. Lorenz (Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO).
Cell lines, Abs, and peptides
L cell line LM1.8 (H-2k) (19) was a gift from P. Kourilsky (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France). mAbs used in this study include the following: 64-3-7, which recognizes open (peptide-free) forms of class I molecules tagged with this epitope (20); B8-24-3 (American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, VA), which recognizes folded Kb; and 25D-1.16, which recognizes Kb+ SIINFEKL peptide (21). The OVA-derived peptide (SIINFEKL) (22) and SIYR peptide (SIYRYYGL) (23) were synthesized on a peptide synthesizer (model 432A; PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA).
DNA constructs
Constructs were generated using standard techniques and were
confirmed by DNA sequence analysis. The
2mb·Kb constructs encode
2mb followed by a linker
of 15 or 20 residues consisting of
(G4S)34 followed
immediately by the mature Kb H chain sequence.
The OVA·
2mb·Kb constructs
encode the leader sequence of
2mb followed immediately
by the SIINFEKL sequence, then a linker of 10 or 15 residues
(G4S)23. This first
linker is followed by the mature
2mb sequence, the second
linker of 1520 residues,
(G4S)34, then the mature
Kb sequence. Constructs were expressed from the
pIRES.neo vector (Clontech Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA). The 64-3-7
epitope-tagged Kb mutant
(KbR48Q,R50P) was described previously
(24).
Cytotoxic T lymphocytes
The Ld-alloreactive CTL clone, 2C (a gift from H. Eisen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA), was maintained by weekly restimulation with irradiated BALB/c splenocytes as previously described (25). When freshly explanted splenocytes were used, 7.5 x 106 cells were cultured with 3.5 x 106 irradiated splenocytes (2000 rad) for 1 wk in the absence of IL-2 or 3.5 x 105 irradiated L cells (10,000 rad) weekly for 2 wk in the absence of IL-2. Thereafter, 2.55 x 105 cells were restimulated weekly with 5 x 106 irradiated splenocytes or 3.5 x 105 irradiated L cells in the presence of 10 U/ml rIL-2. When peptide was included the concentration was 10-4 M in the absence of IL-2 and 10-5 M in the presence of IL-2.
Flow cytometry
Viable cells, gated by forward and side scatter, were analyzed on a FACSCalibur (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA) and data were analyzed using CellQuest software (BD Biosciences). Assays for peptide incubation and turnover of class I were performed as previously reported (24).
Biochemistry
Immunoprecipitations and blots were performed as described (26). Proteins were visualized using ECL reagents (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ).
DNA vaccination
DNA was prepared and immunizations were conducted according to
Corr et al. (27). Briefly, BALB/c mice were injected i.m.
in the quadriceps with 100 µg of DNA encoding
OVA·
2mb·Kb.
Injections were given twice, separated by a 2-wk interval. Four weeks
later mice were bled and tested for Ab production by flow
cytometry.
| Results and Discussion |
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In this study, several class I SCT constructs were produced.
Although they vary in content, each of these SCT consists of the
following elements beginning with the amino terminus: the leader
sequence of
2m, the peptide comprising a
ligand for the H chain, the first flexible linker of 10 or 15 residues,
the mature portion of murine
2mb, the second flexible
linker of 15 or 20 residues, and, finally, the mature portion of the H
chain. To serve as controls, constructs were also made with only
2m covalently attached to the H chain. These
constructs consist of the entire coding region of
2mb linked via a 15- or
20-residue spacer to the mature portion of the respective H chain.
Surface expression and functional capabilities of SCTs
Single-chain constructs were initially generated with mouse class
I Ld molecules and several different ligands.
These SCT constructs resulted in high levels of surface expression and
immune recognition by mAb and CTL to Ld (data not
shown). However, our characterization of Kb SCTs
with SIINFEKL peptide (OVA) and
2m is the most
comprehensive due to well defined OT-1 T cells and mAb 25D-1.16 that
specifically recognizes Kb/OVA complexes
(18, 21).
To test whether spacer length contributed the immune detection of SCT,
a set of
OVA·
2mb·Kb
constructs was produced with linkers of different lengths. In addition
to varying the linker length, the epitope detected by mAb 64-3-7 was
introduced into the Kb H chain to allow
detection of peptide empty forms as previously reported (24, 26, 29). As shown in Fig. 1
, all of
the constructs gave rise to high levels of expression of folded
Kb molecules (B8-24-3+).
