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* Laboratory of Immunology and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea;
Department of Molecular Immunology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan;
Department of Immunology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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14-J
18 chains in mice (V
24-J
18 in humans). Upon TCR stimulation with a ligand such as
-galactosylceramide (
GC), iNKT cells rapidly produce a wide range of cytokines including IL-4, IFN-
, and IL-12 (1, 2). This response enables iNKT cells to enhance or regulate the activity of various immune cells in innate and acquired immunity (3). These immunomodulatory roles of iNKT cells are found in diverse diseases, promoting tumor rejection or regulating autoimmune disorders (4, 5, 6).
Another unique feature of iNKT cells is that they become unresponsive after stimulation with their ligands. For instance, iNKT cells that have been stimulated with
GC have reduced proliferation and cytokine production upon secondary stimulation with the same ligand (7, 8). This iNKT cell anergy is a major obstacle in immunotherapeutic trials targeting iNKT cells; however, the mechanism behind the anergy is not clear. A classic concept of anergy in conventional T cells is that the cells become anergic when they receive a TCR signal with insufficient costimulatory signals. In contrast, it has recently been suggested that coinhibitory molecules may actively anergize or tolerize T cells by delivering inhibitory signals into TCR-stimulated T cells (9). Moreover, in cases of chronic viral infection, blockade of the programmed death-1 (PD-1) signal can reverse the anergic phenotype of CD8 T cells (10, 11).
PD-1 is well known as a coinhibitory molecule on T cells. In conventional T cells, it is not expressed on naive T cells but is inducibly expressed after T cell activation. The interactions of PD-1 with the PD ligands (PD-L1 and PD-L2) can transduce inhibitory or costimulatory signals into the T cells (12). It is well established that PD-1 plays a critical role in the regulation of immune tolerance and autoimmunity (10, 13, 14).
Several costimulatory molecules have been well established in the iNKT cells (15, 16), but their role in iNKT cell anergy has been elusive. The goal of our study was to delineate the mechanism of iNKT cell anergy. Our results show that PD-1 expressed on iNKT cells is up-regulated after stimulation and that blocking of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway allows the anergic iNKT cells to recover their responsiveness. Moreover, anergic iNKT cells recovered by PD-1 blockade have potent antitumor activity. Therefore, we suggest that PD-1 plays an important role in the induction and maintenance of iNKT cell anergy.
| Materials and Methods |
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Six- to 8-wk-old female C57BL/6 mice were purchased from Orient Bio. All mice were bred and maintained in specific pathogen-free conditions. All studies conformed to the principles for laboratory animal research outlined by Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea).
Reagents and antibodies
GC provided by Dr. S. Kim (Seoul National University) was dissolved in 0.5% Tween 20 in PBS as a vehicle. Hybridoma clones producing blocking mAbs against mouse PD-1 (clone RMP1-14; rat IgG2a), PD-L1 (clone MIH-5; rat IgG2a), and PD-L2 (Ty25; rat IgG2a) were generated as described previously (17, 18, 19) and prepared from the ascites of nude mice by using caprylic acid purification.
iNKT cell anergy
Mice were injected i.p. with 2 µg of
GC. Seven days or 1 mo later, splenocytes were isolated and cultured with 100 ng/ml
GC plus 50 µg/ml control rat IgG or each blocking mAb in vitro. The supernatants were assayed by ELISA to detect levels of IL-2 after 12 h of culture and levels of IL-4 and IFN-
after 96 h of culture. For proliferation assays, [3H]thymidine was added to the wells after 48 h of culture and cells were cultured for an additional 16 h before cell harvest and the measurement of radioactivity uptake. For in vivo models, 200 µg of the control IgG or each blocking mAb was administered into mice 1 day before
GC treatment. Two weeks later,
GC was reinjected and sera were prepared 2 and 12 h later for assay of IL-4 and IFN-
levels, respectively. Splenocytes were prepared at 2 h for assay of intracellular cytokine staining, which was performed by BD Cytofix/Cytoperm Plus with Golgi-Plug kit (BD Biosciences).
B16F10 melanoma metastasis model
Mice given 200 µg of each blocking mAb or control rat IgG at day –1 were i.v. inoculated with 2 x 105 B16F10 tumor cells at day 0. At days 0, 4, and 8 the mice were treated with 500 ng of
GC plus 200 µg of each blocking mAb or control rat IgG. Fourteen days later, lungs were weighed. To induce the iNKT cell anergy in the tumor model, 1 day after mice were given 200 µg of each blocking mAb or control rat IgG, they were treated i.p. with 2 µg of
GC. Seven days after
GC treatment, 5 x 105 B16F10 tumor cells were inoculated. Then, mice were treated with 500 ng of
GC at 0, 4, and 8 days after the inoculation. Fourteen days later, lungs were isolated and metastatic nodules were counted.
