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Cutting Edge |


* Emory Transplant Center and Department of Surgery, and
Emory Vaccine Center and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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A continuing concern in clinical transplantation is the effect tolerance induction regimens might have on immunity to pathogens. One possible consequence is that in attempting to induce tolerance to the allograft, antiviral immune responses could be compromised, leading to undesirable consequences for the transplant recipient. Conversely, ongoing viral infections could prove to be a barrier to the successful induction of allograft tolerance. In support of this latter scenario, it has recently been reported that acute infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV)4 Armstrong at the time of transplantation prevents tolerance induction and induces rapid graft rejection (5, 6).
As preexisting chronic or latent infections are prevalent in transplant recipients (e.g., EBV, CMV, polyoma, hepatitis C), we sought to apply a model of chronic viral infection. LCMV clone 13, in contrast to LCMV Armstrong, causes a long-term persistent infection in mice that is cleared from serum over the course of 23 mo (7). In this study, we analyze the impact of an ongoing chronic infection on the induction of tolerance. We also assess the ability of recipient mice to maintain control of the infection following costimulation blockade-based treatment. We find that the presence of a chronic LCMV infection prevents the establishment of tolerance and deletion of donor-reactive T cells as long as 4 mo post-infection, long after viremia has been controlled. Moreover, analysis of the antiviral T cell response reveals that administration of the tolerance regimen during persistent infection, and specifically short-term costimulation blockade, results in sustained impairment of responses to a panel of CD8 epitopes and a failure to control viremia. To our knowledge, these data provide the first evidence that persistent infections may prove to be a barrier to the clinical application of costimulation blockade-based tolerance induction regimens, and perhaps even more importantly that in the absence of antiviral therapy, such regimens also have the potential to hamper protective antiviral immunity. Furthermore, we find that costimulation via the CD28 and CD40 pathways continues to be essential for T cell responses to chronic infection well after initial Ag exposure, expansion, and differentiation.
| Materials and Methods |
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Adult male 6- to 8-wk-old BALB/c and C57BL/6 (B6) mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME). B6 LCMV carrier mice were bred at Emory University (Atlanta, GA) as previously described (8). Mice were infected with 2 x 105 PFU of LCMV Armstrong injected i.p. to induce acute infection, or with 2 x 106 PFU of LCMV clone 13 (i.v.) to induce chronic infection. Virus stocks were grown and quantitated as previously described (7). Infectious LCMV in serum and tissues was measured by plaque assay on Vero cell monolayers as described (7).
Skin grafting
Full thickness skin grafts (
1 cm2) were
transplanted on the dorsal thorax of recipient mice and secured with a
band-aid for 7 days. Graft survival was then followed by daily visual
inspection. Rejection was defined as the complete loss of viable
epidermal graft tissue.
Bone marrow preparation and treatment protocols
The mixed chimerism tolerance regimen, involving treatment with donor bone marrow, busulfan (Busulfex; Orphan Medical, Minnetonka, MN), CTLA4-Ig, and anti-CD40 ligand (CD40L) (MR1), has been described elsewhere (4). The dose of MR1 (2 mg total over four treatments) has been shown to generate therapeutically effective levels for >50 days (9).
Cell preparations and flow cytometry
Intracellular IFN-
expression was induced in response to ex
vivo restimulation with LCMV peptides as described (8).
Cells were stained with anti-IFN-
and anti-CD8 (BD
PharMingen, San Diego, CA) using the Cytofix/Cytoperm kit according to
the manufacturers instructions (BD PharMingen). Peripheral blood was
analyzed by staining with the indicated fluorochrome-conjugated Abs (BD
PharMingen), followed by RBC lysis and washing with a whole blood lysis
kit (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN). Flow cytometry was performed on a
FACSCalibur and data were analyzed using CellQuest software (BD
Biosciences, Braintree, MA).
| Results |
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We have previously described a method for establishing indefinite
allospecific tolerance and 5070% mixed hemopoietic chimerism
following treatment with the stem cell-selective toxin busulfan,
administration of donor bone marrow, and blockade of the CD28 and CD40
costimulatory pathways (4). However, we have recently
reported that tolerance induction could be inhibited by a concurrent
acute LCMV infection (6). In the present experiments, we
sought to determine the effects of preexisting long-term chronic viral
infections on tolerance induction, the development of hemopoietic
chimerism, and the deletion of donor-reactive T cells. Mice infected
with LCMV clone 13 typically develop high viral titers in the serum
that are gradually controlled by the host T cell response over the
course of 23 mo. Virus is generally controlled and cleared from the
serum by day 90 postinfection and persists at very low levels in
peripheral organs indefinitely (7). We assessed the
efficacy of the tolerance regimen during the course of a chronic
infection by administering the tolerance induction protocol to mice 15,
60, and 120 days postinfection. As expected, viral titers in mice
infected with LCMV clone 13 gradually decrease and disappear from the
serum by day 120 postinfection (Fig. 1
, a, d, and g). However, low levels of
virus persisted in the kidneys of infected mice as late as 250 days
postinfection (data not shown). Conversely, mice infected with LCMV
Armstrong, an acutely infecting strain, rapidly clear the virus from
the serum (Fig. 1
j) and peripheral tissues (data not
shown).