However, when examined for the presence of open conformers
(64-3-7+), only the Kb
(Fig. 1
A) and
2mb(L20)·Kb
(Fig. 1
B) constructs expressed an appreciable amount, which
disappeared with addition of exogenous peptide (data not shown), thus
reaffirming their "peptide-empty" nature. In stark contrast, the
SCT constructs expressed barely detectable levels of open conformers.
Thus, the covalent OVA peptide must be able to occupy the
Kb peptide binding groove virtually all the time.
Remarkably, the linker combination of (15/20) provided significantly
better mAb 25D-1.16 reactivity than the other two combinations. In
parallel with the FACS profiles in Fig. 1
A, the recognition
by OT-1-derived T cells was also the best for these transfectants (Fig. 1
B). Thus, increasing the length of the flexible linkers
results in improved recognition of the
OVA·
2mb·Kb
construct by both the mAb 25D-1.16 and OT-1 T cells. This improved
recognition with longer spacers in SCT could reflect better peptide
positioning and/or reduced steric hindrance for TCR and Ab
interactions.
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2mb·Kb
(15/20) construct can be improved further by introducing point
mutations predicted to open the peptide binding groove at the C
terminus (L. Lybarger, Y. Yu, J. Connolly, andT. Hansen, manuscript
in preparation). SCT are at least 1000-fold less accessible to loading with exogenous peptide
To assess the stability of the covalent peptide that is anchored
in the peptide binding groove, peptide competition assays were
performed. To do this, the 2C CTL clone was used because it can
recognize Kb in complex with the SIYR peptide
(23), which has an affinity for Kb
that is comparable to the OVA peptide (31). When
2mb·Kb
or
OVA·
2mb·Kb
transfectants were compared as targets for 2C T cells after overnight
incubation with graded doses of SIYR peptide (Fig. 2
), the
OVA·
2mb·Kb
construct was remarkably resistant to displacement by exogenous SIYR
peptide at a concentration as high as 10-7 M.
Contrary to this, there was significant lysis of
2mb·Kb
transfectants at a concentration as low as 10-10
M. This finding suggests that the
OVA·
2mb·Kb
construct is >1000-fold less accessible to loading by an exogenous
peptide of comparable affinity, when compared with the
2mb·Kb
constructs loaded with endogenous peptides. Thus, the covalent peptide
is stably bound in the SCT peptide binding groove.
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The finding that the peptide-binding groove of the
OVA·
2m·Kb molecule
was relatively inaccessible to exogenous peptide suggested that all of
the components of the SCT remain intact at the cell surface (Fig. 2
).
To examine the integrity of these molecules further, biochemical
analyses were performed to compare Kb,
2m·Kb, and
OVA·
2m·Kb. Each of
these molecules was immunoprecipitated from respective L cell
transfectants and immunoblotted to compare the relative m.w. of all
three Kb constructs. As shown in Fig. 3
A, mAb 64-3-7 (specific for
open H chains) precipitated high levels of Kb but
low to undetectable amounts of
2m·Kb and
OVA·
2m·Kb. By
contrast, B8-24-3 (specific for folded Kb) was
able to precipitate significant amounts of all three constructs. The
differential reactivity with these two mAbs demonstrates that the
covalent attachments to Kb reduced the levels of
open conformers existing at steady-state. In addition, this experiment
clearly demonstrated that the
2m·Kb and
OVA·
2m·Kb covalent
constructs exhibit a slower migration consistent with their expected
m.w. The doublet bands seen with these constructs represent Endo
H-sensitive (ER-resident) vs Endo H-resistant (post-ER) synthesis
intermediates (data not shown). The low steady-state levels of open SCT
conformers was consistent with their rapid ER to Golgi transport when
compared with Kb alone as determined in
pulse-chase experiments (data not shown).
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2m·Kb as well as
2m·Kb and
Kb molecules (only after the latter two
constructs were incubated overnight with exogenous OVA peptide).
Importantly, the SCT migrated slightly more slowly than the
2m·Kb construct that
was precipitated from cells incubated with exogenous peptide (Fig. 3
2m·Kb molecules
retain covalently attached OVA peptide rather than rebinding free OVA
peptide after proteolysis of the SCT.