Flow cytometric analysis
To analyze the iNKT cell population, we used
GC-loaded CD1d dimer complex as described previously (15). For analysis of PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 expression, cells were stained with anti-PD-1-PE mAb (Biolegend), anti-PD-L1-PE mAb (BD Biosciences), or anti-PD-L2-PE mAb (BD Biosciences), respectively. For intracellular cytokine staining, we used anti-IFN-
-allophycocyanin mAb and anti-IL-4-allophycocyanin mAb (Biolegend). All cells were analyzed using a FACSCalibur flow cytometer (BD Biosciences).
Statistical analysis
Results are expressed as mean ± SEM. When appropriate, we used the Students t test. For results that did not show normal distribution, a Wilcoxon two-sample rank-sum test (Mann-Whitney U test) was used; p < 0.05 was considered significant.
| Results and Discussion |
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GC stimulation. After mice were injected with
GC or vehicle, splenocytes were analyzed at different time points. As depicted in Fig. 1, PD-1 was constitutively expressed on iNKT cells at a low level. Its expression was up-regulated and persisted for at least 2 mo after
GC stimulation. In contrast, PD-L1 expression was temporarily increased on
GC-stimulated iNKT cells but declined toward naive state levels within 72 h; however, PD-L2 was not expressed (Fig. 1). Although, PD-1 has been expressed in Vβ8 transgenic mice (20), our data convincingly showed constitutive expression of PD-1 on iNKT cells and its up-regulation upon activation by staining with
GC/CD1d:Ig dimer.
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GC with each blocking mAb or control IgG in vitro and in vivo, anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 mAbs significantly increased IFN-
production from iNKT cells (supplemental figure 1).4 Therefore, the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction delivered a coinhibitory signal during iNKT activation, particularly in IFN-
-secreting features.
iNKT cells stimulated by
GC readily become unresponsive to
GC restimulation, and this anergic phenotype lasts at least 1 mo (8). Our observation described above prompted us to investigate the role of the PD-1 signal in induction or maintenance of the iNKT cell anergy. Therefore, we investigated the role of PD-1/PD-L1 interaction in iNKT cell anergy. To this end, mice were injected with
GC to induce iNKT cell anergy. Seven days later, splenocytes were restimulated with
GC plus each blocking mAb. Consistent with previous findings (8), cytokine levels of
GC-pretreated mice were significantly less than those of vehicle-pretreated mice, indicative of the anergic status of iNKT cells (Fig. 2A). Surprisingly, the levels of IFN-
in the anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 mAb-treated group, but not those of the group treated with anti-PD-L2, were remarkably higher than that of the control IgG group and reached the levels of the vehicle-pretreated group (Fig. 2A). The IL-2 and IL-4 levels were also higher in the anti-PD-1 mAb-treated group than in the control group and were in an intermediate range in the anti-PD-L1-treated group. In addition, cell proliferation, another characteristic of activated iNKT cells, was also recovered from the anergic state by treatment of the mAbs (Fig. 2A). The recovery of IFN-
and IL-4 production by treatment of the mAbs was showed until 1 and 2 mo after
GC treatment (Fig. 2B; data not shown). These data demonstrate that blocking the PD-1/PD-L1 signal during restimulation reverses the established anergic phenotype of iNKT cells.
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GC. Two weeks later, all mice were injected with secondary
GC and the levels of cytokines in sera were analyzed. Mice pretreated with
GC produced significant less IFN-
and IL-4 upon secondary
GC injection, indicative of anergic iNKT cells. However, mice treated with anti-PD-1 mAb during primary
GC treatment produced remarkably higher levels of IFN-
and IL-4 than the control IgG-treated group upon secondary
GC injection (Fig. 3A). Intracellular cytokine staining showed that the increased cytokine production was from iNKT cells (Fig. 3B). Of note, we did not observe any improved cytokine production in the anti-PD-L1 mAb-treated group in this experimental setting. We speculated that it might be difficult for blockade of the PD-L1 molecule with mAb to abolish the induction of iNKT cell anergy due to broad expression and distribution of PD-L1 in vivo. Alternatively, there might be other reasons that remain unknown. We then tested for differences of CD69 expression, a typical activation marker, on iNKT cells and NK cells. We found that the CD69 expression on iNKT and NK cells upon secondary
GC injection was increased by treatment with anti-PD-1 mAbs (supplemental figure 2).
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GC treatment. These observations indicate that PD-1/PD-L1 interaction plays an essential role in the induction as well as the maintenance of iNKT cell anergy.