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50% chimerism in the
peripheral blood by day 60 (Fig. 1In aggregate, while 25 of 26 uninfected B6 mice were rendered tolerant and chimeric, none of the 33 infected animals accepted skin allografts or developed chimerism. It is notable that even mice with no detectable virus in the serum rapidly rejected skin allografts following administration of donor bone marrow, busulfan, and costimulation blockade.
To determine whether LCMV-induced skin graft rejection was associated
with impaired peripheral deletion of donor-reactive T cells, we
compared the use of V
11 and V
5.1/2 by CD4+
T cells from B6 recipients in the uninfected group (accepted both bone
marrow and skin grafts) and from the infected groups (rejected bone
marrow and skin grafts). BALB/c mice delete V
11- and V
5-bearing T
cells in the thymus due to their high affinity for endogenous
retroviral superantigens (mouse mammary tumor virus) presented
by I-E MHC class II molecules, whereas B6 mice do not express I-E and
thus use V
11 on
57% of CD4+ T cells and
V
5.1/2 on
35% of CD4+ T cells. Treatment
with costimulation blockade and the subsequent development of chimerism
in B6 recipients results in the deletion of the donor-reactive V
5
and V
11 subsets (2, 3). Mice receiving the tolerance
regimen 15, 60, or 120 days postinfection were bled 120 days
posttransplant and tested for the presence of V
5- and V
11-bearing
CD4+ T cells. Chronic infection with LCMV
prevented the deletion of donor-reactive T cells at all time points
(Fig. 2
). In contrast, tolerant control
animals deleted these subsets. We concluded that inhibition of
tolerance induction by chronic LCMV infection was associated with a
failure to delete donor-reactive T cells from the periphery.
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The observation that chronic LCMV infection could induce
alloresponses sufficient for graft rejection suggested that
administration of costimulation blockade-based immunosuppressive
therapy was unlikely to disrupt antiviral responses and prevent
effective viral clearance. To test this, we measured viral titers in
the serum of animals that had received either no treatment or the full
tolerance regimen (skin allograft, donor bone marrow, busulfan,
CTLA4-Ig, and anti-CD40L) either 15, 60, or 120 days postinfection.
Eight of eight mice receiving the regimen at day 15 and four of eight
mice receiving the regimen at day 60 failed to clear virus from the
serum by day 150 postinfection (Fig. 3
a) and throughout the course
of the experiment (>200 days, data not shown). Significantly, mice
treated 120 days postinfection that had already resolved viremia but
maintained low levels of virus in the kidney did not display
reemergence of the virus in the peripheral blood at day 150
postinfection (Fig. 3
a) or at later time points (data not
shown). As a treatment control, mice given bone marrow and busulfan
without costimulation blockade on day 15 postinfection
successfully controlled viremia with normal kinetics (data not shown).
We further found that treatment with costimulation blockade alone
(CTLA4-Ig and anti-CD40L), beginning at day 0 or 20 postinfection,
also prevented normal viral clearance from the serum by day 90
postinfection (Fig. 3
b).
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staining the frequency of
LCMV-specific T cells in the spleen 15 days later. We observed
3- to
4-fold decreased numbers of CD8 T cells specific for the gp3341,
gp276286, and gp118128 epitopes in the spleens of mice receiving
the tolerance regimen or costimulation blockade treatment alone, as
compared with untreated controls (Fig. 4
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| Discussion |
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Although CD28 and CD40 have been found to be largely dispensable for clearance of an acute LCMV infection (12, 13, 14), T cell costimulatory pathways are much more important for dealing with more potent persistent infections (12). Our report indicates that Ag-specific CD8 T cells continue to require CD28/CD40 costimulation in the setting of chronic infection even well after priming, activation, and expansion (as late as 60 days into the response), as demonstrated by our observation that ongoing CD8 responses are down-modulated following costimulatory blockade. Interestingly, blockade of costimulatory pathways has been shown to be effective in preventing the onset of autoimmunity in mouse models (15, 16). Our data provide a rationale for such treatment in ameliorating ongoing disease (17).
Latent or persistent viral infections are very common in adult human transplant recipients, and loss of immune control of these viruses following transplantation results in significant morbidity and mortality. It is crucial to understand the effects of tolerance regimens on other chronic persistent or latent infections, such as hepatitis C, polyoma, EBV, and CMV. Further studies should further dissect the pathways whereby chronic LCMV promotes the generation of CD28/CD40-independent alloresponses and eventual graft rejection.
| Footnotes |
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2 M.A.W. and T.M.O. contributed equally to this work. ![]()
3 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Christian P. Larsen, Division of Transplant Immunology, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, Suite 5105 WMB, 1639 Pierce Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322. E-mail address: clarsen{at}emoryhealthcare.org ![]()
4 Abbreviations used in this paper: LCMV, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus; CD40L, CD40 ligand; MST, median survival time. ![]()
Received for publication August 9, 2002. Accepted for publication September 20, 2002.
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