As additional evidence for the integrity of SCT molecules, their
surface turnover was compared with that of noncovalently attached
Kb molecules with and without overnight
incubation with OVA peptide. As shown in Fig. 3
C,
Kb molecules loaded with endogenous peptides have
a half-life of
8 h, whereas Kb molecules
loaded with noncovalently bound OVA peptide have a half life of
16
h. Remarkably, the OVA SCT were more stable than the
Kb loaded with detached OVA, with no detectable
turnover within the 16 h tested. Thus, the integrity of SCT
molecules is supported by their 1) resistance to peptide exchange, 2)
biochemical detection, and 3) stability at the cell surface.
SCT are immunogenic
The data presented above evince that SCT can assume structures
that are recognized by Abs and T cells that were raised originally
against native peptide/class I complexes. We next examined the extent
to which SCT were capable of stimulating immune responses that would be
specific for the native peptide/class I structures. To test the ability
of the single-chain class I molecules to generate a T cell response, we
compared the ability of LM1.8 (H-2k) cells
expressing
OVA·
2mb·Kb
vs
2mb·Kb
fed exogenous OVA peptide (10-4 M) to induce
Kb/OVA specific T cells in vitro. For this
experiment, responder T cells from
(C3H(H-2k) x
B6(H-2b))F1 mice were used
that should respond only to Kb/OVA complexes
presented by either
OVA·
2mb·Kb
or peptide-fed
2mb·Kb.
Successful generation of Ag-specific CD8+ T cells
typically requires in vivo priming, intracellular peptide loading, or
Ag-pulsed, purified dendritic cells (22, 32). However,
high levels of Kb/OVA-specific lysis were
observed after five weekly rounds of in vitro stimulation with the
OVA·
2mb·Kb
construct (Fig. 4
A). By
comparison, after five weekly rounds of stimulation with cells
expressing the
2mb·Kb
construct and fed 10-4 M continuous OVA peptide,
little if any Kb/OVA-specific lysis was observed
(Fig. 4
A). The high level of occupancy with a single peptide
is likely a contributing factor to the strong immunogenicity of SCT as
evidenced by their ability to generate peptide-specific T cells after
in vitro culture. Another contributing factor could be an impaired
interaction with NK inhibitory receptors on NK cells or T cells.
Indeed, Chung et al. (14, 33) demonstrated that a linker
extending from the C terminus of
2m to the N
terminus of the H chain blocks NK receptor interaction. Likewise, it is
also worth considering that SCT could have impaired interaction with
CD8 coreceptors. If such were true, T cells resulting from repeated
immunization with SCT could be relatively CD8 independent and thus have
a higher intrinsic affinity for class I/peptide (34).
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2mb·Kb
and then tested for Ab production. DNA vaccination was performed using
allogeneic BALB/c (H-2d) mice to eliminate the
possibility of cross-presentation of the OVA peptide on
self-Kb molecules. After only two injections of
DNA, two of six BALB/c recipients made significant
anti-Kb Abs. Remarkably, these Abs were found
to be predominantly Kb/OVA specific, because they
did not detect Kb loaded with endogenous peptides
or control peptides (Fig. 4
2mb·Kb
single-chain construct is highly immunogenic due to its capacity to
remain covalently attached and to stimulate the generation of
peptide-specific, class I-restricted, CD8+ T
cells and Abs. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that SCT appear to fold correctly when assessed by mAb and T cell recognition. Furthermore, biochemical analyses and peptide competition experiments demonstrate that SCT remain intact, and functional analyses indicate that SCT perform as well as, or in some cases better than, their noncovalent counterparts. We have applied this technology to two murine class I molecules using multiple ligands. In addition, we have evidence that this same approach can be used to generate functional HLA class I SCT (L. Lybarger, Y. Yu, J. Connolly, and T. Hansen, manuscript in preparation). These properties make SCT molecules highly attractive for applications as DNA vaccines or probes of mechanisms of class I assembly in normal and pathogenic conditions.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Ted H. Hansen, Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, Box 8232, 4566 Scott Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110. E-mail address: hansen{at}genetics.wustl.edu ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper:
2m,
2-microglobulin; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; SCT, single-chain trimer. ![]()
Received for publication January 23, 2002. Accepted for publication February 7, 2002.
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