It is well established that administration of iNKT ligand triggers antitumor activity against lung metastasis of B16F10 melanoma, depending on IFN-
production by activated iNKT and NK cells (22, 23). To identify whether the inhibition of PD-1/PD-L1 interaction would enhance the antitumor effects of iNKT cells, we injected each blocking mAb 24 h before B16F10 inoculation, followed by an
GC injection with control IgG or each blocking mAb. As a result, the weight of B16F10 metastatic lungs was significantly reduced in the anti-PD-1 mAb-treated group compared with lungs from the group given control IgG (Fig. 4A). These results indicate that the antitumor effects of iNKT cells can be enhanced by blockade of the PD-1 coinhibitory pathway.
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GC into mice pretreated with the respective blocking mAbs. One week later, all mice were inoculated with B16F10 tumor cells and treated with a suboptimal dose of
GC (500 ng/injection). In mice treated with control IgG, the number of tumor nodules was comparable to those seen in the vehicle-treated group, indicating that
GC treatment during tumor inoculation did not suppress tumor growth. However, the numbers of tumor nodules in the anti-PD-1- and PD-L1-treated groups were significantly reduced compared with those in the control IgG-treated group and in the vehicle-treated group (Fig. 4, B and C). These results indicate that blocking the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction during the induction phase of iNKT cell anergy can restore the antitumor activity of this T cell subset.
Several studies have shown improved antitumor activity of iNKT cells with the use of various tools or materials (24, 25). In our study,
GC-mediated antitumor effect was significantly increased by administration of anti-PD-1 mAb at the time of
GC treatment. Furthermore, administration of anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 mAb prevented anergy induction of iNKT cells, which resulted in maintenance of the intrinsic antitumor effect of iNKT cells. Anti-PD-L1 mAb treatment triggered a strong antitumor response in this model, although we did not observe a restored cytokine production in a similar experimental setting. The reason for this discrepancy is not clear, but could be due to the expression of PD-L1 on tumor cells or to different restimulation strategies in the two in vivo models. Particularly, it is well established that various tumor cells can express PD-L1, enabling them to evade the antitumor immune responses (26, 27). Therefore, we speculate that the blockade of anti-PD-L1 mAb may enhance the antitumor immunity of various effector cells.
In conclusion, our study provides a direct basis for the activation of iNKT cells in response to repeated ligand stimulation without loss of their immunostimulatory activity and may be of use for improving current immunotherapeutic trials of iNKT cells.
| Disclosures |
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| Footnotes |
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1 This study was supported by Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) National Research Laboratory Program Grant No. R0A-2008-000-20113-0 funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology). ![]()
2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Chang-Yuil Kang, Laboratory of Immunology and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea. E-mail address: cykang{at}snu.ac.kr ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: NKT, natural killer T; iNKT, invariant NKT;
GC,
-galactosylceramide; PD-1, programmed death-1; PD-L1, PD ligand 1; PD-L2, PD ligand 2. ![]()
4 The online version of this article contains supplemental material. ![]()
Received for publication July 21, 2008. Accepted for publication September 25, 2008.
| References |
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14 NKT cells in innate and acquired immune response. Annu. Rev. Immunol. 21: 483-513. [Medline]
14 NKT cell-mediated cytotoxicity by interleukin 4 in an autocrine mechanism resulting in the development of concanavalin A-induced hepatitis. J. Exp. Med. 191: 105-114.
-producing NKT response induced with
-galactosylceramide-loaded DCs. Nat. Immunol. 3: 867-874. [Medline]
-induced nitric oxide production. J. Immunol. 175: 1586-1592.
by NK1.1+ T cells and natural killer cells is essential for the antimetastatic effect of
-galactosylceramide. Blood 99: 1259-1266.
and NK cells, but not perforin-mediated cytotoxicity, to anti-metastatic effect of
-galactosylceramide. Eur. J. Immunol. 31: 1720-1727. [Medline]
by invariant NK T cells: consequences in the control of B16 melanoma. J. Immunol. 180: 783-792. This article has been cited by other articles:
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J. Wang, L. Cheng, Z. Wondimu, M. Swain, P. Santamaria, and Y. Yang Cutting Edge: CD28 Engagement Releases Antigen-Activated Invariant NKT Cells from the Inhibitory Effects of PD-1 J. Immunol., June 1, 2009; 182(11): 6644 - 6647. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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V. V. Parekh, S. Lalani, S. Kim, R. Halder, M. Azuma, H. Yagita, V. Kumar, L. Wu, and L. Van Kaer PD-1/PD-L Blockade Prevents Anergy Induction and Enhances the Anti-Tumor Activities of Glycolipid-Activated Invariant NKT Cells J. Immunol., March 1, 2009; 182(5): 2816 - 2826. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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